Gordon Hayward’s injury luck runs out. What we learned in the Hornets’ loss to the Bulls
.JPG "Charlotte Hornets forward Gordon Hayward (20) drives as Chicago Bulls guard Goran Dragic, left, center Nikola Vucevic, right, and guard Alex Caruso, rear, defend during the first half of an NBA basketball game in Chicago, Wednesday, Nov. 2, 2022. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)")
Steve Clifford didn’t sugarcoat the immense task the Charlotte Hornets have to navigate through, explaining the difficulties associated with having the team’s top playmakers injured.
Clifford’s been without the services of LaMelo Ball all season and Terry Rozier hasn’t suited up for the bulk of it, either. So when Gordon Hayward got added to the injury list on Wednesday night and wasn’t on the floor for the entire second half of their 106-88 loss to Chicago at the United Center, the coach was introspective about keeping things afloat.
“That’s where attitude comes in and you can’t overreact,” Clifford said. “But you do have to know why you are winning and why you are losing. Look, if we have one more of those guys ... If we have Melo or Terry or Gordon, we can win it. But you can’t play without all of them. And those are the guys we play through, so it makes it hard. I’m not saying we can’t win a game. But it’s going to be hard.”
It’s why Clifford isn’t overreacting as the Hornets (3-5) seesaw. At least not yet.
“This wasn’t about effort,” he said. “There’s short-handed and then there’s where we’re at right now. This is tough stuff.”
Here’s what we learned in the Hornets’ second straight loss:
Hayward banged up again
Gordon Hayward’s injury luck lasted for about three weeks.
Hayward sat out the second half with left shoulder soreness and was replaced in the starting lineup by Jalen McDaniels, delivering another to a team already besieged with an assortment of ailments.
“It’s something that’s been going on for a couple of games,” Clifford said, “and it’s been really sore and the pain got to be too much at halftime. So, it’s something that’s been two or three games now that he’s played with it.”
Not having Hayward available immediately conjured up visions of the previous two years of the veteran’s tenure with the team. He missed 21 of their final 22 games a season ago and wasn’t on the court for a good portion of the preseason last month after suffering a left knee contusion during the first few days of training camp.
Hayward has appeared in just 100 of 163 games since he signed with the Hornets.
“He’s worked so hard,” Clifford said, adding McDaniels could get the starting nod in Hayward’s place if he can’t play in Memphis on Friday. “He’s had such a good summer in all aspects and hopefully this isn’t something that’s serious.”
Bench mobbed
Chicago’s reserves got the best of the Hornets’ non-starters and that was a huge factor.
Goran Dragić and Javonte Green shredded Charlotte and combined for 33 of the Bulls’ points off the bench, propelling them to a whopping 49-28 advantage in that category.
Green came into the game averaging 5.1 points and was shooting 20% from 3-point territory. But he played flawless against the Hornets, canning all seven shots. That includes a 3-for-3 effort beyond the arc.
The Bulls’ bench posted 34.8 points per game prior to their date with the Hornets.
“I don’t think we came as locked in as we should have been for 48 minutes,” said Kelly Oubre, who had a game-high 24 points on 9-of-17 shooting. “So those types of things, when you slow down their star players and other players kind of affect the game, those are the types of games you don’t want to have. But credit to them.”
Can’t stop the ‘3’
So much for that top-ranked 3-point defense.
One of the Hornets’ strengths through the season’s first half-dozen plus games centered around their ability to contain teams on the perimeter. They entered the evening leading the league in limiting the opposition to 35.5%. But the Bulls had little trouble dissecting the Hornets from 3-point range.
Chicago hit seven of its first nine attempts beyond the arc and at one point sank 9 of 10, riding the hot shooting from deep to an 11-point edge in the first half. The Bulls nailed 45.2% of their 3-pointers, draining 14 of 31.
“We gave them easy, wide-open 3-pointers,” Oubre said. “We’re in the NBA, so if you give somebody a wide-open 3-pointer they are going to knock them down, because they work on that each and every day. So we did those things to start the game, and it was kind of our rotation and our close-out awareness kind of bit us in the butt in the game.”
This story was originally published November 2, 2022 at 10:58 PM.
