Hornets Fail to Close Out Wizards on the Road
It was a would have, should have kind of ending for the Charlotte Hornets' Monday night trip to the nation's capital. Through three quarters of play, the Hornets held a 90-84 lead, but it was the opening minutes of the fourth and final quarter that put Charlotte in a tough spot.
"They got hot. I think the game turned at the start of the fourth quarter," Hornets head coach James Borrego said in his postgame press conference. "I think they went on an 11-0 run right out the gate, so to me that was a big part of this loss. Not getting stops, not getting back, and we couldn't find a bucket there either. They played well, they made shots. We had plenty of shots to win this game tonight and we just didn't."
The duo of Bradley Beal and Kyle Kuzma gave Charlotte fits defensively. Beal is a natural scorer and will get his each night but you have to give a tip of the hat to Kuzma who really heated up late in the game hitting four three-pointers in the fourth quarter. Beal finished with 35, Kuzma with 36.
The Hornets didn't get much production out of their bench but did get some quality minutes from Gordon Hayward, LaMelo Ball, Terry Rozier, and Miles Bridges in the starting lineup. Hayward, Bridges, and Rozier all had over 20 points, but what really hurt Charlotte was their struggles at the charity stripe. The Hornets made just 7 of 13 free throws while on the other end, the Wizards hit 28 of 31 free throws. Borrego didn't like some of the calls on the floor and rightfully so when you have that big of a disparity in free-throws. After the game, he said it was a mixture of trying to fire his guys up but also stand up for them for the calls consistently not going their way.
The two teams swapped leads back and forth in the final four minutes of the game before Kyle Kuzma hit a tough, contested three in the corner to give the Wizards a slim 114-113 lead. Beal then made four straight free throws after a pair of empty trips for the Hornets to push the lead out to two possessions. The Hornets continued to foul all the way to the very end even once the lead ballooned to seven. Terry Rozier hit a three at the sound of the final horn to bring us to the final score of 124-121.
"We've got a great opportunity in front of us. Every game is a great opportunity. It's disappointing tonight. We should have won this game, we could have won this game. We just didn't make it happen and didn't close out this game like we should have or could have. Yeah, this was a missed opportunity but we move on. We have another game in two days and I expect us to respond. We have to make the most of it though."
The Hornets will return home for a Wednesday night matchup against the Detroit Pistons. Tip-off is scheduled for 7 p.m. EST.
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