The Charlotte Hornets ended their six-game road trip on a bad note by losing to the Chicago Bulls. It's been a rough one for them too. They went 1-5 while being away from home, including going 1-4 against Western Conference opponents. Things just never came together for them during the road trip, but let's focus on the game at hand.
Chicago forced turnovers on key possessions as Charlotte tried to get back into this one. The most important thing though, they took Terry Rozier out of this game. He's averaged 24 points and eight assists in LaMelo Ball's absence.
Steve Clifford knew exactly why Hornets struggled
“Their defense is really good, we struggled to score against them last time,” Clifford said. “They pressed it with Terry (Rozier), brought the second defender on pick and rolls. We didn't move the ball the way we needed to.”
Rozier was 5-17 from the field and finished with 15 points. He has been one of the hottest players in the NBA over the last month or so. It is safe to say Chicago knew that and game planned accordingly, having bigger guards and mobile wings shade on screen and rolls to hedge Rozier and force tougher decisions. It forced others to beat them and unfortunately for Charlotte, Miles Bridges accounting for 28 points wasn't enough.
An unwanted share of losses
The Hornets have won two of their last 14 games. To add insult to injury, they are one of five NBA teams to not hit double-digits in the win column. They're sitting at 8-25, good for 13th in the Eastern Conference. If we're talking about injuries literally, they've been without LaMelo Ball and Mark Williams for 12 plus games and Gordon Hayward for the last few. It's not easy to weather the storm if your umbrella has holes in it and their lineup is full of them unfortunately.
Charlotte plays their next two games at home in a rematch with the Bulls and the Sacramento Kings before going back on the road. Maybe that'll recharge the battery and get back in the win column.
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