Regulation showed what Hornets can be; overtime showed what they still aren’t
James Borrego is improvisational by nature. I’ve seen him try dozens of combinations in his 1 1/2 seasons as Charlotte Hornets coach.
I can’t recall him doing what he tried Wednesday — an eight-man rotation.
It nearly worked, even with an extra five minutes of overtime, in a 112-110 home loss to the Toronto Raptors.
Borrego played only three reserves — Dwayne Bacon, Cody Zeller and Malik Monk. That’s one less than the norm and it’s not rare for Borrego to play 10. It’s typical in the NBA to play at least nine per team.
Borrego would like to have a steady rotation pattern, but circumstance has never made that viable so far. Wednesday, with veteran forward Marvin Williams out following a procedure on his nasal fracture, Borrego went marathon with his five starters: Three played 40 or more minutes and two others played at least 32.
What all this illustrated was how dependent Borrego is right now on guards Devonte Graham and Terry Rozier, who each is top 30 in the NBA in minutes played.
Borrego must have Graham or Rozier on the court at all times — they are the only two point guards — and he needs them both in crunch situations for their ability to create half-court offense.
“The challenge for me tonight was Miles (Bridges) or Monk,” Borrego said of the rotation. “Monk (seven points and a team-high seven assists) played well; he gave us a lot of offense tonight. I thought he was engaged. I thought Miles (26 points) played well.
“I could pretty much only play one of them (at a time) to keep Terry and Tae (Devonte) on the floor. That makes it tough.”
Limited choices
That circumstance won’t change anytime soon. Graham and Rozier are the core when it comes to any chance of staying with a team such as the defending-champion Raptors. Even with three key players out (Pascal Siakam, Marc Gasol and Fred VanVleet) out, Toronto was the deeper team. Raptors coach Nick Nurse gave rookie Terence Davis his first NBA start, and Davis responded with 23 points.
This was nearly the second upset victory in three games, following Saturday’s overtime win in Dallas. But Graham couldn’t get off a good shot at the end of regulation and Rozier missed a 3 at the buzzer at the end of overtime.
Those two should be the primary options; they’ve been good in clutch-time shooting this season. But Wednesday reinforced the Hornets’ small margin for error, and that will only change through more strong drafting and continued player development.
‘More poised’
Bridges, who made a career-best six 3-pointers, summed up the difference between a team of the Raptors’ depth and experience and the Hornets’ reality at 15-25.
“They were just a more poised team down the stretch,” Bridges said. “They got key stops, key offensive rebounds, and that’s what killed us at the end.”
It’s important to remember this Hornets season is as much exploration as anything: Throwing youth into key situations, viewing how they react, and collecting data for future decisions.
They have a trustworthy backcourt. Everything else — forwards, centers, bench — is still what this exploration is meant to hash out.
Hornets at Jazz
When: 9 p.m. Friday
Where: Vivint Smart Home Arena
Watch: Fox Sports Carolina
Listen: 610 AM
This story was originally published January 9, 2020 at 6:00 AM.
