How the Hornets lost Kemba Walker and became one of the NBA’s most clutch teams
For years, Kemba Walker was the Charlotte Hornets’ default choice to close out games.
And why not? As veteran forward Marvin Williams said, “It’s Kemba; who wouldn’t give him the ball in winning time?”
But the unexpected has happened since All-NBA point guard Walker left for the Boston Celtics in July: The Hornets became less predictable and stunningly effective in what the NBA defines as “clutch time.” For whatever else is flawed about the 15-25 Hornets, they’ve been among the most efficient teams in the league at the end of games they have a chance to win.
The NBA defines “clutch time,” for the purpose of advanced stats, as when the margin is within five points in the last five minutes before a game’s conclusion. Twelve of the Hornets’ 15 victories have come in clutch time.
The Hornets are the NBA’s ninth-most efficient team in clutch time, the only team top-10 in this category without a winning record.
The measure is “net rating” — how many points a team scores per 100 possessions and how many points it allows per 100 possessions. They are a plus-12.1, generating 120 points per 100 possessions and allowing 108.
What explains this?
“I think we really execute what coach wants from us at the end of games,” said point guard Devonte Graham, the Hornets’ second-season star who replaced Walker as leading scorer. “We lock in when it’s winning time. We’re all on the same page and clicking. We have guys who make tough plays late and are really confident.”
More diverse
But isn’t that true of most NBA rosters? In Charlotte’s case, Walker’s absence — he left as the Hornets career scorer with 12,009 points — meant other players had no choice but to become more self-reliant and the offense became more diverse.
Three Hornets — Graham, Terry Rozier and rookie P.J. Washington — have hit huge shots in these clutch situations in the first half of this season. Ex-Celtic Rozier and Washington are new here and Graham played little as a second-round rookie last season.
It’s now more difficult for opposing teams to anticipate just what the Hornets will run offensively, and who will end up with the shot, in these late-game/close-score situations.
“A lot of the offense last season, you knew it was going through Kemba and (Jeremy) Lamb (now with the Indiana Pacers). This year, you never know who might score 20 on any given night,” Graham said.
“We move the ball; everything is about driving, kicking and swinging with an extra pass. It’s just tougher to guard because you don’t really know who is going to shoot the ball.”
Williams, a veteran of 15 NBA seasons and three franchises, agrees with Graham’s observation — “You don’t know who it’s going to be, and it’s been that way all season.’
Williams says it also reflects the job coach James Borrego has done in getting such a new roster organized quickly.
“We have guys who live for that clutch moment,” Williams said, “but J.B. does a great job of putting us in position to get there.”
Fragile but resilient
Borrego, in his second season with the Hornets, acknowledges the surprise of how well this team has performed in clutch time. The Hornets aren’t good at controlling games from start to finish — Borrego is still waiting for a dominant 48-minute performance — but they’ve been resilient.
The overtime victory in Dallas on Saturday was encouraging, not just for how the Hornets closed in overtime, but for holding the Mavericks — the NBA’s top-rated offense — to nine points in their last 16 possessions of the fourth quarter.
“I didn’t come in expecting us to close this (well), but our guys have played with tremendous trust, poise and resiliency down the stretch,” Borrego said. “Terry and Devonte have made shots, our big (men) have made plays and our defense has picked up down the stretch.”
Borrego said being reliable in the clutch reflects a roster that has been highly coachable.
“All those situational end-of-game moments, we’ve executed. Whether that’s fouling at the right time, trapping at the right time ... All those situational pieces add up to wins.”
The Hornets might no longer have a true go-to guy, but they’re making it work.
“Obviously, you’d like to have one guy you can throw it to (for a ball-out score),” Borrego said, “but right now we have a group that trusts each other, that looks for the best shot.”
This story was originally published January 9, 2020 at 6:00 AM.
