Charlotte Hornets: No Kemba, beat LeBrons 106-97

The Charlotte Hornets used yet another different lineup to stun the Cleveland Cavaliers.

At this point we’ve seen the Charlotte Hornets script do just about anything. Last night was yet another iteration where yet another Hornet was injured and yet somehow they still held on to win against LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavs. This time it was Kemba Walker that had to sit. The plus side was the return of Jeremy Lin and Cody Zeller to the lineup.

The Hornets needed them too. Lin’s twenty-four points would lead the team in scoring and his eight assists got the ball moving around. Yet Lin’s production yields some funny things about how the game went statistically. Lin led the Hornets in scoring, but did he outscore opposing point guard Kyrie Irving? No, Irving had 26.

In fact the only member of the Hornets’ starting five to outscore his opposite number on the other team was Cody Zeller. Zeller had six points while Tristan Thompson had four. Okay, Marvin Williams had 16 points to Kevin Love’s 12, but that was overshadowed by James’ 23 over Michael Kidd-Gilchrist’s 11. So this was not a story of the starting fives. If it was the Hornets would have lost.