Hornets topple red-hot Knicks in New York: ‘We are not going to back down ever’
Always philosophical, Kelly Oubre explained the Charlotte Hornets’ plight by analyzing it in a way that only he can.
“Right now we are down,” Oubre said Tuesday night. “We are lions in the jungle. But when another alpha lion sees another alpha lion down, they try to kill them. So right now, we are prey. But honestly we are not going to back down ever. We will continue to fight each and every night, each and every game that we get to compete in.
“Everyone knows that we are not no slouches, but we are down right now because of all the injuries and stuff. But we’ll continue to get better and continue to take it on the chin, and whenever it’s our time to just repay everybody for what they are doing to us now, we’ll be doing it gracefully.”
No one with a pulse anticipated what transpired at Madison Square Garden, with the Hornets stunning New York in a 112-105 victory to end the Knicks’ nine-game winning streak. But this is what happens with the Hornets: Just when it seems like you have them figured out, they pull a stunt like they turned in against the Knicks, who were easily one of the hottest teams in the NBA.
Buoyed by an impressive fourth quarter filled with poise and execution, the Hornets (21-46) came up with the unexpected and captured their first victory since losing LaMelo Ball to a season-ending ankle injury last Monday.
“It’s great for our confidence hopefully going forward,” coach Steve Clifford said. “We had been improving a lot offensively in that stretch, and then Melo got hurt and we’ve struggled in the games without him. Tonight, I felt like we were a lot better, our ball movement was a lot better, we had more of a balance of offense, but our defense has been really good, this whole time.”
It’s no coincidence the Hornets’ were fueled by their veteran trio of Oubre, Gordon Hayward and Terry Rozier. Hayward has been on target of late, quietly posting at least 15 points in his past nine games and topping 20 in five of them. The span of 10 outings cracking double digits in scoring represent his longest of the season.
And leading into their three-game road trip, Hayward averaged 20.3 points while connecting on 54.9% of his attempts and a blistering from 3-point range 46.2% during that span. He’s found his legs after being in and out of the Hornets’ lineup so much battling injuries this season and isn’t showing signs of fatigue down the stretch.
“I think at this point of the season, everyone is tired,” Hayward said. “You are going through it and games are every other night. (The Knicks) have obviously had some emotional wins too, which that’s another is a part of it fatigue but just the mental and emotional. So, for us to win tonight was big for our team.”
Translation: the lions get to remain in the jungle for at least one more night.
“This is a great win right here,” Oubre said. “That’s a playoff-caliber team. They have a team that can make some noise this year in the playoffs, but we also look at from the spectrum of that’s where we want to be. We want to continue to get better, continue to just put ourselves in position to have an identity, play hard every night and make sure our record says that we are a good team even though it doesn’t show it.”
