April 12, 2025 • 27 mins
The Hornets wrap up the season with two straight games in Boston, and despite trailing by one at halftime, Charlotte fell 130-94 in the first meeting. Rob Longo and Sam Perley break down the game and pick their silver-lining selections, and also preview the final game of the season between Charlotte and Boston.
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to the Hornets Podcast presented by Charlotte I ear
Nosen Throat Associates, the official I ear nosen Throatcare provider
of the Charlotte Hornets. Here's your host, Rob Longo.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Hi, friends, and welcome to today's episode of the Hornets
iove Cast, the official podcast of the Charlotte Hornets, brought
to you by Santa Charlotte, I ear Nose and Throat Associates,
the official I ear Nose and Throat Care provider of
your Charlotte Hornets. Rob Longo with you today on Unfortunately
a silver Linings episode of the AHHC Charlotte falls to
the raining NBA champion Boston Celtics up in Boston last night,
(00:35):
one thirty to ninety four, Hornets down nineteen and sixty
two on the season as the Hornets fall to the
Celtics for the third time this year. We'll break this
one down for you and provide you with our silver
linings and it's also a game day episode of the
hornetove Cast. Hornets wrapping up the season in Boston once
again on Sunday for an early one o'clock tip time,
and we will break that matchup down for you for
(00:57):
Game eighty two, and we will break down last night's
loss as well and helping me out with all of
these topics on this episode of the HHC. It's the
lead writer of Hornets dot Com, Sam Purley, and Sam
thank you as always for joining me here on this
episode of the Hornets Podcast. A tough one in Boston
last night. Hornets led this one early on. We're only
down one point at halftime. But then Boston, the defending champs,
(01:18):
started to flex their muscles a little bit outscored to
Hornets seventy six to forty one in the second half.
And again it was pretty competitive for about two to
two and a half quarters, and then the Celtics were
able to kind of crank it up there and up
the pressure a little bit there late in the game,
and that was kind of what it felt like was
the was the end of it.
Speaker 3 (01:35):
Really encouraging start by the Hornets. I thought they played
very balanced on both ends to start the game. I
think at halftime they only had five turnovers and maybe
six fouls. I thought the shot selection was really nice.
I thought they did a really nice job, particularly in
the first half, and it continued in the second half.
You know, Boston averages I think forty nine to three
point attempts a game. The next closest team is at
(01:56):
forty two. So they play very, very three point seven
trick offense. And sometimes it can be easy to get
caught up in sort of that run and up and down,
you know, getting off fast, fast threies kind of offensive approach.
And I thought the Hornets did a good job not
playing into that, not getting sped up, playing a little
bit more of an inside out game and playing their
(02:16):
style of offense. And then you know, in the second half,
I think Boston opened the third with a seventeen to
six run and you started to feel a little bit
like the floodgates were about to open. And then it
really just kind of kept on going, and it just
didn't really stopped in the fourth quarter, even when they
started to empty their bench. I mean, guys were coming in.
And the thing that really hurt the Hornets in the
second half was turnovers. They had twelve turnovers for twenty
(02:39):
one Boston points. Obviously, Boston shooting about sixty two percent
in the second half and fifty four percent from three
thirteen of twenty four, and again you can only hold
them off for so long before they're gonna, you know,
do their thing and show you why they're the defending champion.
So quite a start contrast in halfs. But you know,
Boston showed why they they're going to make enough run
(03:00):
at this with that second half. It was once it
kind of got going, it was impossible to slow down.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
Yeah, I didn't really know how this one was gonna
shake out before the game started, just simply for the
fact that, well Boston didn't really play anybody in their
loss against the Orlando on Wednesday, because the Celtics aren't
playing for anything. They're locked into the two seed. The
only thing maybe for this one was to get to
the sixty win threshold just to kind of get a
nice round number. Maybe that was a little bit of
added motivation. But Hornets rore without all of those players
(03:27):
that have been ruled out for the remainder of the season.
In addition to Josh Green, Miles Bridges, Mussa Dia Bate
was a late scratch as well due to an illness,
and Jalen Brown was the only player out for the Celtics.
Still a solid piece of the puzzle there for Boston.
But again, when they're so deep. It doesn't really matter
a whole lot. Hornet started the game on a seven
to zero run. Celtics started off the game pretty sluggish
over five from the field, but it was tied at
(03:48):
twenty five after the first quarter. Second quarter, Boston out
scores the Hornets twenty nine to twenty eight. So at halftime,
I mean, the Celtics are shooting about forty one percent
from the field, ten to twenty six from three, and
the free throw disparity was marginal, I mean six of
eight for Boston four for six for the Hornets. Charlotte
was shooting around forty three percent from the floor in
that first half and nine to nineteen from three. And
(04:08):
then you go into the second half, and like you
mentioned there, it's just basically a tail two halfs. I mean,
Jason Tatum had eleven points in a third quarter. Derek
White had ten points in the third frame as well.
Boston outscores Hornets thirty seven to twenty two in that
third quarter. There is some saving Grayson there for Charlotte
in that third frame. Seth Curry did have eleven of
his seventeen in that third stanzap Gid do three of
(04:29):
five from beyond the ark. I'm sure we'll touch on
him a little bit later on. But Boston was leading
it ninety one to seventy five after three quarters of play,
shot sixty one percent and seven of eleven from three
in that quarter, fourth quarter sixty four percent from the floor,
six to thirteen from three, So, like you said, it
just seemed like it was a massive tail two halves.
And I think that the interesting aspect of this with
(04:49):
playing a team like Boston is obviously Charles Lee spending
a couple of years there on Joe Mizzula's staff, and
now the tables are kind of turned a little bit
in a sense because Charles Lee is of course leading Hornets.
So it seems like the model of the NBA right
now is just throw up a bunch of threes. Just
try to be as efficient as possible. If you're able
to get nineteen to fall or eighteen, then so be it.
(05:10):
That's great. Obviously that hasn't really worked for the Hornets
this year just because of all the injuries and absences,
so the three point shooting has taken a little bit
of a toll, so Charlotte has had to kind of
reinvent themselves philosophically, I guess you can say, for lack
of a better term, a little bit here in this
campaign just because of guys like LaMelo Ball and Brandon
Miller and Grant Williams and tray Man all being out,
(05:30):
because I mean, that's that's a lot of three point
percentage right there. As well. Hornets did go fifteen to
forty from three, that's thirty seven and a half percent.
Boston was forty five percent from three, twenty three to
fifty one. But when you're taking eleven more three pointers,
I mean they did make eight, obviously, eight more than
the Hornets, but when you're taking fifty one three pointers
in a game, that's really really hard to stop for sure.
Speaker 3 (05:51):
And it's it's one of these things, and a lot
of people spoke about it, you know, when the Warriors
started to kind of really ignite this three point sort
of revolution in the in the NBA back in twenty fifteen, it's,
you know, every team is clamoring, we've got to get
three point shooters. We got to do this if we're
going to keep up with the Warriors. And you know,
there were some people out there that says, you're not
(06:12):
going to beat the Warriors doing trying to outwarrior the Warriors.
You're going to beat the Warriors by taking them away
from what they do and doing what you do best
in controlling the tempo and controlling the game. So, you know,
I thought that was what Charlotte did a good or
solid job of in the first half, just kind of
slowing things down a little bit. It wasn't nearly as
you know, with the way that you know, the Celtics
(06:33):
taking So I mean a lot of these threes are
taking you know, live ball turnovers, live ball rebounds, and
they're pulling up in transition and shooting these threes. You know,
guys are racing back, they're getting long rebounds, you know, swing, swing,
another wide open three in the court. Just kind of
it's snowballs a little bit. So, you know, I think
when you go into a game like this, and again,
obviously the Hornets are not anywhere close to full strength,
(06:55):
and I think they you know, did as well as
they could have as long as they could have this game,
but they're not a team that at least as currently constructed,
is in a position where they need to be taking
fifty sixty Three's a game against a team like the
Boston Celtics, because you're not going to out Boston the
Boston Celtics right now. Just you know, you have to
have you know, Chris tops Porzingis can they can play
(07:17):
five out lineups with Porzingis, Horford at center, They've got
a great role man and Luke Cornett. I mean, they've
just everybody on their team can shoot threes, with the
exception of really Cornett in that rotation, you know, so
which we'll get even tighter in the playoffs. So you
have to be I know the score doesn't necessarily indicate it,
but I think you have to be pleased with how
the Hornets played in that first half. The second half
(07:39):
again just really really got away from them and kind
of made the score. It's tough to believe this was
really a one point game at halftime when they ended
up falling by thirty six. But again, you know, when
the Celtics turn it on, it's it's hard to stay
with them.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
One of those things that did happen in the second
half too. Nick Smith Junior was out with a groin injury,
and he had a really good first half. Seventeen minutes
out on the floor, he went three to seven from
the floor to a five, from three to four rebounds,
four assists, totaled up nine points. That was a big
loss here because he's been playing really well as a
kind of annoying just to see that happen to a
guy like Nicksmith Junior who's been playing some really good
(08:12):
basketball as of late. So we'll see what the status
of him on Sunday is moving forward again. Game eighty
two Hornets removed from postseason contention, so not a whole
lot to play for NAT since don't want to risk
an injury to aggravate it even more if it's not
really going to be a meaningful game for lack of
a better term. So both of these teams have their
fate sealed with Game eighty two coming up here in
(08:33):
just a few moments, depending on when you're listening to
this podcast, and we will preview that matchup free here
in a couple But in the meantime, they got to
pick our silver lining selections. There is one that shines
a lot brighter for the Hornets after this one. We'll
we'll talk about it next here on a Hornets I've cast.
It's a Silver Linings edition of the HHC Charlotte falls
in Boston on Friday, one thirty to ninety four year
(08:56):
final score. Charlotte, now nineteen and sixty two on a season,
has lost the first three games to Boston on the campaign.
We'll see if the Hornets can salvage a game here
on Sunday against the Celtics. But in the meantime, we
got to pick our silver lining selections from the game yesterday,
even though it was a loss. There are always some
silver linings to zero point two in there is a
big one here. Seth Curry seventeen points off the bench,
(09:16):
going five to seven from three use of Nur Kitchen
double figures as well off the bench with fourteen points.
Kg Simpson reached double figures in a starting role with
eleven points, and Mark Williams another double double ten points,
twelve rebounds. Josha Kogi had ten points in that first
half as well. So a couple of the silver lining nominees.
I guess you could say Sam Purley, But who is
your silver lining selection from Friday's game?
Speaker 3 (09:36):
Yeah, mine's definitely gonna be Seth Curry. And obviously that's
something that everyone has been monitoring, and I'm sure Sam
Farber is very excited right now. Just you know, Seth
coming into the game needed hit four threes over these
final two games to qualify for the three point percentage
leader board. To get to you have to have a
minimum of eighty two. He hit seventy eight coming into
the game. He went right by that number and finished
(09:58):
with eighty three or on the season. And like you said,
for this game, seventeen points, six of eight shooting overall,
five to seven from three. I mean, the shot looks good,
looked confident, I mean coming off those screens, I mean
it was. I mean there's some good I mean, these
were some really nice looking shots, not that they just
went in, but just the release and everything. I mean,
he got on a little bit of a heater there,
(10:19):
I think in the second quarter where he hit two
or three in a span of a minute or two.
So as a numbers person, I'm obviously very excited because
this is something I think would be really cool for
Seth to win the three point percentage title. And right now,
as of at this exact moment of the podcast recording,
he sits first in the NBA at forty five point
six percent. Zach Levine, who as of right this very
(10:42):
second is second at forty four point six percent, and
he has started zero of two in the Sacramento Kings
game against the LA Clippers, So you know, Seth's obviously
in good position. You got to see how tonight shakes out.
But you know that's uh he put himself. I guess
you could say in the seat. Some guys right behind
him as well. The Torrian Prince is in there, Tyd
(11:04):
Jerome Harrison, Barnes is making a little bit of a
late run. Kean Ellis, Nick mattoomb Luke Kennard, Vit Kreuchi
and Kevin Durant, although I think those guys kind of
towards the end are probably out of it. They're closer
to forty three percent. So and one last thing, uh
Seth right now, if he does not take another shot
or move it all, this would be the second best
single season three point percentage in team history, behind Glenn Rice,
(11:27):
who shot forty seven percent in nineteennty six ninety seven,
and that was the only other three point percentage crown
that has been won in franchise history. So that makes
a certainly an exciting thing to watch in the season
finale on Sunday.
Speaker 4 (11:40):
Holding also get it to Seth Curry. Curry will rise
for three. He hits it, that's eighty two, Seth Curry.
He is qualified for the three point percentage title. And
now it's just a matter of is that percentage gonna
be higher than Zach Levine's.
Speaker 2 (11:56):
As you can tell, Sam was pretty excited whenever Seth
hit that fourth May three of the night, and then
able to add one more for good measure. Certainly really
cool to see here. Seth Curry definitely a worthy silver
lining selection from the game yesterday. So as it stood
going into the end of the Hornets game against the
Celtics on Friday, and before Zach Lavine took the floor
(12:19):
for the Kings, in terms of some decimal point percentage,
Seth Curry's percentage was zero point four five eight five
six to be exact, and then Zach Lavine was around
zero point four four five nine fours. So the for
two for Levigne to start off the night was definitely
beneficial towards Seth Curry. If you really want to dive
(12:39):
into the weeds, I'm not going to stay up until
two in the morning to record this podcast to see
what Lavine finishes at. So you can go ahead and
check the box score heading into Sunday's final game to
see the lead that Seth Curry has over Zach Lavine.
Hopefully by the time that you hear this podcast and
by the time we get ready to tip off Hornets
and Celtics Part two on Sunday afternoon. In the meantime,
(12:59):
Seth Curry talked after the game about the efficiency of
being five to seven from three, trying to.
Speaker 5 (13:03):
Be active offensively, move around. I try to stay on
one spot, but move around, trying to be aggressive, try
to create offense for the team. Teams doing a good
job just moving a ball, especially in the first few quarters.
Obviously Nerd creating a lot of offense for said screeze
driple handoffs and making them pay for mismatches. So I
think our offense was humming around and everybody was getting
involved in the first half, first three quarters.
Speaker 2 (13:25):
So there's Seth Curry after a one thirty to ninety
four loss in Boston yesterday. So good to see Seth
getting hot from beyond the yard. Finishes the game six
to eight from the floor, did get into the inside
the three point line a little bit as well, but
did go five to seven from three, which was great
to see and even though it was in a loss
for me, my silver slot for me, my silver lining
selection is going to be Mark Williams Marcos with a
(13:47):
little bit of a quiet double double. I think that's
safe to say ten points, twelve rebounds, and twenty four
minutes out there on the floor five to twelve from
the floor. A couple of those shots were further away
from the basket. He was trying a couple of free
throw line jumpers and that kind of stuff finishes with
two assists, a block and two steals as well, so
he was pretty active defensively, and I thought this was
a good character development game for Mark Williams in a
(14:08):
sense of look who he's going up against on the
other side, Al Horford, Christos Perzingis, and then coming off
the bench, Luke Cornett's another guy that can kind of
stretch the floor as well. So I think that Mark
had a tough assignment with some of those guys like
Horford and Persingis. I mean, just so much size in
there for Boston. I know, Horford's on the back nine
of his career, so he's playing a little bit more
away from the basket, but he still has a lot
of size. He can still bang in the post if
(14:30):
he needs to, and kind of similar with Perzingis as well,
he can stretch the floor. Even though he only went
two of seven from beyond the arc. In fact, Perzingis
went two of eleven from the floor in general in
that game on Friday, so the only thing he was
making were of those three pointers. But that's an opportunity
for Mark Williams to get better protecting on the perimeter.
Even though he gets pulled out and he's not protecting
the rim a lot per se, it's an opportunity for
(14:52):
him to get better in a sense. So I think
that the fact that I looked at the box score
and I said, oh, Mark Williams has a double double.
I wasn't really expecting that. I think that kind of
shows you the kind of player that he's developed into.
And it just goes to show as well that he's
really come on strong here as of late as well,
despite the injury management that he's had to kind of
go through a little bit in that sense, and he's
still out there battling, and he's still out there trying
(15:13):
to prove himself for sure.
Speaker 3 (15:14):
And I want to say and I don't have the
exact number, but I want to say he got a
handful of paint attempts in the first quarter, and I
want to say it was like one of five is
he started and then finished the game five of twelve overall,
so he was about four of seven five of seven
to end the game. I thought he was having a
little bit of trouble, like you said, with Horford and
(15:35):
poor Zingis and then obviously on the defensive end, poor
Zingis kind of pulling him away from the paint a
little bit more. Although he only shot two of seven
from three to two and eleven overall, so that allowed
Mark maybe to play a little bit more drop. You know,
have to kind of go back and watch it again,
but yeah, it was, you know, a little bit of
a tough start for Mark, the solid start to the
game that the Hornets had Mark, you know, it took
(15:55):
him a little while to get going. But again, like
you said, five offensive rebounds, quietly had a double double
finish five of twelve. I mean, he's put together some
really nice consistent performances, you know, really in this back
half of the season. So it's kind of been you know,
starting the year with the injury and everything, and kind
of took him a little while to get going. But
it's nice to see him finish strong, obviously, as opposed
to last year, when you know his season was completely
(16:17):
wiped away with the back injury that he suffered in November.
Speaker 2 (16:20):
Mark Williams and Seth Curry some of the silver linings
from yesterday's loss one thirty to ninety four in Boston,
Hornets get a chance to reracket and do it again
for Game eighty two taken on the Celtics on Sunday
afternoon from the Garden. We will preview that matchup for
you right after this yere on a Hornets podcast. It
(16:40):
is also a GameDay edition of the a JHC Hornets
and Celtics Part two or Part four, I suppose, since
this is the final game of the season and final
game of the season series between these two squads. As
Rob Longo, myself and Sam Peli, the lead rader of
Hornets dot Com, kids, you said for Hornets and Celtics
here on Sunday afternoon again, this is game number eighty two,
(17:01):
the final game of the season for Charlotte. Of course
Boston looking for higher aspirations already locked into that two
seed in the Eastern Conference. This is the only the
second time this season that the Hornets will play consecutive
games against the same opponent, and oddly enough, the series
previous to this one just so happened to be against
the Celtics back at the beginning of November at Spectrum Center,
where Boston took a one twenty four to one oh
(17:21):
nine victory in Game one, and then one thirteen to
one oh three in Game two on the second night
of a back to back against the same opponent. Of course,
the Celtics did win it one thirty to ninety four
yesterday or Friday, i should say, depending on when you're
listening to this podcast. And of course we will get
you set for this one now. So Sam Perli, you
know how these work. We need a player to watch
for both sides, and a statistic to watch for this
(17:43):
one as well. This might be the easiest game preview
we've ever done, because we're reviewing the same team once
again after we just watched them.
Speaker 3 (17:50):
Yeah, just so you don't even have to close out
the windows of the box scores. You just kind of
roll into the next one my Hornet to watch, and
this one is going to be kJ Simpson. Like you
mentioned ear, you know, Nick Smith unfortunately exiting I think
in the second quarter that groin injury. Don't know his
status for Sunday's game in the event he doesn't play again.
We don't know anything right now, and obviously be you know,
(18:12):
a heavier ball, handling responsibilities and load for kJ Simpson,
who has progressively taken on more of those as the
season is kind of winded down. Really good start for
kJ and this one had nine points on four of
eight shooting in the first half, but then finished with
only eleven points on five to sixteen shooting, So we
had just two points on one of eight over the
final three quarters. I think some of that was and
again you have to kind of go back and watch it,
(18:34):
but I'm sure dealing with a Hall of Fame caliber,
defensive minded guard like Drew Holliday and you know, can
take a toll, especially on a rookie point guard like
kJ Simpson. So I thought he did a decent job
of kind of you know, setting the table in that
first half and or first quarter and kind of get
things going. And yeah, again we've talked a lot about
the progress he's made in his rookie season. I'd like
to see him finish this final game with another good.
Speaker 2 (18:56):
Performance I like to pick. I don't know if Sam
Farber is rubbing off me or not, but I'm very
invested into Seth curry three point percentage right now. And
I don't know if Seth's going to play today. I
don't know if he's going to attempt the three today.
I don't know if he's just gonna ride this one
off into the sunset, as he basically almost has this
locked up because as we have progressed to record this podcast,
(19:17):
Zach Levine is now zero for four with a little
bit over two minutes left to go in the second
quarter in that Sacramento game. So he's not off to
a great start. That certainly does not help the percentage.
But if anybody knows that Zach Levine can get hot
in a hot hurry, it would be Hornets fans, because
he did that out in Sacramento in the first meeting
between the Hornets and the Kings earlier this season. But
at any rate, back to the main point here, Seth
(19:39):
Curry kind of trying to keep that lead in the
three point percentage, I'm insterested to see one if he
plays here Sunday and two if he attempts to three.
So he's gonna be my player to watch on that
side of things. But that leaves us with a Celtic
player to watch, which could be a little bit difficult
depending on what the Celtics decided to do here with
some of their starters, or is that to watch? Where
(19:59):
are we looking at next tear?
Speaker 3 (20:00):
I'm going to go Celtic to watch, And again, as
of this moment, we don't know what Boston is going
to do. If I had to guess, I would say
a lot of their main rotational guys will probably sit out.
They sat most of those guys on Wednesday in Orlando
and actually scored seventy six points. Or if they do play,
it'll be very very little. If anything, this will lead
into my Celtic to watch. The Hornet's played their second
(20:21):
to last game of last season, also against the Celtics,
similar situation. It was entirely back into the rotation bench
players that got the start. Foreyton Pritchard at the time
in that game had thirty one points on fourteen of
twenty two shooting. I want to say at the time
it was a career high or tied a career high.
Also had an eleven assists, and that is why he's
going to be my Celtic to watch tonight. He's a
(20:42):
guy that anytime there's an opportunity to move into the
starting lineup or for him to get extended minutes, I mean,
he takes full advantage of it. You saw in this
game when Boston cleared the bench early in the fourth quarter,
he came in, finished the game twenty two points, that
was the most on the team, nine of eleven, shooting
four or five from three, three assists. I mean, he
is just a crazy talent. Some of those trailing threes,
(21:04):
pull up three spot up threes. I mean, he's a
guy that I always feel like the Hornets have exceptional
difficult time guarding because again, he kind of fits that
mold they have is once he gets going, I mean,
it is hard to kind of get him to stop.
So I would venture to guess that Pritchard is going
to see a lot of minutes in this one, just
given the situation Boston's in and potentially resting. Some of
(21:28):
their guys are really sitting them out. So he's going
to be my Celtic to watch Peyton Pritchard.
Speaker 2 (21:32):
Yeah, he was my Celtic player to watch when we
previewed the first game of this matchup with me and
Sam Farmer, because he did play a lot in that
game Wednesday against the Magic where they lost by twenty
because they decided to rest their players. So he's definitely
a safe bed there to pick for the Celtics because again,
we don't know what this starting five is going to
look like. Here, I'll give him credit. I mean, Boston
played their starters a good chunk of the minutes there
(21:54):
in that game on Friday. I mean Jason Tatum played
thirty two, Al Horford played twenty eight, Derek White played
thirty fours, Holiday played twenty six. I mean, those are
some pretty solid numbers. I know that they're trying to
just get some cardo in and keep the legs fresh
a little bit because Boston's not going to play for
almost a week because of the new playoff format, by
waiting for the play and tournament to finish up and
then trying to figure out who your opponent's going to be.
(22:16):
So definitely a very solid pick in that sense. It's
hard right now obviously for us to try to find
somebody else. Peyton Pritchard would have been my number one
go to, but I have to go in a little
bit of a different direction. I'm gonna take Luke Cornett.
I think he's just an interesting case study. He only
had eight points in that Celtics win on Friday against
the Hornets, and he goes three to five from the field,
didn't attempt to three, which I think is a little
(22:37):
interesting because he is known to fire up a couple
of threes for rebounds to assist. Kind of surprising. He
didn't have a block either, just kind of seems like
a guy that is almost forgotten a little bit in
a sense because he's not alhr Free, He's not Christos Perzingis,
but he's kind of that third big If the Celtics
have somebody that goes down in the front court or
gets in foul trouble, Luke Cornett's kind of that next
(22:59):
guy up. So this is an opportunity for him to
kind of get some extended run as well, because once
again the Celtics are looking for a little bit more
for the future. I mean, obviously they're getting ready for
a playoff run, and Luke Cornette that has the opportunity
to really jump up there and say, hey, if we're
in a pinch in the front court, I can definitely
take care of business. So Luke Cornett is going to
be my Celtics player to watch in terms of statistics
(23:21):
to watch. What is one? You're keeping an eye on Sam.
Speaker 3 (23:23):
And real quick on Luke Connette before I get the
stat to watch. I thought the same thing because I
remember when Cornette came into the league with the Knicks
and the Bulls, that was kind of his thing as
a seven foot floor space there. I mean, he had,
you know, a season with one hundred and ninety three attempts.
He shot thirty five thirty six percent from three his
first couple of years, and he's kind of gradually gone
in the other direction. He's only attempted two threes this year,
(23:45):
and that's that's kind of crazy to me, because you
think in a team like Boston, they would say, hey,
you know, you obviously have a track record of shooting threes,
get out there and kind of hoist him up if
you need to, if it's right into their playing style.
But usually you see the opposite. You see when these
seven footers them in they expand their game as they
go on, he has found you know, the role man
kind of you know, dunker spot post up play. It's
(24:09):
fascinating because I would have thought for sure if like
you just said that, he would have a little bit
bigger of a sample size. But yeah, just two attempted
threes this year and two hundred and sixty four two's
and he's shooting almost sixty eight percent. There. I'm sure
those are not too far away from the basket. But
my stat to watch in this one is going to
be points off turnovers. I mean, it's a category that
(24:29):
has really hurt the Hornets. These first two games on
the road trip, they gave up thirty points off turnovers
on nineteen giveaways in Toronto. In this one they had
thirty one total on seventeen turnovers. Especially in the second half,
like you said, twelve for twenty one. Keep it, you know,
afloat in the second half and give themselves a little
bit of a chance. You know, you can't be giving
the ball away or especially the live ball stuff with
(24:51):
Boston because they're going to take it the other way
and just spot up threes, transition threes and it becomes
a little bit of an avalanche. So get those turnovers
down and and you know, keep them in that twelve thirteen,
fourteen range. I think that's kind of the sweet spot
for Charlotte. And you know, when you do turn it over,
you got to get back, So points off turnovers is
definitely something to watch after these first two games on
(25:12):
the road trip.
Speaker 2 (25:12):
Probably would have been my number to watch here if
you didn't take it. But if I have to go
in a different direction, which I obviously do, I'm gonna
look here at the second chance points opportunities. Going into
the game on Friday, Boston was one of the best
teams in allowing second chance points opportunities in terms of
allowing the fewest. They were around I want to say,
like thirteen or fourteen second chance points per game, and
(25:33):
that put them around top five, top six in the Association.
The Hornet's get a majority of their points on second
chance point opportunities because the field goal percentage just hasn't
been very good this year for Charlotte, and yes you,
Friday was a great example of that. Twelve offensive rebounds,
eighteen second chance points. That's a little bit above their average.
But again it was a little bit of a collapse
(25:55):
there in that fourth quarter. I guess you can say
just because the Celtics really took it to the Hornets
there fourth quarter. But in a game that's close, you're
gonna need every single bucket that you possibly can. So
in a contest that the Hornets fell one thirty to
ninety four in on Friday, Boston ended up taking two
more field goal attempts for the entirety of the game.
Now again, did attempt eleven more three point opportunities. But
(26:17):
in a game where the Hornets turned the ball over
seventeen times and it resulted in thirty one points for
Boston off of those turnovers compared to ten Celtics turnovers
and only six points off of those turnovers for the Hornets.
That can make a difference having those extra possessions. So
the second chance point numbers are something that I'm going
to keep an eye on here this afternoon again one
o'clock airtime on the Hornets Radio Network for Game eighty
(26:39):
two from Boston, and then after the game, myself and
Sam Perli will break it all down for you in
our final host game episode of the HHC. Say thank
you for joining me here today and all season long.
It's hard to believe that we're at the end of
the road already. Yes it is.
Speaker 3 (26:52):
Season's gone fast, and for me in particular, it's been
kind of a strange season, being in and out a
little bit with paternity lea, but hoping to end the
season on a positive note and hopefully in a non
silver lining slash gold star fashion.
Speaker 2 (27:06):
Hornets will look for win number twenty on Sunday afternoon
against the Celtics, and once again myself in Sam Pearlier,
will be with you to recap it all on the
Hornets Podcast. Big thanks to Sam, big thanks to all
of you for tuning into today's episode and for Sam Pearli,
I'm Rob Longo saying so long, Thank you so much
for joining us on this episode of the Hornet Podcast.
We will talk to you right after Game eighty two
(27:26):
between the Hornets and the Celtics here on EHHC.
Speaker 1 (27:30):
Thank you for listening to The Hornets Podcast, brought to
you by Santa, the official i ear Nosen Throatcare provider
of the Charlotte Hornets. For more coverage, visit Hornets dot com.
Welcome to the Hornets Podcast presented by Charlotte I ear
Nosen Throat Associates, the official I ear nosen Throatcare provider
of the Charlotte Hornets. Here's your host, Rob Longo.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Hi, friends, and welcome to today's episode of the Hornets
iove Cast, the official podcast of the Charlotte Hornets, brought
to you by Santa Charlotte, I ear Nose and Throat Associates,
the official I ear Nose and Throat Care provider of
your Charlotte Hornets. Rob Longo with you today on Unfortunately
a silver Linings episode of the AHHC Charlotte falls to
the raining NBA champion Boston Celtics up in Boston last night,
(00:35):
one thirty to ninety four, Hornets down nineteen and sixty
two on the season as the Hornets fall to the
Celtics for the third time this year. We'll break this
one down for you and provide you with our silver
linings and it's also a game day episode of the
hornetove Cast. Hornets wrapping up the season in Boston once
again on Sunday for an early one o'clock tip time,
and we will break that matchup down for you for
(00:57):
Game eighty two, and we will break down last night's
loss as well and helping me out with all of
these topics on this episode of the HHC. It's the
lead writer of Hornets dot Com, Sam Purley, and Sam
thank you as always for joining me here on this
episode of the Hornets Podcast. A tough one in Boston
last night. Hornets led this one early on. We're only
down one point at halftime. But then Boston, the defending champs,
(01:18):
started to flex their muscles a little bit outscored to
Hornets seventy six to forty one in the second half.
And again it was pretty competitive for about two to
two and a half quarters, and then the Celtics were
able to kind of crank it up there and up
the pressure a little bit there late in the game,
and that was kind of what it felt like was
the was the end of it.
Speaker 3 (01:35):
Really encouraging start by the Hornets. I thought they played
very balanced on both ends to start the game. I
think at halftime they only had five turnovers and maybe
six fouls. I thought the shot selection was really nice.
I thought they did a really nice job, particularly in
the first half, and it continued in the second half.
You know, Boston averages I think forty nine to three
point attempts a game. The next closest team is at
(01:56):
forty two. So they play very, very three point seven
trick offense. And sometimes it can be easy to get
caught up in sort of that run and up and down,
you know, getting off fast, fast threies kind of offensive approach.
And I thought the Hornets did a good job not
playing into that, not getting sped up, playing a little
bit more of an inside out game and playing their
(02:16):
style of offense. And then you know, in the second half,
I think Boston opened the third with a seventeen to
six run and you started to feel a little bit
like the floodgates were about to open. And then it
really just kind of kept on going, and it just
didn't really stopped in the fourth quarter, even when they
started to empty their bench. I mean, guys were coming in.
And the thing that really hurt the Hornets in the
second half was turnovers. They had twelve turnovers for twenty
(02:39):
one Boston points. Obviously, Boston shooting about sixty two percent
in the second half and fifty four percent from three
thirteen of twenty four, and again you can only hold
them off for so long before they're gonna, you know,
do their thing and show you why they're the defending champion.
So quite a start contrast in halfs. But you know,
Boston showed why they they're going to make enough run
(03:00):
at this with that second half. It was once it
kind of got going, it was impossible to slow down.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
Yeah, I didn't really know how this one was gonna
shake out before the game started, just simply for the
fact that, well Boston didn't really play anybody in their
loss against the Orlando on Wednesday, because the Celtics aren't
playing for anything. They're locked into the two seed. The
only thing maybe for this one was to get to
the sixty win threshold just to kind of get a
nice round number. Maybe that was a little bit of
added motivation. But Hornets rore without all of those players
(03:27):
that have been ruled out for the remainder of the season.
In addition to Josh Green, Miles Bridges, Mussa Dia Bate
was a late scratch as well due to an illness,
and Jalen Brown was the only player out for the Celtics.
Still a solid piece of the puzzle there for Boston.
But again, when they're so deep. It doesn't really matter
a whole lot. Hornet started the game on a seven
to zero run. Celtics started off the game pretty sluggish
over five from the field, but it was tied at
(03:48):
twenty five after the first quarter. Second quarter, Boston out
scores the Hornets twenty nine to twenty eight. So at halftime,
I mean, the Celtics are shooting about forty one percent
from the field, ten to twenty six from three, and
the free throw disparity was marginal, I mean six of
eight for Boston four for six for the Hornets. Charlotte
was shooting around forty three percent from the floor in
that first half and nine to nineteen from three. And
(04:08):
then you go into the second half, and like you
mentioned there, it's just basically a tail two halfs. I mean,
Jason Tatum had eleven points in a third quarter. Derek
White had ten points in the third frame as well.
Boston outscores Hornets thirty seven to twenty two in that
third quarter. There is some saving Grayson there for Charlotte
in that third frame. Seth Curry did have eleven of
his seventeen in that third stanzap Gid do three of
(04:29):
five from beyond the ark. I'm sure we'll touch on
him a little bit later on. But Boston was leading
it ninety one to seventy five after three quarters of play,
shot sixty one percent and seven of eleven from three
in that quarter, fourth quarter sixty four percent from the floor,
six to thirteen from three, So, like you said, it
just seemed like it was a massive tail two halves.
And I think that the interesting aspect of this with
(04:49):
playing a team like Boston is obviously Charles Lee spending
a couple of years there on Joe Mizzula's staff, and
now the tables are kind of turned a little bit
in a sense because Charles Lee is of course leading Hornets.
So it seems like the model of the NBA right
now is just throw up a bunch of threes. Just
try to be as efficient as possible. If you're able
to get nineteen to fall or eighteen, then so be it.
(05:10):
That's great. Obviously that hasn't really worked for the Hornets
this year just because of all the injuries and absences,
so the three point shooting has taken a little bit
of a toll, so Charlotte has had to kind of
reinvent themselves philosophically, I guess you can say, for lack
of a better term, a little bit here in this
campaign just because of guys like LaMelo Ball and Brandon
Miller and Grant Williams and tray Man all being out,
(05:30):
because I mean, that's that's a lot of three point
percentage right there. As well. Hornets did go fifteen to
forty from three, that's thirty seven and a half percent.
Boston was forty five percent from three, twenty three to
fifty one. But when you're taking eleven more three pointers,
I mean they did make eight, obviously, eight more than
the Hornets, but when you're taking fifty one three pointers
in a game, that's really really hard to stop for sure.
Speaker 3 (05:51):
And it's it's one of these things, and a lot
of people spoke about it, you know, when the Warriors
started to kind of really ignite this three point sort
of revolution in the in the NBA back in twenty fifteen, it's,
you know, every team is clamoring, we've got to get
three point shooters. We got to do this if we're
going to keep up with the Warriors. And you know,
there were some people out there that says, you're not
(06:12):
going to beat the Warriors doing trying to outwarrior the Warriors.
You're going to beat the Warriors by taking them away
from what they do and doing what you do best
in controlling the tempo and controlling the game. So, you know,
I thought that was what Charlotte did a good or
solid job of in the first half, just kind of
slowing things down a little bit. It wasn't nearly as
you know, with the way that you know, the Celtics
(06:33):
taking So I mean a lot of these threes are
taking you know, live ball turnovers, live ball rebounds, and
they're pulling up in transition and shooting these threes. You know,
guys are racing back, they're getting long rebounds, you know, swing, swing,
another wide open three in the court. Just kind of
it's snowballs a little bit. So, you know, I think
when you go into a game like this, and again,
obviously the Hornets are not anywhere close to full strength,
(06:55):
and I think they you know, did as well as
they could have as long as they could have this game,
but they're not a team that at least as currently constructed,
is in a position where they need to be taking
fifty sixty Three's a game against a team like the
Boston Celtics, because you're not going to out Boston the
Boston Celtics right now. Just you know, you have to
have you know, Chris tops Porzingis can they can play
(07:17):
five out lineups with Porzingis, Horford at center, They've got
a great role man and Luke Cornett. I mean, they've
just everybody on their team can shoot threes, with the
exception of really Cornett in that rotation, you know, so
which we'll get even tighter in the playoffs. So you
have to be I know the score doesn't necessarily indicate it,
but I think you have to be pleased with how
the Hornets played in that first half. The second half
(07:39):
again just really really got away from them and kind
of made the score. It's tough to believe this was
really a one point game at halftime when they ended
up falling by thirty six. But again, you know, when
the Celtics turn it on, it's it's hard to stay
with them.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
One of those things that did happen in the second
half too. Nick Smith Junior was out with a groin injury,
and he had a really good first half. Seventeen minutes
out on the floor, he went three to seven from
the floor to a five, from three to four rebounds,
four assists, totaled up nine points. That was a big
loss here because he's been playing really well as a
kind of annoying just to see that happen to a
guy like Nicksmith Junior who's been playing some really good
(08:12):
basketball as of late. So we'll see what the status
of him on Sunday is moving forward again. Game eighty
two Hornets removed from postseason contention, so not a whole
lot to play for NAT since don't want to risk
an injury to aggravate it even more if it's not
really going to be a meaningful game for lack of
a better term. So both of these teams have their
fate sealed with Game eighty two coming up here in
(08:33):
just a few moments, depending on when you're listening to
this podcast, and we will preview that matchup free here
in a couple But in the meantime, they got to
pick our silver lining selections. There is one that shines
a lot brighter for the Hornets after this one. We'll
we'll talk about it next here on a Hornets I've cast.
It's a Silver Linings edition of the HHC Charlotte falls
in Boston on Friday, one thirty to ninety four year
(08:56):
final score. Charlotte, now nineteen and sixty two on a season,
has lost the first three games to Boston on the campaign.
We'll see if the Hornets can salvage a game here
on Sunday against the Celtics. But in the meantime, we
got to pick our silver lining selections from the game yesterday,
even though it was a loss. There are always some
silver linings to zero point two in there is a
big one here. Seth Curry seventeen points off the bench,
(09:16):
going five to seven from three use of Nur Kitchen
double figures as well off the bench with fourteen points.
Kg Simpson reached double figures in a starting role with
eleven points, and Mark Williams another double double ten points,
twelve rebounds. Josha Kogi had ten points in that first
half as well. So a couple of the silver lining nominees.
I guess you could say Sam Purley, But who is
your silver lining selection from Friday's game?
Speaker 3 (09:36):
Yeah, mine's definitely gonna be Seth Curry. And obviously that's
something that everyone has been monitoring, and I'm sure Sam
Farber is very excited right now. Just you know, Seth
coming into the game needed hit four threes over these
final two games to qualify for the three point percentage
leader board. To get to you have to have a
minimum of eighty two. He hit seventy eight coming into
the game. He went right by that number and finished
(09:58):
with eighty three or on the season. And like you said,
for this game, seventeen points, six of eight shooting overall,
five to seven from three. I mean, the shot looks good,
looked confident, I mean coming off those screens, I mean
it was. I mean there's some good I mean, these
were some really nice looking shots, not that they just
went in, but just the release and everything. I mean,
he got on a little bit of a heater there,
(10:19):
I think in the second quarter where he hit two
or three in a span of a minute or two.
So as a numbers person, I'm obviously very excited because
this is something I think would be really cool for
Seth to win the three point percentage title. And right now,
as of at this exact moment of the podcast recording,
he sits first in the NBA at forty five point
six percent. Zach Levine, who as of right this very
(10:42):
second is second at forty four point six percent, and
he has started zero of two in the Sacramento Kings
game against the LA Clippers, So you know, Seth's obviously
in good position. You got to see how tonight shakes out.
But you know that's uh he put himself. I guess
you could say in the seat. Some guys right behind
him as well. The Torrian Prince is in there, Tyd
(11:04):
Jerome Harrison, Barnes is making a little bit of a
late run. Kean Ellis, Nick mattoomb Luke Kennard, Vit Kreuchi
and Kevin Durant, although I think those guys kind of
towards the end are probably out of it. They're closer
to forty three percent. So and one last thing, uh
Seth right now, if he does not take another shot
or move it all, this would be the second best
single season three point percentage in team history, behind Glenn Rice,
(11:27):
who shot forty seven percent in nineteennty six ninety seven,
and that was the only other three point percentage crown
that has been won in franchise history. So that makes
a certainly an exciting thing to watch in the season
finale on Sunday.
Speaker 4 (11:40):
Holding also get it to Seth Curry. Curry will rise
for three. He hits it, that's eighty two, Seth Curry.
He is qualified for the three point percentage title. And
now it's just a matter of is that percentage gonna
be higher than Zach Levine's.
Speaker 2 (11:56):
As you can tell, Sam was pretty excited whenever Seth
hit that fourth May three of the night, and then
able to add one more for good measure. Certainly really
cool to see here. Seth Curry definitely a worthy silver
lining selection from the game yesterday. So as it stood
going into the end of the Hornets game against the
Celtics on Friday, and before Zach Lavine took the floor
(12:19):
for the Kings, in terms of some decimal point percentage,
Seth Curry's percentage was zero point four five eight five
six to be exact, and then Zach Lavine was around
zero point four four five nine fours. So the for
two for Levigne to start off the night was definitely
beneficial towards Seth Curry. If you really want to dive
(12:39):
into the weeds, I'm not going to stay up until
two in the morning to record this podcast to see
what Lavine finishes at. So you can go ahead and
check the box score heading into Sunday's final game to
see the lead that Seth Curry has over Zach Lavine.
Hopefully by the time that you hear this podcast and
by the time we get ready to tip off Hornets
and Celtics Part two on Sunday afternoon. In the meantime,
(12:59):
Seth Curry talked after the game about the efficiency of
being five to seven from three, trying to.
Speaker 5 (13:03):
Be active offensively, move around. I try to stay on
one spot, but move around, trying to be aggressive, try
to create offense for the team. Teams doing a good
job just moving a ball, especially in the first few quarters.
Obviously Nerd creating a lot of offense for said screeze
driple handoffs and making them pay for mismatches. So I
think our offense was humming around and everybody was getting
involved in the first half, first three quarters.
Speaker 2 (13:25):
So there's Seth Curry after a one thirty to ninety
four loss in Boston yesterday. So good to see Seth
getting hot from beyond the yard. Finishes the game six
to eight from the floor, did get into the inside
the three point line a little bit as well, but
did go five to seven from three, which was great
to see and even though it was in a loss
for me, my silver slot for me, my silver lining
selection is going to be Mark Williams Marcos with a
(13:47):
little bit of a quiet double double. I think that's
safe to say ten points, twelve rebounds, and twenty four
minutes out there on the floor five to twelve from
the floor. A couple of those shots were further away
from the basket. He was trying a couple of free
throw line jumpers and that kind of stuff finishes with
two assists, a block and two steals as well, so
he was pretty active defensively, and I thought this was
a good character development game for Mark Williams in a
(14:08):
sense of look who he's going up against on the
other side, Al Horford, Christos Perzingis, and then coming off
the bench, Luke Cornett's another guy that can kind of
stretch the floor as well. So I think that Mark
had a tough assignment with some of those guys like
Horford and Persingis. I mean, just so much size in
there for Boston. I know, Horford's on the back nine
of his career, so he's playing a little bit more
away from the basket, but he still has a lot
of size. He can still bang in the post if
(14:30):
he needs to, and kind of similar with Perzingis as well,
he can stretch the floor. Even though he only went
two of seven from beyond the arc. In fact, Perzingis
went two of eleven from the floor in general in
that game on Friday, so the only thing he was
making were of those three pointers. But that's an opportunity
for Mark Williams to get better protecting on the perimeter.
Even though he gets pulled out and he's not protecting
the rim a lot per se, it's an opportunity for
(14:52):
him to get better in a sense. So I think
that the fact that I looked at the box score
and I said, oh, Mark Williams has a double double.
I wasn't really expecting that. I think that kind of
shows you the kind of player that he's developed into.
And it just goes to show as well that he's
really come on strong here as of late as well,
despite the injury management that he's had to kind of
go through a little bit in that sense, and he's
still out there battling, and he's still out there trying
(15:13):
to prove himself for sure.
Speaker 3 (15:14):
And I want to say and I don't have the
exact number, but I want to say he got a
handful of paint attempts in the first quarter, and I
want to say it was like one of five is
he started and then finished the game five of twelve overall,
so he was about four of seven five of seven
to end the game. I thought he was having a
little bit of trouble, like you said, with Horford and
(15:35):
poor Zingis and then obviously on the defensive end, poor
Zingis kind of pulling him away from the paint a
little bit more. Although he only shot two of seven
from three to two and eleven overall, so that allowed
Mark maybe to play a little bit more drop. You know,
have to kind of go back and watch it again,
but yeah, it was, you know, a little bit of
a tough start for Mark, the solid start to the
game that the Hornets had Mark, you know, it took
(15:55):
him a little while to get going. But again, like
you said, five offensive rebounds, quietly had a double double
finish five of twelve. I mean, he's put together some
really nice consistent performances, you know, really in this back
half of the season. So it's kind of been you know,
starting the year with the injury and everything, and kind
of took him a little while to get going. But
it's nice to see him finish strong, obviously, as opposed
to last year, when you know his season was completely
(16:17):
wiped away with the back injury that he suffered in November.
Speaker 2 (16:20):
Mark Williams and Seth Curry some of the silver linings
from yesterday's loss one thirty to ninety four in Boston,
Hornets get a chance to reracket and do it again
for Game eighty two taken on the Celtics on Sunday
afternoon from the Garden. We will preview that matchup for
you right after this yere on a Hornets podcast. It
(16:40):
is also a GameDay edition of the a JHC Hornets
and Celtics Part two or Part four, I suppose, since
this is the final game of the season and final
game of the season series between these two squads. As
Rob Longo, myself and Sam Peli, the lead rader of
Hornets dot Com, kids, you said for Hornets and Celtics
here on Sunday afternoon again, this is game number eighty two,
(17:01):
the final game of the season for Charlotte. Of course
Boston looking for higher aspirations already locked into that two
seed in the Eastern Conference. This is the only the
second time this season that the Hornets will play consecutive
games against the same opponent, and oddly enough, the series
previous to this one just so happened to be against
the Celtics back at the beginning of November at Spectrum Center,
where Boston took a one twenty four to one oh
(17:21):
nine victory in Game one, and then one thirteen to
one oh three in Game two on the second night
of a back to back against the same opponent. Of course,
the Celtics did win it one thirty to ninety four
yesterday or Friday, i should say, depending on when you're
listening to this podcast. And of course we will get
you set for this one now. So Sam Perli, you
know how these work. We need a player to watch
for both sides, and a statistic to watch for this
(17:43):
one as well. This might be the easiest game preview
we've ever done, because we're reviewing the same team once
again after we just watched them.
Speaker 3 (17:50):
Yeah, just so you don't even have to close out
the windows of the box scores. You just kind of
roll into the next one my Hornet to watch, and
this one is going to be kJ Simpson. Like you
mentioned ear, you know, Nick Smith unfortunately exiting I think
in the second quarter that groin injury. Don't know his
status for Sunday's game in the event he doesn't play again.
We don't know anything right now, and obviously be you know,
(18:12):
a heavier ball, handling responsibilities and load for kJ Simpson,
who has progressively taken on more of those as the
season is kind of winded down. Really good start for
kJ and this one had nine points on four of
eight shooting in the first half, but then finished with
only eleven points on five to sixteen shooting, So we
had just two points on one of eight over the
final three quarters. I think some of that was and
again you have to kind of go back and watch it,
(18:34):
but I'm sure dealing with a Hall of Fame caliber,
defensive minded guard like Drew Holliday and you know, can
take a toll, especially on a rookie point guard like
kJ Simpson. So I thought he did a decent job
of kind of you know, setting the table in that
first half and or first quarter and kind of get
things going. And yeah, again we've talked a lot about
the progress he's made in his rookie season. I'd like
to see him finish this final game with another good.
Speaker 2 (18:56):
Performance I like to pick. I don't know if Sam
Farber is rubbing off me or not, but I'm very
invested into Seth curry three point percentage right now. And
I don't know if Seth's going to play today. I
don't know if he's going to attempt the three today.
I don't know if he's just gonna ride this one
off into the sunset, as he basically almost has this
locked up because as we have progressed to record this podcast,
(19:17):
Zach Levine is now zero for four with a little
bit over two minutes left to go in the second
quarter in that Sacramento game. So he's not off to
a great start. That certainly does not help the percentage.
But if anybody knows that Zach Levine can get hot
in a hot hurry, it would be Hornets fans, because
he did that out in Sacramento in the first meeting
between the Hornets and the Kings earlier this season. But
at any rate, back to the main point here, Seth
(19:39):
Curry kind of trying to keep that lead in the
three point percentage, I'm insterested to see one if he
plays here Sunday and two if he attempts to three.
So he's gonna be my player to watch on that
side of things. But that leaves us with a Celtic
player to watch, which could be a little bit difficult
depending on what the Celtics decided to do here with
some of their starters, or is that to watch? Where
(19:59):
are we looking at next tear?
Speaker 3 (20:00):
I'm going to go Celtic to watch, And again, as
of this moment, we don't know what Boston is going
to do. If I had to guess, I would say
a lot of their main rotational guys will probably sit out.
They sat most of those guys on Wednesday in Orlando
and actually scored seventy six points. Or if they do play,
it'll be very very little. If anything, this will lead
into my Celtic to watch. The Hornet's played their second
(20:21):
to last game of last season, also against the Celtics,
similar situation. It was entirely back into the rotation bench
players that got the start. Foreyton Pritchard at the time
in that game had thirty one points on fourteen of
twenty two shooting. I want to say at the time
it was a career high or tied a career high.
Also had an eleven assists, and that is why he's
going to be my Celtic to watch tonight. He's a
(20:42):
guy that anytime there's an opportunity to move into the
starting lineup or for him to get extended minutes, I mean,
he takes full advantage of it. You saw in this
game when Boston cleared the bench early in the fourth quarter,
he came in, finished the game twenty two points, that
was the most on the team, nine of eleven, shooting
four or five from three, three assists. I mean, he
is just a crazy talent. Some of those trailing threes,
(21:04):
pull up three spot up threes. I mean, he's a
guy that I always feel like the Hornets have exceptional
difficult time guarding because again, he kind of fits that
mold they have is once he gets going, I mean,
it is hard to kind of get him to stop.
So I would venture to guess that Pritchard is going
to see a lot of minutes in this one, just
given the situation Boston's in and potentially resting. Some of
(21:28):
their guys are really sitting them out. So he's going
to be my Celtic to watch Peyton Pritchard.
Speaker 2 (21:32):
Yeah, he was my Celtic player to watch when we
previewed the first game of this matchup with me and
Sam Farmer, because he did play a lot in that
game Wednesday against the Magic where they lost by twenty
because they decided to rest their players. So he's definitely
a safe bed there to pick for the Celtics because again,
we don't know what this starting five is going to
look like. Here, I'll give him credit. I mean, Boston
played their starters a good chunk of the minutes there
(21:54):
in that game on Friday. I mean Jason Tatum played
thirty two, Al Horford played twenty eight, Derek White played
thirty fours, Holiday played twenty six. I mean, those are
some pretty solid numbers. I know that they're trying to
just get some cardo in and keep the legs fresh
a little bit because Boston's not going to play for
almost a week because of the new playoff format, by
waiting for the play and tournament to finish up and
then trying to figure out who your opponent's going to be.
(22:16):
So definitely a very solid pick in that sense. It's
hard right now obviously for us to try to find
somebody else. Peyton Pritchard would have been my number one
go to, but I have to go in a little
bit of a different direction. I'm gonna take Luke Cornett.
I think he's just an interesting case study. He only
had eight points in that Celtics win on Friday against
the Hornets, and he goes three to five from the field,
didn't attempt to three, which I think is a little
(22:37):
interesting because he is known to fire up a couple
of threes for rebounds to assist. Kind of surprising. He
didn't have a block either, just kind of seems like
a guy that is almost forgotten a little bit in
a sense because he's not alhr Free, He's not Christos Perzingis,
but he's kind of that third big If the Celtics
have somebody that goes down in the front court or
gets in foul trouble, Luke Cornett's kind of that next
(22:59):
guy up. So this is an opportunity for him to
kind of get some extended run as well, because once
again the Celtics are looking for a little bit more
for the future. I mean, obviously they're getting ready for
a playoff run, and Luke Cornette that has the opportunity
to really jump up there and say, hey, if we're
in a pinch in the front court, I can definitely
take care of business. So Luke Cornett is going to
be my Celtics player to watch in terms of statistics
(23:21):
to watch. What is one? You're keeping an eye on Sam.
Speaker 3 (23:23):
And real quick on Luke Connette before I get the
stat to watch. I thought the same thing because I
remember when Cornette came into the league with the Knicks
and the Bulls, that was kind of his thing as
a seven foot floor space there. I mean, he had,
you know, a season with one hundred and ninety three attempts.
He shot thirty five thirty six percent from three his
first couple of years, and he's kind of gradually gone
in the other direction. He's only attempted two threes this year,
(23:45):
and that's that's kind of crazy to me, because you
think in a team like Boston, they would say, hey,
you know, you obviously have a track record of shooting threes,
get out there and kind of hoist him up if
you need to, if it's right into their playing style.
But usually you see the opposite. You see when these
seven footers them in they expand their game as they
go on, he has found you know, the role man
kind of you know, dunker spot post up play. It's
(24:09):
fascinating because I would have thought for sure if like
you just said that, he would have a little bit
bigger of a sample size. But yeah, just two attempted
threes this year and two hundred and sixty four two's
and he's shooting almost sixty eight percent. There. I'm sure
those are not too far away from the basket. But
my stat to watch in this one is going to
be points off turnovers. I mean, it's a category that
(24:29):
has really hurt the Hornets. These first two games on
the road trip, they gave up thirty points off turnovers
on nineteen giveaways in Toronto. In this one they had
thirty one total on seventeen turnovers. Especially in the second half,
like you said, twelve for twenty one. Keep it, you know,
afloat in the second half and give themselves a little
bit of a chance. You know, you can't be giving
the ball away or especially the live ball stuff with
(24:51):
Boston because they're going to take it the other way
and just spot up threes, transition threes and it becomes
a little bit of an avalanche. So get those turnovers
down and and you know, keep them in that twelve thirteen,
fourteen range. I think that's kind of the sweet spot
for Charlotte. And you know, when you do turn it over,
you got to get back, So points off turnovers is
definitely something to watch after these first two games on
(25:12):
the road trip.
Speaker 2 (25:12):
Probably would have been my number to watch here if
you didn't take it. But if I have to go
in a different direction, which I obviously do, I'm gonna
look here at the second chance points opportunities. Going into
the game on Friday, Boston was one of the best
teams in allowing second chance points opportunities in terms of
allowing the fewest. They were around I want to say,
like thirteen or fourteen second chance points per game, and
(25:33):
that put them around top five, top six in the Association.
The Hornet's get a majority of their points on second
chance point opportunities because the field goal percentage just hasn't
been very good this year for Charlotte, and yes you,
Friday was a great example of that. Twelve offensive rebounds,
eighteen second chance points. That's a little bit above their average.
But again it was a little bit of a collapse
(25:55):
there in that fourth quarter. I guess you can say
just because the Celtics really took it to the Hornets
there fourth quarter. But in a game that's close, you're
gonna need every single bucket that you possibly can. So
in a contest that the Hornets fell one thirty to
ninety four in on Friday, Boston ended up taking two
more field goal attempts for the entirety of the game.
Now again, did attempt eleven more three point opportunities. But
(26:17):
in a game where the Hornets turned the ball over
seventeen times and it resulted in thirty one points for
Boston off of those turnovers compared to ten Celtics turnovers
and only six points off of those turnovers for the Hornets.
That can make a difference having those extra possessions. So
the second chance point numbers are something that I'm going
to keep an eye on here this afternoon again one
o'clock airtime on the Hornets Radio Network for Game eighty
(26:39):
two from Boston, and then after the game, myself and
Sam Perli will break it all down for you in
our final host game episode of the HHC. Say thank
you for joining me here today and all season long.
It's hard to believe that we're at the end of
the road already. Yes it is.
Speaker 3 (26:52):
Season's gone fast, and for me in particular, it's been
kind of a strange season, being in and out a
little bit with paternity lea, but hoping to end the
season on a positive note and hopefully in a non
silver lining slash gold star fashion.
Speaker 2 (27:06):
Hornets will look for win number twenty on Sunday afternoon
against the Celtics, and once again myself in Sam Pearlier,
will be with you to recap it all on the
Hornets Podcast. Big thanks to Sam, big thanks to all
of you for tuning into today's episode and for Sam Pearli,
I'm Rob Longo saying so long, Thank you so much
for joining us on this episode of the Hornet Podcast.
We will talk to you right after Game eighty two
(27:26):
between the Hornets and the Celtics here on EHHC.
Speaker 1 (27:30):
Thank you for listening to The Hornets Podcast, brought to
you by Santa, the official i ear Nosen Throatcare provider
of the Charlotte Hornets. For more coverage, visit Hornets dot com.
Hosts And Creators
Sam Farber
Rob Longo
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