The Charlotte Hornets are now winners of three straight in a desperate time. They are fighting for playoff position and won a huge game versus Trae Young and the Atlanta Hawks on Wednesday.
Atlanta was holding the ninth seed for ransom heading into the game, but Charlotte leapfrogged them to trade places in the Eastern Conference standings. One of the keys to the Hornets' winning streak has been their defense. They have given more attention to detail as of late, and on Wednesday night, they gave Trae Young hell on that end of the floor. He finished with a season-low nine points on 3-of-12 shooting.
Montrezl Harrell laid out the defensive game plan for the Hawks' young superstar.
“We knew he was the head of the snake. He makes them go on both sides of the ball. Stats show that if he scores over 30 points, they usually win the game. So we wanted to take the ball out of his hands and make other players score,” the Hornets big man shared after the contest.
Trae Young scored 46 and 47 points in his last two games, respectively. Slowing him down was no easy task, but the Hornets did a great of of blitzing pick-and-rolls to make him uncomfortable. His shots just weren't dropping and Charlotte deserves all the credit for that. Sure he still had 15 assists, but the Buzz City franchise made sure his scoring was none existent.
From there, the Hornets just had to string together good offensive possessions to close that neck-and-neck game out. LaMelo Ball stepped up with a team-high 22 points, eight rebounds and 11 assists. However, he didn't have the most important buckets down the stretch. That distinction belongs to PJ Washington. He entered the fourth quarter with three points, but put up 13 big ones in the final four minutes of the game. He sparked a much-needed run to close out this game.
The Hornets kicked off their five-game home stand in style with this big win, but they still have a lot of work to do. Every game is crucial for them to hold onto that ninth spot with the potential to move up in the standings should the Brooklyn Nets lose more games. They have the Dallas Mavericks coming into town for their next home game.
Dallas has been one of the hottest teams in the league and with all due respect to Trae, Luka Doncic is a different beast. The Hornets are going to need to throw a lot of bodies at him too. Hopefully, they can slow down Luka magic for a fourth straight win.
Follow Us
Subscribe