What happens when the Bulls have to start Taj Gibson, Pau Gasol, Mike Dunleavy, Kirk Hinrich, and E’Twaun Moore? Well, typically they suffer the same pains that the Hornets have endured over the past few months. They lose games. Last night was no different. Pau Gasol attempted to carry the team, scoring 22 points. Doug McDermott, E’Twaun Moore, and Taj Gibson tried to help as well, scoring 14, 12, and 11 respectively, but that just was not enough to beat a Hornets team that is almost back to full strength, in terms of health.
Now, unfortunately, the Hornets struggled to maintain the big lead down the stretch with its bench guys, so the starters had to come back in to wrap things up. They were up by as much as 25 points. Games like that, you really don’t want to be burning starters much past 30 minutes. This is especially true when some of the starters have been injured. It was unavoidable though, as Kemba played 36 minutes and Nic Batum played 44 minutes.
Nic did make the most of his 44 minutes by scoring 19 points, dishing 8 assists, and grabbing 13 rebounds. In Kemba’s 36 minutes, he scored 30 points, assisted on 8 shots, secured 7 rebounds, and stole the ball 3 times. Rounding out the “Big 3” for Charlotte was Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, scoring 20 points, grabbing 7 rebounds, and blocking 2 shots in his 30 minutes of play. Gilchrist was a solid 50% from the field. As a team, the Hornets were 43.8% from the field and hit 14 of 36 3-pointers.
I will say that against a short-handed Bulls team, I would have liked to have seen more help across the bench with the scoring. Unfortunately, aside from Kemba, Nic, and MKG, only Spencer Hawes was in double figures, scoring 13 points, 8 rebounds, and 1 block. Bench Force 1, Swarm Squad, 2nd unit…whatever you want to call them, they had an off night. I still believe that we can get back to the team we were seeing at the beginning of the year, but we can’t use last night’s game as a benchmark. The Bulls are a good team, but when depleted with injuries and sickness, even the good teams are a bit easier to beat. We know it because we have weathered that storm.
We have the Indiana Pacers on Wednesday, the final game before the All-Star Break. Personal opinion is that the entire team should take a few rest days, but they need to be back in the gym, getting as many shots up as possible. There are only so many games left in the season, and I’d prefer for the Hornets to get well into the playoffs hunt and not be scratching to try and just make the playoffs in the final month of the season. A 100% healthy Hornets team has no business not making the playoffs this year. They are more like the team we saw at the beginning of the year than what we have seen with countless injuries causing the far end of the bench having to start or play extended minutes. They did their job to keep us around .500, but consistency is key. Consistency from the 1st guy to the 15th is what strong teams are built on. I think the team gets it dialed in for the second half of the season. One game at a time though. Let’s beat the Pacers Wednesday, get rested and healed up and take the closing months of the NBA season by SWARM…er…storm.
Let’s Go Hornets
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