Charlotte Hornets: This One’s for the Guards
The Charlotte Hornets continued their path toward better playoff positioning by beating the Indiana Pacers last night.
The Charlotte Hornets have beaten the Indiana Pacers three times since the beginning of February. It is an important trend because both the Hornets and the Pacers are looking for positioning for the Eastern Conference playoffs and any win over Indiana counts as a quality win right now. So it was good news that the Hornets triumphed 108-101 yesterday.
The Pacers got the most they could out of forward Paul George. George had thirty-five points, seven rebounds, seven assists, five steals and still went -1 in the +/- stat that tracks what the score is doing when a player is in the game.
Generally the Pacers got good effort from their starters, with their bench perhaps needing some more support. The Pacers were in talks to bring in Ty Lawson to provide some of that, according to reports by Shams Charania of the Vertical. That did not come to pass in time for the Hornets game fortunately for Charlotte.
So why was George’s big night wasted? Because the Charlotte back court of Kemba Walker and Nicolas Batum went absolutely off. The two scored a combined sixty-four points against the Pacers. Batum had thirty-one, but graciously deflected all praise to Walker. He noted as several have that Walker should have been an All-Star.
More from Old North Banter
- Carolina Panthers: Secondary battles to watch in training camp 2020
- Carolina Panthers: 2020 training camp kicks off on Tuesday
- NC Colleges Provide Coronavirus Results from Athletic Departments
- Court alleges Zion’s Stepfather received $400k
- UNC Football gets Commitment from Top Cornerback
It looked like it yesterday with Walker looking like he could not miss according to Coach Steve Clifford. He had a 50-40-90 game as he hit nine of seventeen from the field, four of ten from three, and made all eleven free throws. If that was not enough for you, he also had another big assist game. He notched ten assists during the game.
Unlike the Pacers, the Hornets’ production was mostly spread out and no one outside of Batum and Walker had a great game. The lone exception would be Al Jefferson once again providing offense off the bench. This time Big Al had thirteen points in the post amongst a team that has mostly turned to the three point line for its offense. The Hornets rank second in the NBA in launching the three ball.
Next: Hornets Keep Winning in Philly
The game gave the Hornets a 33-28 record and pulled them even with the Atlanta Hawks in the playoff race right now. The Hawks own the tiebreaker for now and the Miami Heat and the four seed are two and half games away. A home playoff series would be nice, but right now the Hornets should be focused on passing the Hawks.
That quest will continue when Minnesota comes to visit on Monday.