Hornets stun Warriors in OT. What went right for Charlotte in win over Golden State
With their first set of games on consecutive nights on tap, Steve Clifford explained his thoughts on the difficulty of the task facing the Charlotte Hornets.
“Usually the teams that struggle a lot on back-to-backs are the older teams,” the coach said. “We have a younger team. It really just speaks to you’ve got to get ready to play. You’ve got to play when you don’t feel good in the league, got to play when you’re tired. We talked about it.”
The Hornets heeded Clifford’s edict.
Once again missing LaMelo Ball, Terry Rozier and Cody Martin, Charlotte found itself in a tussle with the rested defending champs fewer than 24 hours after being mauled in Orlando. They weren’t intimidated, led for a huge chunk of the game and outplayed the Warriors in the clutch, gutting out a 120-113 overtime victory before a sellout crowd of 19,079 at Spectrum Center on Saturday night, apparently undaunted by the wizardry of Charlotte’s own Stephen Curry.
Chalk up another surprising early-season achievement for the scrappy Hornets.
“I think it’s special for two reasons,” Dennis Smith Jr. said. “It’s a back-to-back. We got blasted and came back and had to protect home court. We won a back-to-back when we were 2-13 on those last year. And then it was an overtime game, and I think we were bad in overtime games last year. So just the game plan that coach had, and we had the discipline to execute.
“We did a great job of that and got a win against the defending champs.”
In impressive fashion, too. This one should serve as future fodder, perhaps providing the Hornets (3-3) with an injection of confidence — and a blueprint.
“We have a young team,” said Kelly Oubre, who had 18 points, 5 rebounds and 5 assists. “It’s on us whether we bring ourselves and perform at the highest level that we know how to perform. We have to continue to learn how to take care of our bodies, keep our minds fresh and pretty much execute on any given night.
“Whether it’s a back-to-back or if we have one game in five days. It’s all just another game for us and we’ve got to go out and execute and play as hard as we possibly can.”
Here’s what we learned in the Hornets’ impressive victory:
DSJ comes through
Dennis Smith Jr.’s contributions go way beyond his 13 points, 9 rebounds and 8 assists. While those numbers are significant, the 24-year-old’s impact in one particular area can’t be measured with statistics.
When the game was on the line and the Warriors put the ball into Curry’s hands, the person most responsible for guarding him wasn’t someone who’s been on the team for months. That designation went to Smith Jr., and he came through, using his 6-foot-2, 205-pound frame to make things a little more difficult for Curry.
Smith Jr. helped limit Curry to a 2-for-6 display in the fourth quarter, including forcing him to take a 27 footer at the end of regulation. And Curry misfired on his lone attempt in overtime, clanking a 33 footer with 16.5 seconds remaining.
“I thought Dennis Smith Jr. was a real key to the game tonight,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said. “He hit a couple of big threes. His defense was really impressive the whole game. Steph got his points, but Dennis made him work.”
Those words were music to Smith Jr.’s ears.
“That means a lot to me,” he said. “I appreciate that. I had to work my (butt) off this summer. A lot of people were trying to say, ‘Oh, he shouldn’t be in the league,’ this, that and the third. Just having to tune all of that out and lock in and to be able to come in and execute and win a game against those guys, shoot that means the world to me.
“It means a lot to my family to see me do that and I’m thankful for the opportunity.”
Bounceback for PJ
After a rough performance against the Magic in which he went scoreless until the fourth quarter and missed all but two of his nine shots and posted just five points, PJ Washington was a serious force.
Washington did it inside and out, easily topping his season scoring average of 11.2 points per game before halftime. A 15-point effort through two quarters propelled him to a season-best 31-point evening to go with seven rebounds against Golden State. He also had six big points in overtime.
When the fourth-year big man is making his shot from the perimeter, it stretches the opposing team’s defense because their big man has to honor Washington’s stroke. That in turn opens things up for others and gives them a little more room to operate.
“I just wanted to make up,” Washington said. “I felt like I played bad (in Orlando). I feel like I let my team down, so I just wanted to come out and be aggressive, make easy baskets and just put ourselves in a position to win.”
Solid ball movement
Offensive fluidity did the Hornets justice in the first half, but it slowed down a bit in the second half.
After recording 12 assists on 13 made field goals in the first quarter and all but five of the 22 shots the connected on in the first half, the Hornets’ ball movement played a pivotal role in their win. They had 15 assists on their 21 made shots in the final three quarters.
The person dishing out the most assists surely raised more than a few eyebrows. Mason Plumlee led the way with seven assists, which includes the five he had in the first quarter — marking the fourth time in his career he’s recorded at least five assists in a quarter.
“It was flowing,” Oubre said. “There’s definitely some things we can get better and making reads playing against great defenses like played tonight. But we were moving it and helping each other play advantage basketball, getting into the seams and kicking it to the wide open man. So we’ve got to continue to do that.”
Hack-a-Plumlee effective
Kerr went with a strategy not many have used against the Hornets and it worked.
With Mason Plumlee’s free-throw woes well-documented, Kerr elected to purposefully foul Plumlee late in the fourth quarter in an effort to allow the Warriors to shave down a six-point deficit. Plumlee, who switched his shooting motion at the tail end of last season to left-handed, made just 2-of-4 attempts before Clifford subbed him out in favor of Jalen McDaniels.
Plumlee made 2 of 6 free-throw attempts overall, dropping his season percentage below the 55% showing he entered the game with. If others start to try the same thing, it could force Clifford to make an adjustment in late-game situations.
On the mend
The reinforcements could be ready soon.
Although Ball missed his sixth straight game, Martin sat for the fifth straight outing and Rozier wasn’t available for fourth consecutive game, the Hornets’ injured trio is apparently progressing. Ball and Rozier were among the final two players going through pregame warmups and seemed to be moving relatively well as they work their way back from sprained ankles.
“They’re closer,” Clifford said. “They did some stuff in the last two shootarounds. All three of them are able to jump in and do some stuff. We are not doing a ton of practice now because we are in the middle of 15 games in 28 days. So our practices are not a lot of live (work) But they’ve been involved in the last couple of shootarounds.”
This story was originally published October 29, 2022 at 9:50 PM.
