The Charlotte Hornets couldn’t sweep the Los Angeles NBA teams after they fell to the Clippers 115-90. The Hornets kept it close throughout most of the game, but they came apart in the second half. Shots were not falling, they committed a few sloppy turnovers, and a tough Clipper defense led to the Hornets' bad day. Head coach James Borrego made the right adjustments in the second half, but they just couldn't string anything together to pull this win out.
“We struggled to shoot it. We could have had better shot selection overall. They're a good defense, but offensively we went dry. Poor decisions were made and they sped us up. Give them credit. We hung in there as long as we could, but it opened up.”
The Hornets shot 32.7 percent from the field and 23.5 percent from deep. Sure, they did miss some easy ones but the Clippers' size and versatility did ruin a lot of the sets that Charlotte likes to run. The Hornets couldn't run the table with their small-ball lineup. Normally, that lineup claws back into games with the three-ball and speed to score at will on the defense.
The Clippers did a good job stifling all those plans. Even LaMelo Ball admitted that. “I'm not gonna lie, I feel like we were getting hit on a lot of little ones,” he said. “Even Miles [Bridges] was getting hit on a lot of them. But they're big down there. We should have kicked it out to get some more treys.”
Ball finished with 23 points, six rebounds, and 10 assists in the loss, though. He had the usual highlight-reel dimes and found a nice rhythm out there for the most part. When he was asked about his success, he said that it came from “pretty much just taking what the defense gave me. Had some shots I could have made, so just had to take them.”
LaMelo Ball dancing and slashing for the bucket! 😲😲😲pic.twitter.com/gzUvWc228P
— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPointsApp) January 30, 2022
The Hornets are still in good shape and just need to shake this defeat off. They have two days off before flying out to Boston to take on the Celtics. Remember, the last time they were in Bean town they came away with a decisive victory. They should replicate that performance to make up for Sunday's loss to the Clippers.
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