Devonte Graham leads Hornets past Wizards, nailing six 3-pointers
Miles Bridges hit a corner 3-pointer with 7.7 seconds left and Devonte Graham had his sixth game of six or more 3-pointers this season, leading the Charlotte Hornets over the Washington Wizards 114-107.
Graham finished with 29 points as the Hornets improved to 10-16 at the end of a five-game home stand.
The Wizards got a career-high 32 points off the bench from forward Davis Bertrans, who made eight of his 12 3-point attempts.
The Hornets got strong games from both their centers: Starter Bismack Biyombo finished with 13 points and 15 rebounds, while Cody Zeller added 14 points and 10 boards.
Good buzz
The Wizards’ 48 points were the fewest the Hornets have allowed in a first half this season. That’s impressive, considering Washington entered this game third in the NBA in scoring at 118.2 points per game.
Bee stings
Teams are trying to chase Graham off the 3-point line (where he is shooting 42%) because his mid-range game isn’t nearly as efficient. Graham missed all three of his shots from 2-point range in the first half.
Building blocks
Coach James Borrego is tinkering these days with the rotation. Sunday, he played Michael Kidd-Gilchrist for the first time in 10 games, looking to inject some energy and physicality into the mix. That meant Nic Batum didn’t play.
Tuesday, with Marvin Williams (sore right knee) out again, Kidd-Gilchrist and Batum both played, and Dwayne Bacon was back outside the rotation.
Beyond the numbers
Borrego successfully challenged a block-charge call, reversing what would have been a foul against Graham (who was taking a charge) and giving a foul to Wizards star Bradley Beal.
Borrego has said the best call to challenge in the new system is out-of-bounds plays because there is typically the clearest video evidence to reverse.
After that, Borrego has been prone to challenging fouls against his starters (more about the consequence of those fouls than a high expectation of reversal).
This story was originally published December 10, 2019 at 9:32 PM.
