Home court advantage has to be established not only by the players on the court, but also the fans in the stands. Last night, The Hive (I refuse to call it the Spectrum Center) was alive as the Hornets battled from being down as many as 13 points, to take a 109 – 93 victory. How did they get that victory? It took a beast of an effort from Nic Batum, scoring 17 of his 19 points in the 3rd quarter to propel the Hornets from being down 7 points at the half to being up by 12 by the end of that 3rd quarter.
Player Stats:
| STARTERS | REB | AST | STL | BLK | TO | PF | +/- | PTS |
| M. Williams | 8 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 12 | 11 |
| C. Zeller | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 26 | 13 |
| M. Kidd-Gilchrist | 13 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 14 | 6 |
| K. Walker | 4 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 16 | 22 |
| N. Batum | 7 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 2 | 22 | 20 |
| BENCH | REB | AST | STL | BLK | TO | PF | +/- | PTS |
| S. Hawes | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 8 |
| F. Kaminsky III | 5 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 1 | -7 | 14 |
| R. Sessions | 3 | 7 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | -5 | 4 |
| T. Graham | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -2 | 0 |
| M. Belinelli | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 11 |
| 44 | 25 | 8 | 3 | 15 | 109 |
If you take note, we were back to having 4 of our 5 starters in double figures. That’s really important. We also had 2 bench guys in double figures. Again, positive notes to winning games. The standout negative to me is that we had 15 turnovers, which are very uncharacteristic of us. The worst part is that the bulk came from our playmakers, Kemba and Nic. The important thing is that we came away with a victory and are now 3-1 on the season. We are slowly seeing the shooting percentages improving, and that’s going to be necessary for a repeat of last season, or improving on last season. We shot 49.4% from the floor and 38.2% from the 3-point line. We need to clean up the foul shots as we shot 69.2% (18-26). That’s a lot of free points to leave out there.
The future still looks really bright, Hornets fans. I’ve been there through thick and thin. I can see that with Cody Zeller’s new contract, we are locking up a solid core of young talent that will allow for so much flexibility to get even better as the seasons come and go. Words can’t explain the excitement I have for this team. The best part about it all is where I used to have a favorite player or 2 on the team…I have a favorite team now. I love MKG and Cody. I love Spencer, Nic, and Kemba. Frank, Marv, Ramon, Marco, C-Wood, Brian Roberts…I love every player on this team. I can’t pick a favorite! I am partial to Cody and MKG a little more though.
I’m ready to see us beat the Nets tomorrow. Who’s with me?
Let’s Go Hornets!
#KeepSwarming
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