April 7, 2024 • 27 mins
As the Hornets get set for their penultimate home game of the season against the Thunder, Sam Farber and Rob Longo preview the matchup, and also discuss the recent play of Brandon Miller and Miles Bridges.
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to the Hornets Hoivecast, presented by Charlotte I ear
nosen Throat Associates, the official i ear nosen Throatcare provider
of the Charlotte Hornets. Here's your host, Sam Farber.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Welcome to another edition of the Hornets iive Cast, your
Hornets podcast with all the notes, quotes, and daily buzz
around your favorite NBA team. I'm Sam Farber and it
is a pleasure and a privileged to have you with us
here once again, all the Hornets iivee Cast brought to
you by Santa Charlotte i ear nosen Throat Associates, the
official i ear noosen Throatcare provider of the Charlotte Hornets.
It's a game to edition. Hornets will host the Oklahoma
(00:36):
City Thunder. It is the second to last, or, as
Rob Longa would say, the penultimate home game of this
twenty three twenty four season. If you're within shouting distance,
we'd love to have you here at the Hive, Come
join us. Tickets are available at Hornets dot com. Well,
of course, have our game preview. We're going to talk
about two extremely impressive seasons. Brandon Miller and Miles Bridges.
(00:57):
Who's for one stat in particular for each player has
been the more impressive of the two. And we're gonna
go back to that record performance Brandon Miller had the
other day in the big win over the Orlando Magic.
Talk about some of the historical significance from that contest,
helping me on all these topics. Just invoked his name,
and so he appears. The producer of the Hornets Radio Network,
(01:18):
asposed the producer of this fine podcast, Rob Longo, here
with me on his word again the penultimate home preview
game of the twenty three to twenty four season.
Speaker 3 (01:27):
You're learning. Good job.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
Well, it's good to have you here as always, Rob,
And that win the other day for Charlotte over Orlando,
and the performance from Brandon Miller so good I thought
it'd be worth bringing up yet again, So hopefully you
don't mind. But Brandon Miller, what a contest he had,
and particularly what a first half. He finished the game
with thirty two points, but in the first half he
was a perfect ten for ten from the floor, five
(01:51):
for five from three, and made his only free throw attempt,
giving him twenty six points. Now, depending on how you
slice this gives you the amount of history that he
was able to make.
Speaker 4 (02:01):
If you're looking at.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
Only players who shot a field goal of three and
a free throw, obviously you have to shoot a three
because you have to go minimum five for five from
beyond the ark with perfect percentages for everything but free throw.
Then you have five guys who meet this criteria. Brandon
Miller the other night, Jalen Brunson from earlier this season
(02:23):
in a win for New York over the Phoenix Suns.
You've got Tyrese Maxi from last season, the twenty two
to twenty three campaign performance he had for Philadelphia. You've
got Austin Rivers from his time with the New York
Knicks in twenty twenty one, and of course Stephan Curry.
If you're looking at only players who are perfect from
the floor, three and the foul line, met all those
(02:44):
requirements at least twenty five points, at least five made threes,
then it's only Steph and only branded.
Speaker 4 (02:50):
It's elite company.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
No matter how you slice it, all these are great players,
great guards. Brandon Miller etches his name in the history
books with that night he had against Orlando.
Speaker 3 (02:59):
Just crazy. I still can't get over it. I mean,
just that first half alone, the twenty six points, perfect
from the field, ten for ten, five for five beyond
the York I mean, everything was going there, and I
know we talked about it a little bit there on
the podcast after the game yesterday, but a lot of
that had to do just because of what the defense
was giving him there in that first half, and then
the second half, obviously they clamped down a good bit,
(03:20):
considering that, you know, twenty six of his thirty two
came in that first half alone, but he was still facilitating.
He was still out there making plays and being effective,
despite maybe not shooting the ball as much as he
maybe would have hoped they're in that second half, but man,
he just shows night in and night out how special
of a player not only he already is, but the
(03:41):
potential there is moving forward here once he gets an
offseason under his belt in an NBA training program and
getting his body right and just continuing to mature, because
I think a lot of times we forget that he's
just twenty one years old, so he's so young and
he's just still so so so talented that it's almost
hard to believe. But obviously, very very very happy that
(04:02):
he's with us here in the Queens City.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
The youth part good to bring out because he is
only twenty one years old. That larger list I brought
up larger. It's five people long, Brandon Miller, Jalen Brnson,
Tyree s Maaxys, Steph Curry, and Austin Rivers to go
at least twenty five points one hundred percent from the floor.
Five made threes in a single half. He is the
youngest by at least six months, ever to do it.
(04:24):
He's also and this is an interesting part of it.
I mean, obviously, all these guys are great shooters, some
to a greater degree than others. Steph Curry the best
of all time. Jalen Brunson, one of the top players
in the game today, Tyree s maaxiing up and coming
town in Austin Rivers. Maybe a little more hot and
cold than the rest of that grouping there, but still
a very, very accomplished and high quality player. But none
(04:46):
of them are the size of Brandon Miller. And that's
where maybe he'll have an edge. And this is something
we bring up quite a bit. You know, I have
all the respect in the world for Steph Curry. To me,
he's the greatest shooter.
Speaker 4 (04:56):
Of all time.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
He changed the game, and that might be in terms
of who ends up with the record long term, to
his detriment, because Steph Curry didn't have Steph Curry shots
to attempt his rookie year, he had to be in
more at the time conventional three point operation. Brandon Miller
has the benefit of having come up post the Splash Brothers,
and so some shots that would not have been a
(05:20):
good look or would probably have gotten Steph Curry bench
in his era, Brandon Miller is encouraged to take nowadays.
It's not just us here on the media side that
are glowing about the performance from Brandon Miller. His teammates
were very impressed as well. We caught up with Vasilier Michitch,
who had another outstanding performance the other day fourteen points
and nine assists in that win for Charlotte over Orlando,
(05:40):
and asked him about the performance of his young teammate,
Brandon Miller, and particularly who it reminded him of.
Speaker 5 (05:47):
I mean, we had to look at Ancici in Europe,
which is absolutely phenomenal talent, but like such a sharp
race in terms of focus, and he was very decisive
in offense and very very motivated. I think he is.
He took a little bit perstal this game, and I'm
very happy for him.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
There you go, Vasimchicic, who has seen a little bit
of everything in Europe and one of the best players
on that continent for about a decade, and he saw
Luka Doncic coming up through the EuroLeague ranks. Now he
gets to play with Brandon Miller. By the way, Brandon
Miller versus Luka Doncic coming up on Tuesday Spectrum Center.
Tickets are available at Hornets dot com. Before then, we
(06:23):
got another game to preview, and we got another Brandon
Miller related topic to talk about. Brandon continues his assault
on the all time leader board for rookie season made threes.
Brandon Miller climbed a couple of runs, including passing Luka
Doncic the other day in that winover Orlando. We'll give
you the lay of the land where he sits right
(06:44):
now in relation to the top five in that category,
and do a little game here talking about how it
might compare with another player who's having an outstanding season,
Miles Bridges for the Charlotte Hornets.
Speaker 4 (06:55):
That's next here on the Hornets. I'd cast.
Speaker 1 (07:01):
Was this one of those ice bridges?
Speaker 4 (07:03):
Was there was going in every night like that? Think?
Speaker 2 (07:08):
I love that answer, Brandon Miller. Every night it's like that,
it's always going in. It feels like that. He's had
an historic rookie season and it still continues here now
for the Charlotte Hornet's only five games left in it,
and he will continue his assault.
Speaker 4 (07:22):
On the record books.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
We'll talk about that here in this segment of the
Hornets podcast, Sam Farvar, Rob Longo here with you on
the HHC so, Rob, there are two players that have
really carried the flag for the Hornets all season long,
and it's not going to come as a shock to
anyone who they are. Brandon Miller having a magnificent rookie season,
three consecutive Eastern Conference Rookie of the Month Award wins.
And then Miles Bridges, who is in fact the team's
(07:46):
leading scorer as well as Brandon Miller, has played, particularly
in the second half of the season as his role
has grown and grown. Randon somewhere around. You know, he's
about seventeen points per game, but Miles Bridges is at
twenty one points per game and also leads the league
in minutes per game. So two very impressive seasons, and
the question is which one to you is more impressive.
(08:07):
So let's give you the stats here. First, we'll go
on Miles Bridges side. He's the team's leading scorer. He's
having a career year in points and rebounds. He's barely
missed a game since coming out of the suspension at
the start of the season, and he leads the league
in minutes per game thirty seven point nine per night,
so every night he's playing more minutes than anyone else
(08:27):
in the NBA and has been doing so consistently since
he broke back into the team in November. On the
other side, you have a more historical related stat, but
it's really only fixed to rookies. The number of threes
Brandon Miller is making this year. I got a lot
of confidence it's going to be a career low when
we look back at it a decade from now, because
(08:48):
he's just that kind of shooter. He's only going to
get better from here on out. But at this point
in time, after making five threes the other night in
the win over Orlando, he sits at one hundred and
seventy three. That's the fifth most in the history of
the game. He passed Luka, Doncic, and Anthony Edwards rookie seasons.
The other night in the win over Orlando, if he
were to make two, he would tie three. He would
(09:08):
pass Sadik Bays rookie season, which by the way, was
also LaMelo Balls rookie season. Shows how good LaMelo was.
He won Rookie of the Year despite two of what
was up until about two days ago, the five best
rookie seasons in terms of made threes. The name sees
behind Keegan Murray number one at two hundred and six
made threes two seasons ago. Sorry last season, pardon me,
(09:30):
Donovan Mitchell who made one hundred and eighty seven in
the seventeen eighteen season, and Dame Lillard, who had one
hundred and eighty five. Those last two definitely in jeopardy
with the way Brandon Miller has been shooting the rock.
Speaker 4 (09:42):
Maybe Keegan Murray.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
He'd have to play every single game and get really,
really hot, even by Brandon Miller's standards. But I wouldn't
rule anything as impossible. So to you, Rob Longo, what's
more impressive Miles Bridges leading the league in minutes or
Brandon Miller's rookie season from three.
Speaker 3 (09:56):
Might be a little bit of a hot take, but
I'm going to take the minutes pla by Miles Bridges
simply for the fact that, well, let's be honest, you
don't see that a whole lot anymore. You don't see
guys playing in the forties on a night by night basis.
I mean, he's gonna be on average if this evens
out the rest of the way, he's going to be
the first guy to be in the forties Hornets wise,
(10:16):
I think since what like Larry Johnson back in the day,
I'm pretty sure.
Speaker 4 (10:19):
I mean forty that average is not gonna happen.
Speaker 3 (10:22):
It's not there, but it's pretty close, yes, So I mean,
just everything that he's done, especially coming back, I mean,
he just got to the sixty five game threshold. Heck,
even that's difficult to get to these days, based off
of everything that we've seen now that those new rules
are in place for the NBA when it comes to
all NBA Awards and MVP Awards and all those sorts
of things, the postseason awards in general, even NAD is
(10:45):
getting a little bit difficult to get to. So I
think parlaying it with the fact that he's reached at
least sixty five games. In fact, especially as of late,
I mean he is well into the forties on a
night by night basis out there logging all of those minutes.
That is very, very impressive. The only other person that
I can think of off the top of my head that
puts up numbers like that is Michel Bridges, and mckel
(11:05):
Bridges hasn't missed a game in a very very long time.
I mean, heck, he ended up playing eighty three games
last season because he got traded and got an extra
game with Brooklyn after coming over from Phoenix. So it's
very rarefied air. I feel like, in this day and age,
to not only go above that average of forty minute thresholds,
but to play sixty five plus games as well.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
You know what, I didn't think it was such a
hot take because I'm kind of in the same boat.
You know, the game has changed quite a bit. And
I said before I say it again, this will probably
end up being one of the, assuming he's healthy, one
of the lower three point total seasons for Brandon Miller,
just because he's just now coming into his own as
a score and he's only going to get better from here,
(11:44):
and the three point shots gonna come easier, He's going
to get higher volume, He's going to be more of
a focal point.
Speaker 4 (11:50):
I think he's gonna have much bigger years.
Speaker 2 (11:52):
He'll probably have several two hundred made three years over
the course of his career. So this is just a
snapshot in time and seeing him pass name like Steph
Curry and Luka Doncic and Anthony Edwards potentially in the
next few days here Dame Lillard, Donovan Mitchell as well,
It's extremely impressive clearly, but Miles Bridge's accomplishment is very
(12:12):
impressive as well. He is right at the edge of
thirty eight minutes per game right now, and if he continues.
Speaker 4 (12:17):
At this pace, he'll probably get there.
Speaker 2 (12:19):
The last time a player averaged thirty eight minutes per
game or more, you got to go back to the
twenty fifteen sixteen season, James Harden played every game and
averaged thirty eight point one minutes per game. Now, there
were eras before where that was kind of the norm.
You know, you go back to the you know, the
the aughts, the you know, one through twenty ten time period,
(12:42):
and players like Allen Iverson averaged forty two minutes a game,
So you know, it's not as if this has never
happened before. It's just less common in this era. So
I think both of them have something as a knock
against them because they're a little bit era dependent, and
Brandon Miller is the benefactor of playing in a three
point dominant effort. Miles Bridges shouldn't necessarily be penalized because
(13:04):
players never left the floor in previous generations. Both are very,
very impressive, though, well, you took one, so I'll take
the other. I'll take Brandon Miller.
Speaker 4 (13:12):
That's fair.
Speaker 3 (13:13):
But that's the other thing. That the reason why I'm
taking Miles Bridges as well. And this is not a
knock on Brandon, but we don't know what the future
holds of the.
Speaker 4 (13:21):
Game of basketball.
Speaker 3 (13:22):
I mean, we're at the point now where we're at
this point where every three point shot in theory, based
off of everybody that's in the game now, is a
good shot. So people are going to continue to chuck
up thirties. I don't think we're going to see that
regress anytime soon. So again, it's not a knock on
Brandon Miller. And what he's been able to accomplish this season.
But somebody down the line is going to come here
and they're just going to be three point after three
(13:43):
point after three point, and that record probably isn't going
to stand wherever Brandon Miller ends up, whether it's top five,
top three, whatever he ends up on, that might not
hold up as long as something longevity wise, like what
Miles Bridges is doing with the minutes played and the
game's played as well.
Speaker 2 (13:59):
Brandon Miller, he'll continue this run up the record books.
If he makes two threes tonight, he'll tie Sadik Bay
for the fourth most in a rookie season. Three would
give it to him all on his own. In case
you are curious, what pace would he need in the
final five games to take over the number one spot overall,
he would need to make seven threes a night from
(14:19):
here on out. Brandon Miller's career high is seven threes,
so that would be a very tall task. But the
only thing to you know, get Brandon Miller to a
obstacle is to tell him he can't do it. Probably,
so there you go, Brandon, challenge is laid out there.
We'll see if he can catch Keegan Murray or just
you know, catch cidek Bay Here tonight is the Hornet's host,
the Oklahoma City Thunder. Speaking of which game preview coming
(14:40):
up next Here on the Hornets Iimecast, Sam Farbar, Rob
Longo here with you on the Hornet Time Cast, brought
to you by sent to Charlotte I Hear a nosen
Throat Associates, the official I Hear nosen Throawcare provider of
the Charlotte Hornets. Hornets taking on the Oklahoma City Thunder tonight, Rob,
I don't think I need to remind you, but this
game it did not go well for Charlotte the first
(15:02):
time around in OKAC. It was a different time for
Charlotte at that point. This was prior to the trade deadline,
not too much prior, but it was prior, so the
Hornets were just be riddled with injuries. Oklahoma City at
the time had a very deep bench. It had stars
like Vasamichi Chen, Davis, Bertans, and Alexi Pokashewski available to them.
(15:25):
Not to mention Trey Man, Charlotte was extremely shorthanded. Their
starting lineup that day in OKC Brandon Miller, Cody Martin,
Miles Bridges, Nick Richards and Bryce McGowan's Hornets did their best,
but came up way short. Ended up down twenty at
the end of the first quarter. Down thirty one at halftime,
made it a little bit more respectable, ended up dropping
the game by twenty, but still Oklahoma City basically wiped
(15:48):
them out on their way to.
Speaker 4 (15:50):
At the time their thirty fourth win of the season.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
Looking at the standings now, just to kind of give
you the lay of the land here for the Charlotte Hornets, they,
in some people's estimations, are playing for ping pong balls
right now. They're in a tie for the third worst
record in the NBA. San Antonio also won the other
day simultaneous to Charlotte beating Orlando, so both teams with
a record of nineteen and fifty eight. We'll see how
things pan out there. Oakley c is playing for a
(16:13):
lot more than ping pong balls. The Thunder have a
chance to have the one seed in the Western Conference.
There are only about two games out behind Minnesota. They're
also trailing the Denver Nuggets. Do have a pretty wide
berth between them and the four seed, the LA Clippers.
But that said, Oklahoma City, you know you would love
to have home court advantage as long as you can.
(16:33):
So Thunder are fighting for that, so a lot to
play for it tonight Here at the Hive game preview time,
Rob we got players to watch for both teams as
well as the stat to watch. Where do you want
to begin.
Speaker 3 (16:42):
Let's go ahead and begin with a Thunder player to watch.
And this is tough because shake Gil Alexander did not
play in the game Friday against Indiana that was a
one twenty six to one to twelve loss. Don't know
the status of him going into this game. Lou Dort
ended up having a game high twenty two points for
the Thunder and at loss. But as much much as
I want to take some of the other guys on
this roster, I feel like I gotta take chet Holmgram.
(17:04):
I mean, it's just basically low hanging fruit at this point.
He didn't have his best game the other night against
the Pacers. He had fifteen points, eight rebounds, finished with
three blocks as well for twelve shootings from the field
one for six beyond the York I'm sure a lot
of that had to be going up toe to toe
with a guy like Miles Turner, who is a very
good center, very elite defensive center as well. But again
there's just not a whole lot of size on its
(17:26):
Hornets team right now. Don't know the status of Nick
Richards going into this one either. He hasn't played the
last couple of games. Hornets have had to go small
with Grant Williams, So that's a lot of size you're
giving up to a guy like Chet Holmgrom. But it
could be possibly maybe work out in favor of the Hornets,
because again Chet likes to shoot the three one for
six beyond the York the other day. Maybe you're able
to have him fall in love beyond the Yark a
little bit, stretch him out there, kind of like when
(17:48):
the Hornets play the Bucks and Giannis Notata Kakupo is
the point of emphasis. You want to push him as
far away from the basket as possible, kind of similar
with chet HOLMGRM. If it works out that way, great.
I don't know if it will, but all in all,
it seems like he's kind of the clear cut choice
for a player to watch, especially when we don't know
the status of SGA going into this one.
Speaker 2 (18:07):
Yeah, if you didn't take him, I was going to
because this is what we want to say this is
the two guys that are However, your perspective is if
they're going for second place behind Victor wemin Yama for
Rookie of the Year or as I would argue, you know,
trying to further their own argument to win the award,
and both are very deserving. Wemby clearly an exceptional year
by any standard. Some people are talking about him being
(18:29):
the defensive player of the year, let alone just the
Rookie of the Year, so clearly he's going to be
right up there. But Brandon Miller has had an outstanding
rookie season. His stats, you know, warrant him being in
that conversation, and Ched Holmgreen, well, maybe a notch below
Wemby on certain stats and below Brandon Miller on others.
Is very strong across the board, and his team is winning.
(18:53):
And it's not as if Oklahoma City has been doing
this for a decade and he's just kind of factoring in.
He might have been the missing pece to the championship puzzle,
or by championship, I mean, you know, at least division
championship and contending for conference championship, whichever. He is a
huge part to this thunder turnaround, and that's got to
factor in at least a little bit towards winning some
(19:14):
of these awards.
Speaker 4 (19:14):
So I'm with you.
Speaker 2 (19:15):
I think chedd Holgren is most definitely the player to watch,
but you took him, so I got to go in
a different direction. I'll take loud Dort. He's a great story.
Loud Dort played at Arizona State, came into the draft,
wasn't selected, ended up going undrafted, and went to an
OKC team that was about to go through a rebuild,
and he just carved out a bigger and bigger role,
(19:36):
made himself a more and more efficient player. He can
be really dynamic on the defensive end as well. And
as Oklahoma City has added star power and added all
this talent, they haven't been.
Speaker 4 (19:49):
Able to force loud Dort off the floor.
Speaker 2 (19:51):
He's still a starter, he's still a high level contributor,
and his role has changed, but his game is just
getting better. You know, two years ago, he was the
big times scorer on that team. Whenever SGA was unavailable,
lou Dort average seventeen points per game. Now there's a
lot of star power out there, so his points, his shots,
all that stuff has come way down, but his efficiency
has gone way up. He's now a thirty nine percent
(20:14):
three point shooter and he's got all that defensive acumen.
So I really enjoyed covering him when he played in college.
I think he's just a great story and I love
his persistence here in the game and what he's done
to earn a role with a really, really good team.
So hats off to lou Dort. Really enjoy watching him
about eighty times a year, so I'll enjoy watching him
(20:36):
and hopefully the Horns can overcome it. But he's a
very deserving player to watch here for OKAC. Once again,
keeping in mind the caveat that we're not picking Shay
Gildess Alexander because as the recording of this podcast, we
don't know what he's going to be doing in terms
of game time for the Thunder. Along those lines, we
also don't know on Jalen Williams either, So there's another
star for the Thunder who's a little bit of a
question mark going into.
Speaker 4 (20:57):
This shal Williams.
Speaker 2 (20:58):
Yeah, exactly, next up, Hornet, to watch your stat to
watch I'm passing on that.
Speaker 3 (21:04):
Do I So your guess is as good as mine.
In terms of Hornet's player to watch, let's go with
that Hornets player to watch for this one. I just
want to see Brandon Miller again. I think that's kind
of the matchup that we've already prefaced here with me
taking chat, I might as well take the other rookie
and Brandon Miller. Can you follow up another thirty two
point performance? Odds are I'm gonna go ahead and say yes,
based off of what he did against Portland, which is
(21:25):
hilarious now looking back at it, because, like Kyle Bailey
tried to ruffle your feathers on the pregame show Friday,
he said that the ESPN highlight painted it as Scoot
Henderson wins the battle against Brandon Miller, just because they
simply won the game. And then you see Brandon Miller
go out and have a perfect shooting stroke there in
that first half in Friday's game against the Orlando Magic,
who oh, by the way, like we talked about their
(21:45):
playoff team. So all things considered, Brandon Miller's gonna be
my player to watch again. It's hard to It's gonna
be really hard to replicate what he did on the
game Friday, just from a consistency standpoint, but would be
a lot cooler if he did it tonight as well.
But let's just go ahead and see Brandon versus Chet
round two in this one.
Speaker 2 (22:02):
Another one where if you didn't take that stat I
was going to, but I will or that player I
should say I was going to, I will have to
go in a different direction.
Speaker 4 (22:09):
I'm going to go with Miles Bridges again.
Speaker 2 (22:11):
The level of play he has put forth and how
he just continues to punch the clock and go out
there and play more minutes than anyone else does in
the NBA, night in, night out, It is just remarkable.
I don't know how long any person can keep this up. Obviously,
at twenty six, you know he's on the younger side still,
and so has that durability. I don't know there would
(22:33):
be advised by all the stat people out there to
continue to play the most minutes in the NBA, But
if anyone's got the frame to handle it, it's Miles Bridges.
Think about this. His minutes per game have increased every
month since December. He was at thirty six minutes a
game in December, thirty eight minutes in January, and February
thirty nine minutes in March.
Speaker 4 (22:53):
Now he's at forty two.
Speaker 2 (22:54):
Minutes per game, forty one minutes per game here in
the month of April. I know it's only a two
games sample size, but this is some unreal stuff, and
the productivity is there. He's not just out there standing around.
He's posting twenty plus points a game, night after night
after night after night. So Miles Bridges, obviously, if the
Hornets are gonna grab this upset, he is going to
(23:15):
be at the heart of it. We'll see if he
can help lead the Hornets to a win tonight. Last,
but not least, we need a stat to watch.
Speaker 3 (23:22):
In terms of stat to watch, I'm going to look
at second chance points simply for the fact that the
last time that these two teams played, Oklahoma City shot
lights out they were around fifty eight to fifty nine
percent shooting from the field. Hornets are around forty four
to forty five percent. But the reason that they were
able to be a little bit more competitive in this
one is because they were able to have a lot
more offensive rebounds than that one. A had seven, but
(23:44):
they weren't able to capitalize a whole lot. Finished with
eleven second chance points. Off of those seven offensive boards.
Oklahoma City on the other side, just three offensive rebounds
and two second chance points. That I know a lot
of that had to do, because well, they weren't missing
a whole lot. But when you have a guy like
cheed Holmgrim who can go out there and snare a
couple of offensive rebounds, that's going to be big, especially
as we talked about here earlier, where the Hornets are
(24:06):
more than likely going to have to go small one
way or the other, whether that's if Nick Richards is
back and you have to go small coming off the bench,
or if you just go small in general to start
the game with Grant Williams at that small ball five,
you're going to give up a lot of size. And
when you give up a lot of size, you give
up maybe a couple more rebounds as well. So for me,
the second chance points opportunities are going to be the
stat I watched night, not only more so for the
(24:26):
fact that the Hornets might not be at an advantage
size wise, but the fact that if the Hornets want
to be competitive in this one, if Okac shoots the
ball lights out again, you're going to have to have
those second and third chance opportunities on the offensive glass.
So that's why that is my stat to watch here
later today.
Speaker 2 (24:42):
All good numbers, I'm going to go with something. You know,
sometimes I'm just going I pick my stats for different reasons.
That's a short way of putting in. One of the
reasons I pick it is because it seems to be
an avenue towards winning, and that's what we'd love to
see from the Hornets.
Speaker 4 (24:54):
Thunder of loss three in a row.
Speaker 2 (24:56):
All three of those games they have had fewer made
threes than the opposition, And so that is going to
be my stat to watch here tonight. It's not every time,
but you know, Okaysee's a pretty good defensive team. There's
only been one time all year that his squad has
made twenty or more threes.
Speaker 4 (25:12):
That's an enormous number.
Speaker 2 (25:13):
Happens a lot more often than the team will make
fifteen or more threes, and Okay See, to be frank
it still has a winning record in those scenarios. But
as of late, when you get into a situation where
they make fewer threes than their opponent, they have lost
three straight games. They're not necessarily an elite three point
shooting team, but they're a very good one, and so
(25:34):
I think if you're Charlotte, and furthermore, they're a tremendous
overall offensive team, but the three point line can be
the great equalizer. And so even though Oklahoma City is
a good by percentage three point shooting team, not necessarily
the heart and soul.
Speaker 4 (25:49):
Of their offense.
Speaker 2 (25:49):
They're about middle of the pack in terms of number
or percentage of their offense that comes from three, but
they hit it very efficiently. If you're going to beat them,
you've got to win the three point arc, I think
at least, and so that'll be the line I look
at here for Charlotte outside of the scoring one.
Speaker 4 (26:03):
We'll see how it goes down. It's one of two
home games left on the horizon here for the Hornet.
Speaker 2 (26:08):
So if you are within shouting distance, come on out
to Spectrum Center and see the penultimate, penultimate game home
game that is of the twenty three to twenty four season.
Only one left after this. It'll be Tuesday against Luka
Doncic and the Dallas Mavericks. Also, by the way, got
to throw this in there. We're looking forward to welcoming
back PJ. Washington to the Hive. On Tuesday, and welcome
(26:28):
coming back Gordon Hayward tonight here to Spectrum Center.
Speaker 4 (26:30):
Will be good to see him.
Speaker 2 (26:31):
Sure, it'll be good for the former Thunder players to
see some of their old teammates.
Speaker 4 (26:34):
Everyone speaks glowingly about.
Speaker 2 (26:36):
Their experience there, but they're going to try and beat
them tonight, and hopefully you can come out and join us.
Six pm tip off tonight at Spectrum Center. That's going
to do it for this edition of the hornetsime Cast.
Till next time. For Rob Longo, I'm Sam Farber saying
it's been a pleasure of privilege having you along. We
will talk to you tomorrow right here on the Hornets
i've Cast.
Speaker 1 (26:54):
Thank you for listening to The Hornets Podcast, brought to
you by Santa, the official ie, ear nose and throw
care provider of the Charlotte Hornets. For more coverage, visit
Hornets dot com.
Welcome to the Hornets Hoivecast, presented by Charlotte I ear
nosen Throat Associates, the official i ear nosen Throatcare provider
of the Charlotte Hornets. Here's your host, Sam Farber.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Welcome to another edition of the Hornets iive Cast, your
Hornets podcast with all the notes, quotes, and daily buzz
around your favorite NBA team. I'm Sam Farber and it
is a pleasure and a privileged to have you with us
here once again, all the Hornets iivee Cast brought to
you by Santa Charlotte i ear nosen Throat Associates, the
official i ear noosen Throatcare provider of the Charlotte Hornets.
It's a game to edition. Hornets will host the Oklahoma
(00:36):
City Thunder. It is the second to last, or, as
Rob Longa would say, the penultimate home game of this
twenty three twenty four season. If you're within shouting distance,
we'd love to have you here at the Hive, Come
join us. Tickets are available at Hornets dot com. Well,
of course, have our game preview. We're going to talk
about two extremely impressive seasons. Brandon Miller and Miles Bridges.
(00:57):
Who's for one stat in particular for each player has
been the more impressive of the two. And we're gonna
go back to that record performance Brandon Miller had the
other day in the big win over the Orlando Magic.
Talk about some of the historical significance from that contest,
helping me on all these topics. Just invoked his name,
and so he appears. The producer of the Hornets Radio Network,
(01:18):
asposed the producer of this fine podcast, Rob Longo, here
with me on his word again the penultimate home preview
game of the twenty three to twenty four season.
Speaker 3 (01:27):
You're learning. Good job.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
Well, it's good to have you here as always, Rob,
And that win the other day for Charlotte over Orlando,
and the performance from Brandon Miller so good I thought
it'd be worth bringing up yet again, So hopefully you
don't mind. But Brandon Miller, what a contest he had,
and particularly what a first half. He finished the game
with thirty two points, but in the first half he
was a perfect ten for ten from the floor, five
(01:51):
for five from three, and made his only free throw attempt,
giving him twenty six points. Now, depending on how you
slice this gives you the amount of history that he
was able to make.
Speaker 4 (02:01):
If you're looking at.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
Only players who shot a field goal of three and
a free throw, obviously you have to shoot a three
because you have to go minimum five for five from
beyond the ark with perfect percentages for everything but free throw.
Then you have five guys who meet this criteria. Brandon
Miller the other night, Jalen Brunson from earlier this season
(02:23):
in a win for New York over the Phoenix Suns.
You've got Tyrese Maxi from last season, the twenty two
to twenty three campaign performance he had for Philadelphia. You've
got Austin Rivers from his time with the New York
Knicks in twenty twenty one, and of course Stephan Curry.
If you're looking at only players who are perfect from
the floor, three and the foul line, met all those
(02:44):
requirements at least twenty five points, at least five made threes,
then it's only Steph and only branded.
Speaker 4 (02:50):
It's elite company.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
No matter how you slice it, all these are great players,
great guards. Brandon Miller etches his name in the history
books with that night he had against Orlando.
Speaker 3 (02:59):
Just crazy. I still can't get over it. I mean,
just that first half alone, the twenty six points, perfect
from the field, ten for ten, five for five beyond
the York I mean, everything was going there, and I
know we talked about it a little bit there on
the podcast after the game yesterday, but a lot of
that had to do just because of what the defense
was giving him there in that first half, and then
the second half, obviously they clamped down a good bit,
(03:20):
considering that, you know, twenty six of his thirty two
came in that first half alone, but he was still facilitating.
He was still out there making plays and being effective,
despite maybe not shooting the ball as much as he
maybe would have hoped they're in that second half, but man,
he just shows night in and night out how special
of a player not only he already is, but the
(03:41):
potential there is moving forward here once he gets an
offseason under his belt in an NBA training program and
getting his body right and just continuing to mature, because
I think a lot of times we forget that he's
just twenty one years old, so he's so young and
he's just still so so so talented that it's almost
hard to believe. But obviously, very very very happy that
(04:02):
he's with us here in the Queens City.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
The youth part good to bring out because he is
only twenty one years old. That larger list I brought
up larger. It's five people long, Brandon Miller, Jalen Brnson,
Tyree s Maaxys, Steph Curry, and Austin Rivers to go
at least twenty five points one hundred percent from the floor.
Five made threes in a single half. He is the
youngest by at least six months, ever to do it.
(04:24):
He's also and this is an interesting part of it.
I mean, obviously, all these guys are great shooters, some
to a greater degree than others. Steph Curry the best
of all time. Jalen Brunson, one of the top players
in the game today, Tyree s maaxiing up and coming
town in Austin Rivers. Maybe a little more hot and
cold than the rest of that grouping there, but still
a very, very accomplished and high quality player. But none
(04:46):
of them are the size of Brandon Miller. And that's
where maybe he'll have an edge. And this is something
we bring up quite a bit. You know, I have
all the respect in the world for Steph Curry. To me,
he's the greatest shooter.
Speaker 4 (04:56):
Of all time.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
He changed the game, and that might be in terms
of who ends up with the record long term, to
his detriment, because Steph Curry didn't have Steph Curry shots
to attempt his rookie year, he had to be in
more at the time conventional three point operation. Brandon Miller
has the benefit of having come up post the Splash Brothers,
and so some shots that would not have been a
(05:20):
good look or would probably have gotten Steph Curry bench
in his era, Brandon Miller is encouraged to take nowadays.
It's not just us here on the media side that
are glowing about the performance from Brandon Miller. His teammates
were very impressed as well. We caught up with Vasilier Michitch,
who had another outstanding performance the other day fourteen points
and nine assists in that win for Charlotte over Orlando,
(05:40):
and asked him about the performance of his young teammate,
Brandon Miller, and particularly who it reminded him of.
Speaker 5 (05:47):
I mean, we had to look at Ancici in Europe,
which is absolutely phenomenal talent, but like such a sharp
race in terms of focus, and he was very decisive
in offense and very very motivated. I think he is.
He took a little bit perstal this game, and I'm
very happy for him.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
There you go, Vasimchicic, who has seen a little bit
of everything in Europe and one of the best players
on that continent for about a decade, and he saw
Luka Doncic coming up through the EuroLeague ranks. Now he
gets to play with Brandon Miller. By the way, Brandon
Miller versus Luka Doncic coming up on Tuesday Spectrum Center.
Tickets are available at Hornets dot com. Before then, we
(06:23):
got another game to preview, and we got another Brandon
Miller related topic to talk about. Brandon continues his assault
on the all time leader board for rookie season made threes.
Brandon Miller climbed a couple of runs, including passing Luka
Doncic the other day in that winover Orlando. We'll give
you the lay of the land where he sits right
(06:44):
now in relation to the top five in that category,
and do a little game here talking about how it
might compare with another player who's having an outstanding season,
Miles Bridges for the Charlotte Hornets.
Speaker 4 (06:55):
That's next here on the Hornets. I'd cast.
Speaker 1 (07:01):
Was this one of those ice bridges?
Speaker 4 (07:03):
Was there was going in every night like that? Think?
Speaker 2 (07:08):
I love that answer, Brandon Miller. Every night it's like that,
it's always going in. It feels like that. He's had
an historic rookie season and it still continues here now
for the Charlotte Hornet's only five games left in it,
and he will continue his assault.
Speaker 4 (07:22):
On the record books.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
We'll talk about that here in this segment of the
Hornets podcast, Sam Farvar, Rob Longo here with you on
the HHC so, Rob, there are two players that have
really carried the flag for the Hornets all season long,
and it's not going to come as a shock to
anyone who they are. Brandon Miller having a magnificent rookie season,
three consecutive Eastern Conference Rookie of the Month Award wins.
And then Miles Bridges, who is in fact the team's
(07:46):
leading scorer as well as Brandon Miller, has played, particularly
in the second half of the season as his role
has grown and grown. Randon somewhere around. You know, he's
about seventeen points per game, but Miles Bridges is at
twenty one points per game and also leads the league
in minutes per game. So two very impressive seasons, and
the question is which one to you is more impressive.
(08:07):
So let's give you the stats here. First, we'll go
on Miles Bridges side. He's the team's leading scorer. He's
having a career year in points and rebounds. He's barely
missed a game since coming out of the suspension at
the start of the season, and he leads the league
in minutes per game thirty seven point nine per night,
so every night he's playing more minutes than anyone else
(08:27):
in the NBA and has been doing so consistently since
he broke back into the team in November. On the
other side, you have a more historical related stat, but
it's really only fixed to rookies. The number of threes
Brandon Miller is making this year. I got a lot
of confidence it's going to be a career low when
we look back at it a decade from now, because
(08:48):
he's just that kind of shooter. He's only going to
get better from here on out. But at this point
in time, after making five threes the other night in
the win over Orlando, he sits at one hundred and
seventy three. That's the fifth most in the history of
the game. He passed Luka, Doncic, and Anthony Edwards rookie seasons.
The other night in the win over Orlando, if he
were to make two, he would tie three. He would
(09:08):
pass Sadik Bays rookie season, which by the way, was
also LaMelo Balls rookie season. Shows how good LaMelo was.
He won Rookie of the Year despite two of what
was up until about two days ago, the five best
rookie seasons in terms of made threes. The name sees
behind Keegan Murray number one at two hundred and six
made threes two seasons ago. Sorry last season, pardon me,
(09:30):
Donovan Mitchell who made one hundred and eighty seven in
the seventeen eighteen season, and Dame Lillard, who had one
hundred and eighty five. Those last two definitely in jeopardy
with the way Brandon Miller has been shooting the rock.
Speaker 4 (09:42):
Maybe Keegan Murray.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
He'd have to play every single game and get really,
really hot, even by Brandon Miller's standards. But I wouldn't
rule anything as impossible. So to you, Rob Longo, what's
more impressive Miles Bridges leading the league in minutes or
Brandon Miller's rookie season from three.
Speaker 3 (09:56):
Might be a little bit of a hot take, but
I'm going to take the minutes pla by Miles Bridges
simply for the fact that, well, let's be honest, you
don't see that a whole lot anymore. You don't see
guys playing in the forties on a night by night basis.
I mean, he's gonna be on average if this evens
out the rest of the way, he's going to be
the first guy to be in the forties Hornets wise,
(10:16):
I think since what like Larry Johnson back in the day,
I'm pretty sure.
Speaker 4 (10:19):
I mean forty that average is not gonna happen.
Speaker 3 (10:22):
It's not there, but it's pretty close, yes, So I mean,
just everything that he's done, especially coming back, I mean,
he just got to the sixty five game threshold. Heck,
even that's difficult to get to these days, based off
of everything that we've seen now that those new rules
are in place for the NBA when it comes to
all NBA Awards and MVP Awards and all those sorts
of things, the postseason awards in general, even NAD is
(10:45):
getting a little bit difficult to get to. So I
think parlaying it with the fact that he's reached at
least sixty five games. In fact, especially as of late,
I mean he is well into the forties on a
night by night basis out there logging all of those minutes.
That is very, very impressive. The only other person that
I can think of off the top of my head that
puts up numbers like that is Michel Bridges, and mckel
(11:05):
Bridges hasn't missed a game in a very very long time.
I mean, heck, he ended up playing eighty three games
last season because he got traded and got an extra
game with Brooklyn after coming over from Phoenix. So it's
very rarefied air. I feel like, in this day and age,
to not only go above that average of forty minute thresholds,
but to play sixty five plus games as well.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
You know what, I didn't think it was such a
hot take because I'm kind of in the same boat.
You know, the game has changed quite a bit. And
I said before I say it again, this will probably
end up being one of the, assuming he's healthy, one
of the lower three point total seasons for Brandon Miller,
just because he's just now coming into his own as
a score and he's only going to get better from here,
(11:44):
and the three point shots gonna come easier, He's going
to get higher volume, He's going to be more of
a focal point.
Speaker 4 (11:50):
I think he's gonna have much bigger years.
Speaker 2 (11:52):
He'll probably have several two hundred made three years over
the course of his career. So this is just a
snapshot in time and seeing him pass name like Steph
Curry and Luka Doncic and Anthony Edwards potentially in the
next few days here Dame Lillard, Donovan Mitchell as well,
It's extremely impressive clearly, but Miles Bridge's accomplishment is very
(12:12):
impressive as well. He is right at the edge of
thirty eight minutes per game right now, and if he continues.
Speaker 4 (12:17):
At this pace, he'll probably get there.
Speaker 2 (12:19):
The last time a player averaged thirty eight minutes per
game or more, you got to go back to the
twenty fifteen sixteen season, James Harden played every game and
averaged thirty eight point one minutes per game. Now, there
were eras before where that was kind of the norm.
You know, you go back to the you know, the
the aughts, the you know, one through twenty ten time period,
(12:42):
and players like Allen Iverson averaged forty two minutes a game,
So you know, it's not as if this has never
happened before. It's just less common in this era. So
I think both of them have something as a knock
against them because they're a little bit era dependent, and
Brandon Miller is the benefactor of playing in a three
point dominant effort. Miles Bridges shouldn't necessarily be penalized because
(13:04):
players never left the floor in previous generations. Both are very,
very impressive, though, well, you took one, so I'll take
the other. I'll take Brandon Miller.
Speaker 4 (13:12):
That's fair.
Speaker 3 (13:13):
But that's the other thing. That the reason why I'm
taking Miles Bridges as well. And this is not a
knock on Brandon, but we don't know what the future
holds of the.
Speaker 4 (13:21):
Game of basketball.
Speaker 3 (13:22):
I mean, we're at the point now where we're at
this point where every three point shot in theory, based
off of everybody that's in the game now, is a
good shot. So people are going to continue to chuck
up thirties. I don't think we're going to see that
regress anytime soon. So again, it's not a knock on
Brandon Miller. And what he's been able to accomplish this season.
But somebody down the line is going to come here
and they're just going to be three point after three
(13:43):
point after three point, and that record probably isn't going
to stand wherever Brandon Miller ends up, whether it's top five,
top three, whatever he ends up on, that might not
hold up as long as something longevity wise, like what
Miles Bridges is doing with the minutes played and the
game's played as well.
Speaker 2 (13:59):
Brandon Miller, he'll continue this run up the record books.
If he makes two threes tonight, he'll tie Sadik Bay
for the fourth most in a rookie season. Three would
give it to him all on his own. In case
you are curious, what pace would he need in the
final five games to take over the number one spot overall,
he would need to make seven threes a night from
(14:19):
here on out. Brandon Miller's career high is seven threes,
so that would be a very tall task. But the
only thing to you know, get Brandon Miller to a
obstacle is to tell him he can't do it. Probably,
so there you go, Brandon, challenge is laid out there.
We'll see if he can catch Keegan Murray or just
you know, catch cidek Bay Here tonight is the Hornet's host,
the Oklahoma City Thunder. Speaking of which game preview coming
(14:40):
up next Here on the Hornets Iimecast, Sam Farbar, Rob
Longo here with you on the Hornet Time Cast, brought
to you by sent to Charlotte I Hear a nosen
Throat Associates, the official I Hear nosen Throawcare provider of
the Charlotte Hornets. Hornets taking on the Oklahoma City Thunder tonight, Rob,
I don't think I need to remind you, but this
game it did not go well for Charlotte the first
(15:02):
time around in OKAC. It was a different time for
Charlotte at that point. This was prior to the trade deadline,
not too much prior, but it was prior, so the
Hornets were just be riddled with injuries. Oklahoma City at
the time had a very deep bench. It had stars
like Vasamichi Chen, Davis, Bertans, and Alexi Pokashewski available to them.
(15:25):
Not to mention Trey Man, Charlotte was extremely shorthanded. Their
starting lineup that day in OKC Brandon Miller, Cody Martin,
Miles Bridges, Nick Richards and Bryce McGowan's Hornets did their best,
but came up way short. Ended up down twenty at
the end of the first quarter. Down thirty one at halftime,
made it a little bit more respectable, ended up dropping
the game by twenty, but still Oklahoma City basically wiped
(15:48):
them out on their way to.
Speaker 4 (15:50):
At the time their thirty fourth win of the season.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
Looking at the standings now, just to kind of give
you the lay of the land here for the Charlotte Hornets, they,
in some people's estimations, are playing for ping pong balls
right now. They're in a tie for the third worst
record in the NBA. San Antonio also won the other
day simultaneous to Charlotte beating Orlando, so both teams with
a record of nineteen and fifty eight. We'll see how
things pan out there. Oakley c is playing for a
(16:13):
lot more than ping pong balls. The Thunder have a
chance to have the one seed in the Western Conference.
There are only about two games out behind Minnesota. They're
also trailing the Denver Nuggets. Do have a pretty wide
berth between them and the four seed, the LA Clippers.
But that said, Oklahoma City, you know you would love
to have home court advantage as long as you can.
(16:33):
So Thunder are fighting for that, so a lot to
play for it tonight Here at the Hive game preview time,
Rob we got players to watch for both teams as
well as the stat to watch. Where do you want
to begin.
Speaker 3 (16:42):
Let's go ahead and begin with a Thunder player to watch.
And this is tough because shake Gil Alexander did not
play in the game Friday against Indiana that was a
one twenty six to one to twelve loss. Don't know
the status of him going into this game. Lou Dort
ended up having a game high twenty two points for
the Thunder and at loss. But as much much as
I want to take some of the other guys on
this roster, I feel like I gotta take chet Holmgram.
(17:04):
I mean, it's just basically low hanging fruit at this point.
He didn't have his best game the other night against
the Pacers. He had fifteen points, eight rebounds, finished with
three blocks as well for twelve shootings from the field
one for six beyond the York I'm sure a lot
of that had to be going up toe to toe
with a guy like Miles Turner, who is a very
good center, very elite defensive center as well. But again
there's just not a whole lot of size on its
(17:26):
Hornets team right now. Don't know the status of Nick
Richards going into this one either. He hasn't played the
last couple of games. Hornets have had to go small
with Grant Williams, So that's a lot of size you're
giving up to a guy like Chet Holmgrom. But it
could be possibly maybe work out in favor of the Hornets,
because again Chet likes to shoot the three one for
six beyond the York the other day. Maybe you're able
to have him fall in love beyond the Yark a
little bit, stretch him out there, kind of like when
(17:48):
the Hornets play the Bucks and Giannis Notata Kakupo is
the point of emphasis. You want to push him as
far away from the basket as possible, kind of similar
with chet HOLMGRM. If it works out that way, great.
I don't know if it will, but all in all,
it seems like he's kind of the clear cut choice
for a player to watch, especially when we don't know
the status of SGA going into this one.
Speaker 2 (18:07):
Yeah, if you didn't take him, I was going to
because this is what we want to say this is
the two guys that are However, your perspective is if
they're going for second place behind Victor wemin Yama for
Rookie of the Year or as I would argue, you know,
trying to further their own argument to win the award,
and both are very deserving. Wemby clearly an exceptional year
by any standard. Some people are talking about him being
(18:29):
the defensive player of the year, let alone just the
Rookie of the Year, so clearly he's going to be
right up there. But Brandon Miller has had an outstanding
rookie season. His stats, you know, warrant him being in
that conversation, and Ched Holmgreen, well, maybe a notch below
Wemby on certain stats and below Brandon Miller on others.
Is very strong across the board, and his team is winning.
(18:53):
And it's not as if Oklahoma City has been doing
this for a decade and he's just kind of factoring in.
He might have been the missing pece to the championship puzzle,
or by championship, I mean, you know, at least division
championship and contending for conference championship, whichever. He is a
huge part to this thunder turnaround, and that's got to
factor in at least a little bit towards winning some
(19:14):
of these awards.
Speaker 4 (19:14):
So I'm with you.
Speaker 2 (19:15):
I think chedd Holgren is most definitely the player to watch,
but you took him, so I got to go in
a different direction. I'll take loud Dort. He's a great story.
Loud Dort played at Arizona State, came into the draft,
wasn't selected, ended up going undrafted, and went to an
OKC team that was about to go through a rebuild,
and he just carved out a bigger and bigger role,
(19:36):
made himself a more and more efficient player. He can
be really dynamic on the defensive end as well. And
as Oklahoma City has added star power and added all
this talent, they haven't been.
Speaker 4 (19:49):
Able to force loud Dort off the floor.
Speaker 2 (19:51):
He's still a starter, he's still a high level contributor,
and his role has changed, but his game is just
getting better. You know, two years ago, he was the
big times scorer on that team. Whenever SGA was unavailable,
lou Dort average seventeen points per game. Now there's a
lot of star power out there, so his points, his shots,
all that stuff has come way down, but his efficiency
has gone way up. He's now a thirty nine percent
(20:14):
three point shooter and he's got all that defensive acumen.
So I really enjoyed covering him when he played in college.
I think he's just a great story and I love
his persistence here in the game and what he's done
to earn a role with a really, really good team.
So hats off to lou Dort. Really enjoy watching him
about eighty times a year, so I'll enjoy watching him
(20:36):
and hopefully the Horns can overcome it. But he's a
very deserving player to watch here for OKAC. Once again,
keeping in mind the caveat that we're not picking Shay
Gildess Alexander because as the recording of this podcast, we
don't know what he's going to be doing in terms
of game time for the Thunder. Along those lines, we
also don't know on Jalen Williams either, So there's another
star for the Thunder who's a little bit of a
question mark going into.
Speaker 4 (20:57):
This shal Williams.
Speaker 2 (20:58):
Yeah, exactly, next up, Hornet, to watch your stat to
watch I'm passing on that.
Speaker 3 (21:04):
Do I So your guess is as good as mine.
In terms of Hornet's player to watch, let's go with
that Hornets player to watch for this one. I just
want to see Brandon Miller again. I think that's kind
of the matchup that we've already prefaced here with me
taking chat, I might as well take the other rookie
and Brandon Miller. Can you follow up another thirty two
point performance? Odds are I'm gonna go ahead and say yes,
based off of what he did against Portland, which is
(21:25):
hilarious now looking back at it, because, like Kyle Bailey
tried to ruffle your feathers on the pregame show Friday,
he said that the ESPN highlight painted it as Scoot
Henderson wins the battle against Brandon Miller, just because they
simply won the game. And then you see Brandon Miller
go out and have a perfect shooting stroke there in
that first half in Friday's game against the Orlando Magic,
who oh, by the way, like we talked about their
(21:45):
playoff team. So all things considered, Brandon Miller's gonna be
my player to watch again. It's hard to It's gonna
be really hard to replicate what he did on the
game Friday, just from a consistency standpoint, but would be
a lot cooler if he did it tonight as well.
But let's just go ahead and see Brandon versus Chet
round two in this one.
Speaker 2 (22:02):
Another one where if you didn't take that stat I
was going to, but I will or that player I
should say I was going to, I will have to
go in a different direction.
Speaker 4 (22:09):
I'm going to go with Miles Bridges again.
Speaker 2 (22:11):
The level of play he has put forth and how
he just continues to punch the clock and go out
there and play more minutes than anyone else does in
the NBA, night in, night out, It is just remarkable.
I don't know how long any person can keep this up. Obviously,
at twenty six, you know he's on the younger side still,
and so has that durability. I don't know there would
(22:33):
be advised by all the stat people out there to
continue to play the most minutes in the NBA, But
if anyone's got the frame to handle it, it's Miles Bridges.
Think about this. His minutes per game have increased every
month since December. He was at thirty six minutes a
game in December, thirty eight minutes in January, and February
thirty nine minutes in March.
Speaker 4 (22:53):
Now he's at forty two.
Speaker 2 (22:54):
Minutes per game, forty one minutes per game here in
the month of April. I know it's only a two
games sample size, but this is some unreal stuff, and
the productivity is there. He's not just out there standing around.
He's posting twenty plus points a game, night after night
after night after night. So Miles Bridges, obviously, if the
Hornets are gonna grab this upset, he is going to
(23:15):
be at the heart of it. We'll see if he
can help lead the Hornets to a win tonight. Last,
but not least, we need a stat to watch.
Speaker 3 (23:22):
In terms of stat to watch, I'm going to look
at second chance points simply for the fact that the
last time that these two teams played, Oklahoma City shot
lights out they were around fifty eight to fifty nine
percent shooting from the field. Hornets are around forty four
to forty five percent. But the reason that they were
able to be a little bit more competitive in this
one is because they were able to have a lot
more offensive rebounds than that one. A had seven, but
(23:44):
they weren't able to capitalize a whole lot. Finished with
eleven second chance points. Off of those seven offensive boards.
Oklahoma City on the other side, just three offensive rebounds
and two second chance points. That I know a lot
of that had to do, because well, they weren't missing
a whole lot. But when you have a guy like
cheed Holmgrim who can go out there and snare a
couple of offensive rebounds, that's going to be big, especially
as we talked about here earlier, where the Hornets are
(24:06):
more than likely going to have to go small one
way or the other, whether that's if Nick Richards is
back and you have to go small coming off the bench,
or if you just go small in general to start
the game with Grant Williams at that small ball five,
you're going to give up a lot of size. And
when you give up a lot of size, you give
up maybe a couple more rebounds as well. So for me,
the second chance points opportunities are going to be the
stat I watched night, not only more so for the
(24:26):
fact that the Hornets might not be at an advantage
size wise, but the fact that if the Hornets want
to be competitive in this one, if Okac shoots the
ball lights out again, you're going to have to have
those second and third chance opportunities on the offensive glass.
So that's why that is my stat to watch here
later today.
Speaker 2 (24:42):
All good numbers, I'm going to go with something. You know,
sometimes I'm just going I pick my stats for different reasons.
That's a short way of putting in. One of the
reasons I pick it is because it seems to be
an avenue towards winning, and that's what we'd love to
see from the Hornets.
Speaker 4 (24:54):
Thunder of loss three in a row.
Speaker 2 (24:56):
All three of those games they have had fewer made
threes than the opposition, And so that is going to
be my stat to watch here tonight. It's not every time,
but you know, Okaysee's a pretty good defensive team. There's
only been one time all year that his squad has
made twenty or more threes.
Speaker 4 (25:12):
That's an enormous number.
Speaker 2 (25:13):
Happens a lot more often than the team will make
fifteen or more threes, and Okay See, to be frank
it still has a winning record in those scenarios. But
as of late, when you get into a situation where
they make fewer threes than their opponent, they have lost
three straight games. They're not necessarily an elite three point
shooting team, but they're a very good one, and so
(25:34):
I think if you're Charlotte, and furthermore, they're a tremendous
overall offensive team, but the three point line can be
the great equalizer. And so even though Oklahoma City is
a good by percentage three point shooting team, not necessarily
the heart and soul.
Speaker 4 (25:49):
Of their offense.
Speaker 2 (25:49):
They're about middle of the pack in terms of number
or percentage of their offense that comes from three, but
they hit it very efficiently. If you're going to beat them,
you've got to win the three point arc, I think
at least, and so that'll be the line I look
at here for Charlotte outside of the scoring one.
Speaker 4 (26:03):
We'll see how it goes down. It's one of two
home games left on the horizon here for the Hornet.
Speaker 2 (26:08):
So if you are within shouting distance, come on out
to Spectrum Center and see the penultimate, penultimate game home
game that is of the twenty three to twenty four season.
Only one left after this. It'll be Tuesday against Luka
Doncic and the Dallas Mavericks. Also, by the way, got
to throw this in there. We're looking forward to welcoming
back PJ. Washington to the Hive. On Tuesday, and welcome
(26:28):
coming back Gordon Hayward tonight here to Spectrum Center.
Speaker 4 (26:30):
Will be good to see him.
Speaker 2 (26:31):
Sure, it'll be good for the former Thunder players to
see some of their old teammates.
Speaker 4 (26:34):
Everyone speaks glowingly about.
Speaker 2 (26:36):
Their experience there, but they're going to try and beat
them tonight, and hopefully you can come out and join us.
Six pm tip off tonight at Spectrum Center. That's going
to do it for this edition of the hornetsime Cast.
Till next time. For Rob Longo, I'm Sam Farber saying
it's been a pleasure of privilege having you along. We
will talk to you tomorrow right here on the Hornets
i've Cast.
Speaker 1 (26:54):
Thank you for listening to The Hornets Podcast, brought to
you by Santa, the official ie, ear nose and throw
care provider of the Charlotte Hornets. For more coverage, visit
Hornets dot com.
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