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The Charlotte Hornets fell to the Utah Jazz 119-111 on the first night of their back-to-back home stand. The Jazz's lead almost swelled to over 30 points at one point in the 3rd quarter before the Hornets made a run to cut the lead to within 10. Talen Horton-Tucker dropped 37 points, nine rebounds, and 10 assists in the Jazz's win, but the main killer was the rebound discrepancies.
The Jazz outrebounded Charlotte by 17, 60 to 43, and had 20 offensive rebounds. Which aided to the Jazz scoring 66 points in the paint. Both head coach Steve Clifford & PJ Washington acknowledged this in the post game press conference as their achilles heel.
“That was obviously by far the biggest part of the game,” Clifford said. “The offensive rebounding, the play around the rim. They
had 66 points in the paint, 25 on second chances. They owned the paint. (Talen) Horton-Tucker was terrific, and (Walker) Kessler crushed us. I think the two biggest baskets for them were offensive rebound baskets. Those are plays we’ve got to get if we’re going to win the game.”
Walker Kessler finished with a game-high 16 rebounds with eight rebounds each on the offensive & defensive glass. PJ Washington echoed the Hornets coach's sentiments after the loss as well.
“They were just scoring at will in the paint – easy put back rebounds, second chance points. That’s where we lost the game. They killed us in the first half then did the same thing in the second half. That’s how we lost.”
Teams controlling the glass allows the other team to dictate the pace and even slow down the game. The worst part is how it impacts the imposing team trying to fight to snag some themselves, which the Hornets felt firsthand on Saturday. It's demoralizing for team to play good defense and come up short to close out the play.
Charlotte has a two game home series with the Cleveland Cavaliers on March 12th and March 14th. The Cavs present similar issues that the Jazz pose in terms of size around the rim with Evan Mobley & Jarrett Allen. The Hornets will have to be aggressive on the inside to avoid losing the rebounding battle by such a wide margin against that team.
