Charlotte Hornets: Batum Returns for Seed Race

The Charlotte Hornets got Nicolas Batum back against the Brooklyn Nets.

The Charlotte Hornets defeated the Brooklyn Nets last night 113-99. It was another game where point guard Kemba Walker was the engine for the team and scored twenty-two points. However the biggest story line from the game was the return of Nicolas Batum for twenty-seven minutes including the start of the game.

Batum’s return means that the Hornets are comfortable enough with his knee tweak to play him before the Playoffs against a rather unimportant foe in Brooklyn. That says that Batum is healthy, and he can contribute one last push to the Hornets’ hopes of landing a higher playoff seed than sixth.

In his first action, Batum scored fourteen points and contributed six assists. Those numbers look a lot like the Batum numbers before his injury. He played less than thirty minutes, so the Hornets are being careful with his return. Batum regularly played minutes in the mid-thirties when he was healthy.

The Hornets got some good contributions from their bench as well in the Nets game. This time it was guard Troy Daniels stepping up in the absence of guard Jeremy Lamb. Daniels scored seventeen including fifteen from beyond the three point arc.

The Nets had essentially packed it up for the season. Their biggest names were all on the bench with injury or to simply save them for the future. The result is that the team got some big games from players not normally featured in the offense.

Former Tar Heel Wayne Ellington scored twenty-one points on a big shooting night. Forward Thomas Robinson, the former Kansas star, collected seventeen rebounds. Robinson and Ellington have spent much their careers getting shuttled between rosters, and both could use the opportunity to gain some stability.

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For the Hornets, their new 46-33 record means that they are tied with Miami in the standings. The Heat hold the five seed by tiebreaker. The Celtics and Hawks sit a full game ahead in the final two home slots.

The Celtics are playing the Hawks right now, and Hornets fans should pull for the Atlanta rival to win. This is because the Hornets play the Celtics in one of their last three games and could catch them. Catching the Hawks is not likely at this point.

Next: Hornets Win Without Batum

The Hornets will have their biggest three games ahead of them if they want playoff promotion. That process begins when the team takes on Washington tomorrow. It is hard to know what Wizards effort they will face since Washington was just mathematically eliminated from the playoffs.

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