Hornets lose heartbreaker on Immanuel Quickley buzzer-beating three

Coming off arguably the best win by any NBA team this season, the Charlotte Hornets were matched up with a Toronto Raptors team who had won four of their last five games.

Shortly before tip-off, the Hornets discovered that they would be without star Brandon Miller on the first leg of a back-to-back, adding him to an injury report with Grant Williams (knee), Mason Plumlee (groin), and Ryan Kalkbrenner (elbow).

Sion James took the place of Brandon Miller in the starting five, joining LaMelo Ball, Miles Bridges, Kon Knueppel, and Moussa Diabate. The five of them had played 47 minutes together, and put together a net rating of +11.9, an offensive rating of 126.5, and a defensive rating of 114.6.

The Hornets looked to capitalize and continue their domination from Monday, jumping out to an 11-2 early lead. Despite that, the Raptors were able to get themselves back into the ballgame, eventually going on a 17-3 run that gave them a 3-point lead headed into the second quarter.

Charlotte put together a 24-7 run of their own from the end of the first quarter to the middle of the second quarter, giving them a double-digit lead towards the end of the first half. The Raptors would not go away, though, and were able to tie the game at 45 shortly before the end of the first half.

The Hornets hit a three and got a quick transition bucket, and headed into halftime with a five point lead.

Throughout the night, Head Coach Charles Lee experimented with lineups that had yet to play together much. The majority of the lineups Lee played had either played one or no minutes together,

While the Hornets were able to grab their largest lead of the night at 13 points midway through the third quarter, the Raptors roared back to cut the lead to 6 points in the fourth quarter.

Charles Lee, keeping with the theme of the night, played four lineups to open the fourth quarter that had played little to no time together. The Raptors were able to grab a three point lead with the Hornets running a lineup of five players who had played one total minute together, but the Hornets put things together, eventually putting their starters in up three points.

RJ Barrett tied the ballgame at 94, when LaMelo Ball was able to give the Hornets a two point lead with 1.6 to play.

Immanuel Quickley hit a game winning three, and the Hornets fell 97-96.

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