Tonight was one of those nights that reminded us of how much fun it is to watch the Charlotte Hornets this season. In the arena, we honored Gerald Henderson, said hi to Noah Vonleh, remembered the tragedy in France and still manhandled our opponents to come away with a victory. Leading the way was our very own Frenchman, Nic Batum. Nic finished the night with a game high 33 points (2 away from his career high). He also had 6 assists, and 5 rebounds. You could also say this was one of the first games where our opponent got a dose of something old and something new from the Hornets. In addition to Nic’s contributions, Big Al Jefferson chipped in 29 points, 5 rebounds, a steal, and a block. When a team can get a performance like that from 2 starters, it usually means that the team is really performing well. This was the case tonight. There were leads as big as 29, and as small as 6, but in the end, the Hornets came away with a 106-94 victory.
It’s always fun to see your team shooting red-hot from the floor. At the end of the first half, the Hornets had tallied 71 points off of shooting north of 60% from the floor. As we all know, hot shooting like that can’t last forever, but it was still something to witness, as we finished the night with 49.9% shooting from the floor. 29 of our 41 made shots tonight came off of a pass. Team basketball is fun to see.
Here were the contributions from the rest of the Hornets:
Kemba Walker – 14 points, 4 rebounds, 5 assists, & 2 steals
Jeremy Lamb – 13 points, 5 rebounds, 3 assists, & 2 blocks
Marvin Williams – 7 points, 8 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 steal, & 2 blocks
Jeremy Lin – 5 points, 3 assists, 1 steal, & 1 block
Spencer Hawes – 2 points, 4 assists, 2 rebounds, & 1 block
PJ Hairston – 2 points, 1 rebound, & 1 steal – (Left the game early with a quad contusion)
Cody Zeller – 1 point, 6 rebounds, 2 assists, & 2 blocks
This win brings us back to being a .500 team again. I have a feeling that we will hear the number 500 discussed many times this season. I am hoping that I’m wrong, we win a bunch of games, and we’ll be over .500 for the season. Time will tell though. This team is just a fun one to watch. After falling by only 5 point to the Bulls on Friday (97 – 102), I am starting to believe that we will be seeing this team only continue to improve. As long as we can stay healthy and continue to play good team basketball, great things will continue to happen in Charlotte.
Tuesday will begin our New York State Back-to-back series, with our first stop being Madison Square Garden on Tuesday. We will face the 5-6 Knicks, with both teams having a chance to rest up and play fresh on Tuesday night. The Knicks will be looking to take revenge on the Hornets after their loss in Charlotte last Wednesday. It should be another great game to watch.
I wish my Hornets the best of luck and I can’t wait until Tuesday’s game.
Let’s Go Hornets!
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