Charles Lee commends Hornets' defense but laments turnovers in loss to Magic

Charles Lee said his team did well on defense but gave away too many turnovers in the loss to the Magic.

Nov 17, 2024; Cleveland, Ohio, USA; Charlotte Hornets head coach Charles Lee reacts during the second half against the Cleveland Cavaliers at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse. Mandatory Credit: Ken Blaze-Imagn Images / Ken Blaze-Imagn Images

The Charlotte Hornets and Orlando Magic played an absolute slugfest of a basketball game on Monday night. The Magic shot poorly all night until the fourth quarter when they began to revert to the mean. The Hornets shot well but had a season-high in turnovers. It resulted in a low-scoring affair and another loss for Charlotte. Charles Lee commented on those things after the game. Charlotte lost 95-84.

Charles Lee talks defense, turnovers in Hornets loss

Charles Lee gave the Hornets a game plan: prevent Franz Wagner from scoring and leave the low-percentage three-point shooters open. For three quarters, that worked. Wagner was quiet and Anthony Black and Jonathan Isaac were shooting poorly from distance. Lee said, “I’ll start by saying I thought defensively the guys did a really good job of executing the gameplan. To give up 95 points when we’re fouling towards the end of the game, I think it shows the effort and the competitiveness and the togetherness. I thought all night we just stayed together on that side of the ball."

On the other side of the ball, the Hornets couldn't seem to get out of their own way. They shot well, but they shot far less than Orlando did because of all the turnovers. Lee said, "We got ourselves in trouble with some of our turnovers. Most of it is self-inflicted again and things that we can control. I’ll give credit to Orlando for their length and activity on our drives, but I would love to see us fix some of our transition turnovers that we had. I’ll go back and I’ll watch the film and see if there’s some type of theme that’s going on, but I think that if we do a better job on that end, the game looks and feels a lot differently.”

The Hornets were held under 90 points for the second time by Orlando, who entered Monday's contest with the third-best team defensive rating in the NBA. A 44-point, nine-rebound, seven-assist outing from LaMelo Ball wasn't enough to offset all the turnovers and get the Hornets a much-needed win.

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