All Hornets

Towns plays big, Hornets fall to Timberwolves at home

Devonte Graham had a career-high 24 points off the bench to lead the Hornets.

Mitchell Northam

(Jeremy Brevard-USA TODAY Sports)

Karl-Anthony Towns had his way with a depleted Charlotte Hornets' front-court, racking up 37 points, 15 rebounds and eight assists in a 121-99 win for the Minnesota Timberwolves on Friday night in the Spectrum Center.

Leading the way for the Hornets (1-1) was second-year guard Devonte' Graham, who came off the bench to put up a career-high 24 points and four assists in 28 minutes of action.

"Devonte's been impressive shooting the ball," Hornets' head coach James Borrego said after the game. "He's playing with a lot of confidence. He has to keep doing that."

The Hornets were without veteran forwards Cody Zeller and Nic Batum. Zeller missed the game due to personal reasons, while Batum is nursing a broken finger he suffered in Charlotte's win over the Bulls on Wednesday.

Big man Bismack Biyombo started in-place of Zeller and recorded eight points, four rebounds and a block in 18 minutes of play.

Important Stat

While he didn't score as much as he did in his debut, rookie P.J. Washington impressed again, notching the first double-double of his NBA career with 10 points and 10 rebounds.

Washington also had a block and a steal in 29 minutes of play and posted the highest plus-minus rating of any Hornet with a plus-7 mark.

Terry Rozier also had a double-double with 11 points and 10 assists. Rozier had just three double-doubles in his first four seasons with the Celtics.

Big Highlight

This half-court lob from Graham to undrafted rookie Caleb Martin was smooth.

In his regular season NBA debut, Martin gathered four points, two blocks, one steal, three assists and two rebounds in 18 minutes. He went two-of-eight from floor but was active on each end.

And it's worth taking another look at this deep three-ball from Graham too.

Crucial Takeaway

The early trend for the Hornets is that they are struggling against big men who are savvy on the offensive end. In their season-opener against the Bulls, 7-foot Finnish forward Lauri Markkanen went off for 35 points and paved the way for the Bulls to score 78 points in the paint.

And that was in a game where Zeller was active.

On Friday, Towns did whatever he pleased, scoring 37 points on just 18 shot attempts. The Kentucky product was seven-of-13 from the charity stripe, made four three-pointers and also had four steals and two blocks. Towns is a talented player, to be sure, but the Hornets allowed him to look like Tim Duncan.

"We lost some rhythm," Borrego said. "Give them credit. Towns is a handful."

Indeed.

Notes

  • The Hornets opened the game on a 19-4 run.
  • The Timberwolves went on a 30-11 run over the final eight minutes of the third quarter.
  • Zeller will be back for the Hornets' next game, Sunday at the Lakers, according to Steve Reed of the AP.
  • Like his twin brother, Caleb Martin also made his NBA debut, putting up four points and four rebounds in 17 minutes. The Martin Twins become the first in NBA history to play alongside each other as rookies.
  • Second-round pick Jalen McDaniels made his NBA debut, scoring a bucket in three minutes of work.
  • In his season debut, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist had five points and four rebounds in 10 minutes.
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Mitchell Northam
MITCHELL NORTHAM

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