Charlotte Hornets blow out Brooklyn Nets in playoff atmosphere

Credit veterans Mo Williams and Al Jefferson with this much:

They weren’t afraid to say publicly what Wednesday was – a defacto playoff game against the Brooklyn Nets. And they backed up their words with emphatic action.

Had the Charlotte Hornets lost to the Nets, they would have fallen a game out of eighth place in the standings. More importantly Brooklyn would have clinched a tiebreaker in the desperate race for one of the last two playoff spots in the Eastern Conference.

They called it a playoff game, they treated it as a playoff game. They led by 23 in the first quarter, survived a Brooklyn run in the second quarter and blew up the Nets with a 10-2 run to start the second half.

The result: Hornets 115, Nets 91 and the Hornets sit alone in eighth place at 26-33, a half-game ahead of the Indiana Pacers.

From the coaches to the players to the support staff, it was clear Wednesday that the Hornets entered this game with a different vibe than your random March road game. Williams and Jefferson had said as much after Tuesday’s one-point home victory over the Los Angeles Lakers.

They both excelled: Williams finished with 14 points and 14 assists, falling one assist short of matching his career high. Jefferson contributed 19 points and six rebounds.

“Collectively as a group we came in tonight with the right mind frame that this was a huge game,” Williams said. “I felt like the team that wanted it more was going to win this game. We’re so evenly matched.

“We punched them in the mouth. And then they punched back. And then we regrouped and punched them again. They never recovered after that.”

This became such a rout – the Hornets led by as many as 32 points – that three of five starters never played in the fourth quarter. For much of the fourth the starters were jumping off their seats, cheering on the reserves like high school kids winning the state tournament.

“We deserved to win this game,” Jefferson said. “We played the right way.

“No disrespect to them, but we deserved to win because of the way we played, the way we came out so focused.”

The Hornets made 15 of their first 23 shots to lead 35-15 entering the second quarter. But the lead had dwindled to 12 at halftime.

The second half was more about defense, as the Hornets held the Nets to 41 percent shooting and 47 points. Small forward Michael Kidd-Gilchrist played some hellacious defense on Joe Johnson and Gerald Henderson did nearly as well guarding point guard Deron Williams.

Hornets coach Steve Clifford tweaked his lineup, starting Marvin Williams at power forward rather than Cody Zeller. That was because the Nets play small with 6-7 Johnson at power forward.

Clifford felt it essential to start the game with Kidd-Gilchrist guarding Johnson. Marvin Williams (18 points and 4-of-5 from 3-point range) was better suited to guard the Nets’ Alan Anderson.

Jefferson said the beauty of Wednesday was they defended and scored with equal proficiency.

“When you play against a Deron Williams, a Brook Lopez, a Joe Johnson, we have to be ready on defense,” Jefferson said. “We remembered what they did to us on our home floor (a 114-87 loss in December).

“To have a great team down like that – down 20 points – showed we were ready. We knew they’d make a run, and they did.”

This story was originally published March 4, 2015 at 10:01 PM with the headline "Charlotte Hornets blow out Brooklyn Nets in playoff atmosphere."