The Charlotte Hornets suffered another loss, this time by the hands of the Utah Jazz as they fall to a putrid 10-34 record as the NBA season just entered its second half. If there is a bright side to the continuous Hornets problems, it was star PJ Washington who was dynamic scoring 43 points.
Despite the outstanding performance, one can tell that Washington cares more about the collective team win rather than the stat-line he achieved. He would say after the game to the media that the Hornets “were playing too soft” and it was a “terrible effort” in terms of the defensive end in the first half according to Sam Perley.
“It was a terrible effort on the defensive end [in the first half]. We were playing way too soft and letting them get into a rhythm early. It’s hard to win when you let them get 82 in the first half. For us, that’s just unacceptable. I got hot and kept trying to take open shots. Credit my teammates for finding me, but obviously, it wasn’t enough. We didn’t do too good defensively in the second half, either.”
Steve Clifford said Hornets “weren't ready to play” in first half
The first half was an ugly one for Charlotte, especially the opening quarter where the Jazz scored a whopping 47 points which they followed up with 35 in the second. As for the Hornets, they had no way of matching that having 24 and 23 points respectively in the first 24 minutes.
Hornets head coach Steve Clifford said bluntly that the team was not ready to play when the game started as proven by the performance. While they would play better in the second half, it was not enough and it was too late.
“We weren’t ready to play,” Clifford said after the game. “Our defense was better in the second half. We played harder. We tried harder. That’s what we did. We tried harder.”
Because of Washington and others, the Hornets would come back in the second half and score 41 points in the third period and then 34 in the second, but it wasn't enough to claw back into to the game. Clifford mentioned the aspect that Utah had 17 offensive rebounds and said that they “hammered” them on the glass.
“They had 17 (offensive rebounds), but they actually hammered us,” Clifford said. “They had three huge ones. If we get rebounds in the fourth quarter, we’re going to have chances to get that lead to two possessions, so not very good.”
Jazz's Lauri Markkanen and Will Hardy talk their outing against Charlotte
Washington tried his hardest on offense to spark a comeback as he hit six three-pointers in the second half. Jazz star Lauri Markkanen who led the team with 33 points and 12 rebounds said the toughest parts was locating him even when he was on a hot streak shooting according to Deseret News.
“Just have to locate him,” Markkanen said. “We lost him a couple of times and once they’re going in, even the tough shots start feeling comfortable.”
Jazz head coach Will Hardy talked about the team's performance and how it differed in the first half compared to the last 24 minutes of the game. As expected, they played exceptionally well to start, but not to finish the game, despite the win.
“The first half the ball obviously was moving around great,” Hardy said. “We had 25 assists in a half — which was ball movement and also a lot of shotmaking. The second half we stopped doing all those things. We stopped moving the ball, we started playing a lot of iso, all of our decisions were late and a lot of turnovers in the second half.”
There has not been a lot of success for the Hornets this season with the aforementioned 10-34 record as they are 13th in the Eastern Conference. Their next game is Monday night as they face the New York Knicks.
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