Rozier Now 8th on Charlotte’s All-Time Scoring Leaderboard, Jones Tallies Career-High 10 PTS
Still without several key players and facing a rolling Philadelphia 76ers squad on Friday night, the Charlotte Hornets just didn’t have the firepower to keep pace with the NBA’s top-ranked offense over the past month in a 121-82 home loss.
Terry Rozier led the hosts with 14 points, four assists, three steals and in the process, moved past David Wesley for eighth place on the franchise’s all-time scoring leaderboard with his second 3-pointer of the game in the first quarter (now at 5,250 points). Fellow starters PJ Washington (12 points) and Kelly Oubre Jr. (11) were also in double figures.
Charlotte hung with Philadelphia, which entered the contest on a six-game winning streak, until about the mid-way point of the second quarter, when a 32-11 run gave the 76ers a 77-54 advantage roughly four minutes into the third. Charlotte scrounged up only 13 points on 30% shooting with six turnovers in the frame, eventually falling behind by 42 in the fourth on its way to the blowout defeat.
“They went [11-0] to start the third, and that was the biggest problem area,” said Hornets Head Coach Steve Clifford. “Impatient on offense, trying to challenge [Joel] Embiid at the rim, not good decision-making in the paint, which has been a problem and then they scored at the other end. I thought that was the key stretch.”
Kai Jones was a bright spot off the Charlotte bench, putting up a career-high 10 points on 5-of-8 shooting and grabbing nine rebounds to just miss out on his first career double-double. As a team, Charlotte recorded new season lows for points (82) and field-goal percentage (33.7%), while hitting only 5-of-34 3-point attempts (14.3%) and losing the battle for paint points, 64-36. The 39-point loss was also its largest of the campaign, topping the previous mark of 35 in Boston on Nov. 28.
Added Clifford, “I actually think we missed quite a few pretty decent [3-point attempts]. I thought our problem in the first half, you’ve got the ball in the paint, the ball’s got to get kicked out. Those are open shots. I think at halftime, we had two blocks and five changed shots. It’s a [12-point game], that’s seven possessions, that’s 21 potential points. Once it got away from us, we played all the young guys together and that had a lot to do with the final total points.”
The MVP candidate Embiid amassed game highs in both points (38 on 16-of-21 shooting) and rebounds (13) to go along with five assists and four blocks, becoming the first player in NBA history to hit all four of these thresholds in under 30 minutes of play. James Harden had an impressive statline as well, totaling 11 points, 11 rebounds and a game-high 10 assists for his fifth triple-double of the season.
The Hornets will finish up their five-game homestand against the Indiana Pacers on Monday, March 20 beginning at 7 PM ET. Follow all the action on Bally Sports Southeast and WFNZ FM 92.7.
