Hornets making the play-in tournament doesn’t satisfy them. They’re ready to get greedy
.JPG "New York Knicks’ Alec Burks (18) watches as Charlotte Hornets’ Miles Bridges (0) dunks during the first half of an NBA basketball game Wednesday, March 30, 2022, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)")
When Miles Bridges peeked at the Charlotte Hornets’ schedule and noticed they had two games in New York in four days sandwiched in between a home matchup with Denver, he didn’t mind. He salivated.
“It’s always great playing in New York,” Bridges said. “The atmosphere here, the energy here is crazy.”
So wild he had his own Spike Lee-Reggie Miller moment on Wednesday night.
“Somebody on the corner was talking crazy for a minute,” Bridges said. “Me and R.J. (Barrett) had a friendly exchange and they took it the wrong way. That was right before I went on my streak 14-0. Yeah, he kind of got me going, got me energized and that’s what I love about New York, you know? There’s a lot of hecklers. They are going to try to get under your skin and for me that just makes me play better.”
By silencing the critics just off Broadway and taking down the elder of the Big Apple’s two teams, the Hornets secured a spot in the play-in tournament. It became official thanks to their 125-114 win over the Knicks at Madison Square Garden on Wednesday. They’re guaranteed to finish no worse than 10th in the Eastern Conference and are still in position to host at least one play-in tournament game if things keep trending in the right direction and they improve on a 10-4 stretch that has them streaking.
The Hornets (40-37) remained in ninth place, a half-game behind eighth-place Brooklyn and a half-game ahead of Atlanta for the final spot in the play-in tournament. They could find themselves back in eighth again as soon as Thursday night and can gain some breathing room over the Hawks if things fall their way, provided Milwaukee tops the Nets and Cleveland knocks off Atlanta.
Being complacent isn’t an option with five games remaining.
“We can’t be content — we haven’t done s---,” Kelly Oubre said. “So we’ve got to continue to work, stay humble and continue to grind and create our own narrative for the future and establish ourselves in an area for sure that is in the winning light. So we’ve got to continue to stay hungry and stay humble.”
Outcomes like their win over the Knicks gives them hope they’ve got it going just as they near the season’s finish line. Bridges registered that personal 14-0 flurry and Ball had the Hornets’ offense flowing nicely, keying a crisp passing attack that racked up 39 team assists on 49 field goals.
Ball amassed a career-best 15 assists and through the initial 10:14 of the fourth quarter, he accounted for 76.2 percent of the Hornets’ points — seven points, four assists and nine points created off assists. He’s just the sixth player in franchise history to collect 20 points and 15 assists in a game and he’s netted at least 20 points in five straight games, tying the longest span of his career.
As if that wasn’t encouraging enough, the Hornets had to be excited to see Oubre pump out his best performance in a while. Oubre had posted double figures in scoring only once in his previous five outings, but he had the touch against the Knicks. His 21 points were the most he’s scored since putting up 23 against Toronto on Feb. 25.
That was 15 games ago.
“It felt really good, man,” Oubre said. “Like I said earlier, opportunity breeds success. I was able to be out there and sweat, contribute to the game. But I had energy and the effort was there for sure. So I’m just grateful to get the opportunity I did get.”
Kind of like Bridges. There’s a part of him that’s apparently still seething about New York’s front office during the 2018 draft not believing he was the guy for them, and the Knicks opted for Kevin Knox instead with the ninth selection.
Bridges got plucked off the board by the Hornets at No. 12 and is flourishing in his fourth year, preparing to cash in this offseason as a restricted free agent following a career year. Knox, on the other hand, faltered with the Knicks and got traded to Atlanta in January for Cam Reddish.
Bridges, meanwhile, has posted 30 or more points in three straight games at the Garden, becoming just the seventh player in the last 20 seasons with three or more 30-point games at the place dubbed “The World’s Most Famous Arena.”
New York, New York indeed.
“There’s a lot of history between me and the Knicks’ organization, going back to draft day,” Bridges said. “So every time I come in, I want to make a point of why they should have drafted me back then. I just try to be aggressive every time I come here and show them what I can do and it’s been working out.”
Unlike the team he felt shunned him, the Hornets know at a minimum they will have at least one game beyond their regular-season finale against Washington on April 10. Still, there was a business-like approach to their latest win.
“That came from the players,” Borrego said. “They want more. Obviously, I want more for them. But it’s got to come from them. ‘We’re not done. We want more. We are not satisfied with being in a play-in position here.’ We want to climb. We want to get better. We want to build momentum. So that’s the goal right now.”
This story was originally published March 31, 2022 at 8:20 AM.
