Hornets are clutch, but their fatal flaw was striking in escape win over Kings
Three things we know about this Charlotte Hornets team: They’re deep, they’re great in the clutch and they’re unreliable defensively.
They needed that depth and clutch-ness Monday because over the first three quarters, they were downright dreadful defensively against the Sacramento Kings. Somehow, the Hornets overcame giving up 56% shooting and allowing 68 points in the paint to win at home, 122-116.
This was the last game before a brutal road trip: A five-game Western Conference swing that starts with the Denver Nuggets, then the Lakers and Clippers in Los Angeles.
If they guard anything like they did in the first half Monday, those games will be over quickly. Coach James Borrego is correct that the Kings’ size presents matchup problems for the Hornets. However, that doesn’t explain away arguably the worst defensive performance of the season.
“This was not the best game we’ve played all season,” Borrego understated. “Sacramento gives us a lot of problems.”
Which led Borrego to shift his rotation in a very different direction. He used Bismack Biyombo, Miles Bridges and Cody Martin a lot because those three were the only guys engaged defensively.
Biyombo changed a De’Aaron Fox layup at the rim with 34 seconds left, a play Borrego called “fantastic.” Bridges brought constant energy to a game in which the starter at his power forward position, P.J. Washington, got in foul trouble.
But if there is a player who set a tone, it was Martin; the second-round pick who has floated in and out of the rotation all season.
Cody Martin’s “A-plus” trait
Martin will never wow you with his offensive game, though he is a bit more solid as an outside shooter and can handle OK for a wing player.
He is on this team because he can be ravenous defensively. When nobody else could slow Fox (29 points, 8 assists), at least Martin made him sweat.
“I’ve said this before, he’s an A-plus effort and defender for us,” Borrego said of Martin.
Martin can’t rely on talent to cruise. That means extra work, particularly deep study of opponent tendencies. It also means patience and a sense of humility.
“I know what I do best. I know my job,” Martin said. “It’s my job to play with the most energy I can, to get those 50-50 balls, play defense and communicate.
“Give our team some life.”
The Hornets sure needed resuscitation, once trailing a 15-23 team at Spectrum Center by as many as 15 points.
Borrego sicced Martin on Fox much of the second half to break up the pattern. At 6-foot-7, Martin had the size to disrupt the 6-3 Fox, so long as he stayed in front of him.
“He’s really good in transition,” Martin said. “If you don’t get back, if you don’t communicate, he’s just going to have a field day. You’ve got to pressure him a little bit to slow him down, but he’s so fast that he can blow right by you.”
Terry Rozier — ‘Ice in his veins’
This would have been such a depressing loss, after the Hornets climbed above .500 Saturday — the first time this deep into a season they’ve had a winning record since 2016-17.
Two games separate fourth place from eighth in the Eastern Conference, with the Hornets tied for fifth with the Boston Celtics at 20-18. They play 11 of the next 13 on the road, so extending this winning streak to four games Monday seemed highly consequential.
The saving grace: If this team manages to hang around until clutch time — the last five minutes of a game with the score within five points — they’re exceptional. They have the best net rating in those situations, by far, in the NBA.
The play that turned this game with 54 seconds left and a tie score was classic of what this team has mastered. Gordon Hayward got into the lane, drew a crowd of defenders and found Terry Rozier standing at the 3-point line.
Swish.
“Clutch. Ice in his veins, there’s no doubt about it,” Hayward said of the ball in Rozier’s hands.
“He always seems to come up big in these moments and we’ve needed every one of them.”
This story was originally published March 16, 2021 at 8:00 AM.
