Careless Charlotte Hornets better improve fast as 5-game West Coast trip begins
Press conferences sometimes have themes. James Borrego’s did after his Charlotte Hornets sustained a disappointing loss to Cleveland on Monday night at home.
The theme was one word — a word that Hornets head coach Borrego used six times in the first three minutes of his media session.
Careless.
The Hornets were, especially in an awful first quarter when they committed eight turnovers. Cleveland led 40-21 after that horrid 12 minutes, and Charlotte spent the rest of the game trying unsuccessfully to claw all the way back, finally losing, 113-110.
Now the Hornets (5-3) must start a difficult five-game West Coast road trip with the bad taste of their carelessness and that ugly loss lingering.
Play like they did Monday, and an 0-5 or 1-4 road trip is very possible.
Play like they have for long stretches of the season’s first seven games and it could be much better. The Hornets still lead the NBA in scoring (117.5 points per game) and team 3-point percentage (41.1).
But they are about to get a lot of major tests with Golden State (10 p.m. Wednesday, ESPN), both Los Angeles teams, Sacramento and Memphis all on the docket.
Monday night, the Cavs (4-4) held off Charlotte in the sort of game a team that wants to make the playoffs should win at home. But the Hornets didn’t. They got bullied underneath by Jarrett Allen (24 points, 16 rebounds) and took only 15 free throws compared to Cleveland’s 38.
Even LaMelo Ball’s game-high 30 points couldn’t get it done for Charlotte, although he had another superb offensive game and is now third in the entire NBA in made three-pointers. But Ball also committed two early fouls (“careless,” by Borrego’s description). That meant he missed a lot of time while Cleveland was piling up its early lead.
Another interesting note: Borrego benched Gordon Hayward, Charlotte’s highest-paid player, for the game’s final 7:28. He instead put Cody Martin into Hayward’s usual role, saying later he did so because of Martin’s energy and defense.
Charlotte cut the lead from 15 points to three during that time, but never got over the hump. Hayward has been off and on by his high standards so far this season — he was 2 for 7 for six points in 29 minutes Monday — and sometimes doesn’t have the lift to his game he once had.
When I asked Borrego about Hayward’s performance so far this season, the coach said: “Well, we’ve had some good games. We’ve had some — you know. ... It’s my job to get him going. That’s on me.”
As for the team as a whole, Miles Bridges put it best.
“We’ve got to have a better sense of urgency,” said Bridges, whose great start to the season came to a sudden halt Monday with a 4-of-18 shooting night. “We come out too lackadaisical, like teams are going to give us the lead. ... Then they hit us in the face first.”
Charlotte opens this road trip with a marquee opponent. Due to a scheduling quirk, the Hornets will face Golden State and former Davidson star Steph Curry twice in 11 days — first on Wednesday on the road and then Nov. 14 in Charlotte.
Curry’s Warriors are 5-1. As usual, he leads the NBA in scoring at 28.7 points per game through Monday’s slate.
But the Hornets should be near full strength. Their top four players — Hayward, Ball, Bridges and Terry Rozier — are all healthy for once. And Rozier, coming off an ankle injury, looked better Monday. He scored 13 of his 23 points in the fourth quarter as he tried to will Charlotte back into the game.
“That second half was more the Terry we’ve known,” Borrego said.
What would a successful road trip look like?
“I’d say 4-1 or 5-0,” Bridges said.
Nothing wrong with aiming high. But if the Hornets can get through these five games even at 3-2, that would be quite a feat.
If they play like they did Monday night, though, there’s no way that happens. There’s no room for carelessness on this trip.
This story was originally published November 2, 2021 at 1:25 PM with the headline "Careless Charlotte Hornets better improve fast as 5-game West Coast trip begins."
