Hornets Overcome Sluggish Start, Blow by Thunder

The Hornets move to 34-35 on the season.

OKLAHOMA CITY, OK - Different night, same story. This season, the Hornets have really struggled to bring the energy and effort against some of the worst teams in the NBA and it happened again in the first quarter of Monday night's game in Oklahoma City. Fortunately for the purple and teal, they regained their footing in the first half and came out with a 134-116 win.

Offensively, the Hornets were humming early, knocking down their first seven shots from the field and first four shots from three-point land. The offense went ice cold - the defense, even colder. The Thunder continued to get open look after open look and made the Hornets pay for it. Oklahoma City is the worst shooting team in the league, yet found a way to connect on six shots from three in the opening quarter. A near six-minute scoring drought which consisted of nine consecutive missed shots, allowed the Thunder to end the opening quarter on a 22-3 run.

Desperately needing a spark down 18, head coach James Borrego turned to Isaiah Thomas and he delivered, making four consecutive threes to get the Hornets right back in the game as the 23-5 run made it 52-50 Oklahoma City. Terry Rozier hit the go-ahead three with 26 seconds left which was followed up by a Cody Martin steal and lay in. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander answered with .1 on the clock but Charlotte took the 65-64 lead into the break.

LaMelo Ball was feeling it in the third quarter going for 14 points with 12 of them coming via the three-ball - all in the first five minutes of the quarter. As electric as Ball was, it was Terry Rozier who continued to carry the offense, which has become a theme since the All-Star break. He finished the night with 30 points on 11/17 shooting (4/8 3FG).

Both defenses tightened up a bit in the fourth quarter, but Oklahoma City just couldn't string together enough trips up the floor with points to ever pull within reach. 

The Hornets will now return home to Spectrum Center to begin a five-game homestand, which starts Wednesday night against the Atlanta Hawks.

BOX SCORE

CHA: 29-36-37-32-134

OKC: 41-23-27-25-116

TEAM STATS (ACCUMULATIVE)

1st

CHA 10/22 FG | 4/9 3FG | 6 REB | 10 PIP | 0 TOs

OKC 16/26 FG | 6/12 3FG | 14 REB | 18 PIP | 0 TOs

2nd

CHA 23/47 FG | 11/19 3FG | 16 REB | 22 PIP | 2 TOs

OKC 25/49 FG | 9/23 3FG | 30 REB | 30 PIP | 9 TOs

3rd

CHA 35/67 FG | 18/30 3FG | 26 REB | 32 PIP | 4 TOs

OKC 33/67 FG | 14/34 3FG | 37 REB | 36 PIP | 13 TOs

4th

CHA 49/92 FG | 20/35 3FG | 37 REB | 48 PIP | 5 TOs

OKC 42/90 FG | 16/44 3FG | 49 REB | 50 PIP | 18 TOs

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