Recap: Hornets overcome sluggish start to win comfortably over Thunder, 134-116

Terry Rozier scored 30 points and Miles Bridges chipped in 27 as the Charlotte Hornets handled the Oklahoma City Thunder, 134-118.

Both teams came out of the gate scorching hot. The Hornets made their first seven shots, but even that wasn’t enough to prevent the Thunder from taking an early lead. The Hornets offered up little defensive resistance and gave up offensive rebounds on the rare Thunder misses. The Hornets went over four minutes without a basket as the Thunder built up a 14 point lead. It was a 22-3 run for the Thunder as they cruised to a 41 points and a 12-point lead at the first intermission.

The Hornets trailed by as many as 18 after the Thunder started the second quarter, but Isaiah Thomas answered with four 3-pointers just over two minutes to cut a big chunk off the deficit. The Hornets got some buckets inside and a three from Miles Bridges to bring themselves all the way back, and they briefly tied the game at a couple of points before Terry Rozier gave the Hornets the lead with under 30 seconds to play in the half. Cody Martin jumped a pass at mid court to put the Hornets up three before a Shai Gilgeous-Alexander tip-in set the halftime margin at 65-64 in favor of the Hornets.

The Hornets started the second half with a 10-2 run to open the game up a bit and force a Thunder timeout. LaMelo Ball did his best Isaiah Thomas impression and hit four 3-pointers of his own in just over two minutes of play to build off that hot start to the half. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander single handedly kept the Thunder afloat with 14 points while the rest of his teammates sputtered badly. The Hornets lost their edge after the run and let the Thunder hang around with a little run near the end of the third. The Hornets led by 11 heading into the fourth.

Terry Rozier splashed a much needed triple to open the third quarter scoring, but Vit Krejci kept hitting threes for the Thunder and the Hornets kept leaving him open. The Thunder decided to stop letting Krejci touch the ball, and the Hornets responded by scoring eight straight points to take the game over. They let the Thunder hit a few too many threes to leave the door open longer than they needed to, but the game was never really in doubt throughout the fourth quarter.

The Hornets were lackadaisical on defense for extended stretches of the contest, but the offensive momentum carried over from Friday. The Hornets hit 20 3-pointers, shot 53% from the field, and assisted on 33 of their made shots. All 12 active Hornets scored.

The Hornets get a day off before a pivotal match-up with the Hawks on Wednesday.