Where has this PJ Washington been hiding? It has to show up more for the Hornets
Keeping with the holiday theme, let’s go ahead and list the good things that can be immediately extracted early on from the finale of the Charlotte Hornets’ exhaustive road trip.
They didn’t fall behind by 20 points in the first quarter and actually led after the opening minutes for once. Nobody got injured. It was 60 degrees at tipoff at the base of the snow-capped Rocky Mountains in late December.
That’s the gist of it.
The Hornets were being tormented by reigning MVP Nikola Jokic (29 points, 21 rebounds), and it felt more likely the guy with the oversized red jumpsuit, pot belly and gray beard was going to show up at Ball Arena than Charlotte actually turns the game around. A 17-point deficit to begin the fourth quarter provided little hope, conjuring up nightmares of the poundings they’ve taken over the years. Denver owned the Hornets in five of their seven previous matchups in the Mile High City and swept the most recent season series.
All that makes the Hornets’ 115-107 triumph over the Nuggets on Thursday night that much more improbable. It was a holiday miracle, directly made possible with four-fifths of their starting lineup glued to the bench. Only on one other occasion in franchise history has Charlotte climbed out of a hole that was cavernous at the outset of the fourth quarter and emerged victoriously. Putting the finishing touches on a six-game road trip in that fashion had one particular guy who doesn’t show much emotion fist-pumping the air.
“S---, I was ready to get home,” said P.J. Washington, one of the main fourth-quarter catalysts. “That’s all it is. We’ve been on the road too long, ready to go home, ready to sleep in my own bed and just had to get the ‘W’ before Christmas. It was a great Christmas present for all of Charlotte and we are just excited that we closed that one out.”
Impressively, too, which is something positive the Hornets (17-17) can take away from their rough trek that took them from Texas to the Pacific Northwest to the Southwest to here in 11 days. Although Kelly Oubre nearly single-handedly rallied them out of their shooting doldrums with a 14-point fourth quarter, Washington’s assertiveness, confident stroke and defensive energy against Jokic in the final minutes was just as key as their 38-point outburst.
Washington tossed in nine points, six rebounds and had a pair of nice blocks in the fourth quarter alone. He hit the go-ahead 3-pointer with just over a minute remaining, stepping into it confidently like he did moments earlier when he gave the Hornets their first advantage since midway through the second quarter. He was huge.
“Man, he almost made me lose money tonight because he hit some big shots,” Oubre said. “And people who hit those kinds of shots, you just have to tip your hat to them and he was unguardable tonight. And he is unguardable.”
Oubre was almost unconscious himself, doing it all. So he figured why not take on another role as a guest post-game emcee?
“I’m going to introduce him, man,” Oubre said, pretending momentarily to be an announcer behind the podium microphone. “PJ Washington, you know what I’m saying? Coming to the stage.”
Through these last two months, Washington hasn’t had many performances worthy of a curtain call. He’s had solid games, but few that truly stick out in memorable fashion like what he did against the Nuggets. The Hornets badly need him to put up those kinds of numbers more frequently because the 10.9 points he’s posting per game is nearly two points off his career average.
Duplicating what transpired against Denver could help relieve some of the issues they’re having at center, potentially spring-boarding Washington to greater heights.
“For me, just use this going forward and try to be consistent in my role,” Washington said. “Try to be there every night on the glass, try to be there in the floods and try to block shots, make threes, get to the rack and create for others. Just doing all the little things per usual. Just keeping it up and being consistent.”
And anything but passive.
“For sure,” he said. “When I’m out there, I try to make the right play every time. But I feel like me being aggressive opens up a lot for us. So I’ve got to commit to that and do that every game.”
If he does, the Hornets can get back to forcing teams to match up to their stretch ‘5.’ When he’s on, he provides the Hornets with a lethal weapon and makes it challenging for his defender to stay inside the paint. He draws centers outside with his jumper and that opens things up for his teammates.
Washington was as on as he’s been in a while. And the Hornets couldn’t get enough of it.
“PJ was fantastic tonight,” coach James Borrego said. “His aggression, I think we are just looking for that aggression every single night. He has that within him and it’s my job to pull it out every single night whatever way necessary. But he deserves a lot of credit. Made big shots, defended his tail off. He led a lot of our confidence there in the fourth quarter just with his playmaking, his shot-making and his defense as well.”
Washington’s spark was exactly what the Hornets were lacking. The usual mild-mannered big man ignited them and was inspirational with his conviction, leading Oubre and their cast of teammates in a tremendous push that left Denver tying the franchise record for the largest blown lead after three quarters. Charlotte outscored the Nuggets by 25 points in the fourth quarter on the strength of a 38-13 margin, the most points Denver has been outscored by in the fourth quarter in franchise history.
“We just kept trying to uplift each other,” Oubre said. “We kept telling each other to stay with it, continuously talking about what we could have did better, individually, and not point fingers at anybody else. After a while, we just started hooping and not even worrying about anything else that we couldn’t control, and playing together. That’s the formula to our success.”
It’s not quite as complicated as E=MC squared. But it’s something they can point to.
“I saw growth tonight, especially there in the fourth quarter,” Borrego said. “We had our moments. I liked the first quarter and fourth quarter. I think the second and third quarter, that’s where we have to grow up as a team. We have to grow up and we have to own that. And that’s our challenge right now.
“So we know the formula. Now we’ve just got to go execute it for 48 minutes. We are not there yet. But at least we get to go home now. It’s been a long grind. We are going back home .500. We’ve got a lot of work to do, but we know what we are capable of.”
This story was originally published December 24, 2021 at 7:00 AM.
