Magic knocks off Hornets, who lost 11th in their last 12 as trade deadline looms
The Charlotte Hornets gave up 47 percent 3-point shooting Monday, letting the Orlando Magic break a five-game losing streak with a 112-100 victory at Spectrum Center.
The Magic made 16 of their 34 attempts from long range, as the Hornets lost their 11th game in their last 12.
The Hornets got 18 points from Terry Rozier and 17 from Cody Zeller. The Magic’s Evan Fournier finished with 17 points after being questionable to play with a sore lower back.
Good buzz
Rookie Cody Martin made all six of his shots from the field, scoring a career-high 13 points. Martin has gotten 18 or more minutes in each of the past four games and is establishing himself as one of the Hornets’ better defenders.
Bee stings
Saturday, the Hornets blew a 19-point second-half lead in San Antonio on a slew of turnovers. It carried over to the first half Monday, when the Hornets lost the ball 10 times. Coach James Borrego is committed to playing at a fast pace this season, but that isn’t an excuse for throwing away the ball constantly.
Building blocks
Third-season pro Dwayne Bacon got his first start since mid-November, after rookie P.J. Washington missed his second consecutive game with an ankle sprain. Bacon started the first 10 games of the season. Bacon starting could have been matchup-driven, but starting him over veteran Marvin Williams felt like more of the heavy lean toward youth in playing time by coach James Borrego since the Hornets returned from Paris.
Beyond the numbers
Mitch Kupchak hasn’t made an in-season trade since becoming Hornets general manager in the spring of 2018. The Hornets have $45 million in expiring contracts between Bismack Biyombo, Williams and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, and only Williams is playing among those three veterans. The NBA trade deadline is Thursday at 3 p.m., and there are reports the Hornets have talked to the Sacramento Kings about Bogdan Bogdanovic and to the New York Knicks about Julius Randle. The context of all that is the Hornets will finally have significant salary-cap room this summer for the first time since Kupchak replaced Rich Cho.
This story was originally published February 3, 2020 at 9:11 PM.
