Charlotte Hornets

LAST 4 GAMES

- @ Atlanta Hawks: W, 102-94

- @ New Orleans Pelicans: W, 118-110

- vs. Atlanta Hawks: W, 112-105

- vs. New York Knicks: W, 109-88

The Hornets capped off their hottest week of the year with 4 straight wins in last week’s contests. I mentioned last week that this could be another challenging week for Charlotte, but they proved me wrong and I’m glad they did. The Hornets are now above .500 and things are looking good for them moving forward. Earlier in the season, I mentioned that they’re not a predictable team and that is certainly the case. You can’t tell if they’re going to get hot or cold or stay neutral.

The Hornets had two meetings with the Hawks this week and the first game, they didn’t look great as a team despite picking up the win. Gordon Hayward showed out and they kept Trae Young from going off and those were the key things to takeaway from the game. They held Trae Young down in both games as a matter of fact. Young only averaged 11 PPG in the 2 meetings and that is rare. The Hornets showed up defensively in both games and they looked great when it mattered most in last week’s contest.

Speaking of the rest of last week’s action, as surprising as it is, LaMelo Ball has arguably been the most valuable player on the Hornets this season. At this point though, I probably shouldn’t say that it is surprising, because he has proven to be a valuable team asset. LaMelo earned the first triple-double of his NBA career on Saturday and came very close in two other games last week. What has puzzled me though, is the fact that Malik Monk isn’t touching the court, despite being healthy. I think he could give the Hornets some good bench scoring, but it doesn’t appear that he is in the current gameplan. We’ll see how that progresses, but it is concerning. The Hornets appear to mainly play a 9-man rotation with only 8 getting significant minutes so far this season and I don’t really see things changing at the moment.

The upcoming week could be very tough, but at the same time, the two teams in this week’s slate haven’t looked awesome this season, so it is also possible for Charlotte to go into next week with a 7-game win streak. It is going to be an interesting week.

Side note: If you want to see what is going on in the Charlotte area, take a look at this week’s 704 Sports Report from Garett at The Sport Chief. He does a great job of outlining local sports each week, including his take on the Hornets.

Week 3 MVP: Gordon Hayward

Hayward has been very solid for the Hornets all year, but he hasn’t received a Hornets Report Weekly MVP until now. He scored 44 points last Wednesday against the Hawks, setting his career high, but he didn’t stop there. He has been getting buckets all week long. He has averaged 29.3 PPG in the last 4 and is shooting 55.4% from the field. This also includes his 50% 3-point FG percentage in that span. Hayward has looked great so far this year and I expect him to keep up this momentum to some extent. Besides the guards on the team, the Hornets have needed a consistent scorer in their offense for quite a while and it is refreshing to finally see a great scoring wing player on our team.

NEXT 3 GAMES

- vs. Dallas Mavericks (5-4): Wednesday, January 13th at 7pm

- @ Toronto Raptors (2-8): Thursday, January 14th at 7:30pm

- @ Toronto Raptors (2-8): Saturday, January 16th at 7: 30pm

Tonight, the Hornets are scheduled to go up against the Dallas Mavericks at home, but there is a chance that they may not play. The Mavs didn’t play in their last game due to Covid issues and that may carry over to tonight’s game. I guess we’ll see, but these are two teams that have already matched up this season. The Mavs and Hornets faced each other on December 30th, which happened to only be two weeks ago, but it feels like it has been much longer. Since then, Luka Dončić has been on a tear. He is averaging a triple double (29.5/12.5/10.3) and the Mavericks haven’t lost a game that he has played in since. Luka had his worst game of the year against Charlotte, so the Hornets hope he performs like he did in the December meeting. Also, Kristaps Porzingis is scheduled to make his season debut tonight as well. Dallas has the 3rd best scoring defense and teams do not shoot a great percentage against them. Just like the first meeting, the Hornets must find a way to get easier shots, but it also helped that the Hornets bench players scored 60 points. Hopefully they have similar luck against this good team, but regardless, it should be a fun matchup between two teams on a hot streak.

The last two games of the slate this week are against the Toronto Raptors on the road. The Hornets will travel out of the country to face the struggling former champs. Although the team doesn’t seem too much different than the 2-seed team that they were last year, the Raptors are tied for the worst record in the NBA. Even though they’re struggling this year, the Hornets definitely shouldn’t take them lightly. Serge Ibaka and Marc Gasol aren’t on the team anymore, so that definitely takes away some veteran leadership that was plentiful last year, but Chris Boucher is one player that has stepped up in their absence. He is coming off of the bench averaging 14.3 PPG and 6.2 RPG in just 22.2 MPG. Fred VanVleet signed a 4-year, $85 Million deal in the offseason and he is currently the leading scorer for Toronto at 20.9 PPG. Also, Pascal Siakam, Kyle Lowry and OG Anunoby are basically having identical seasons from last year and they’re going to be tough to deal with as well. The Raptors have lost 8 of the 10 games this year, but they’re clearly not a bad team. They’ve had a tough schedule and their losses are against the Blazers, Warriors, Suns, Celtics, Pelicans, 76ers, and Spurs. Those losses aren’t exactly a cake walk. They haven’t shot the ball well this season, but things can change within a game or two, so the best bet for the Hornets is to push the gas pedal to the floor. This will not be an easy week for Charlotte despite only playing 3 games, but the Hornets are playing as a unit lately and it will be interesting to see how they approach this tough week.

Yacs

Charlotte Hornets Report: Week 4 of 2020-21