What Hornets said after 1st meeting between Brandon Miller and Spurs’ Victor Wembanyama
Steve Clifford waived his right hand after yet another embarrassing defensive display led to a rim-rattling throw-down from Victor Wembanyama, signaling for a much-needed timeout.
Things had already fizzled somewhat for the Charlotte Hornets after the injury train picked up one more passenger, claiming Brandon Miller with a lower back contusion and ruining the first matchup between the top two selections in the NBA draft in June. But the Hornets coach saw enough, bothered they were unraveling easier than a ball of yarn
It never got any better, certainly not after Miller exited the Hornets’ 135-99 loss to San Antonio at Frost Bank Center on Friday night. Just another maddeningly frustrating night in a season chock full of them for the Hornets, who couldn’t even enjoy LaMelo Ball’s return, given Miller’s injury.
“I think we’ve just got to get more organized,” Clifford said. “As guys come back, this is the other part of it. It’s not going to be seamless, especially with us where we have so many guys. We are still not organized at all out there, and that hurt us.”
As did seeing Miller get all banged up.
“That definitely took a little bit out of us for sure,” Clifford said. “Hopefully, he’s OK and it’s not serious.”
Musical injury chairs remains a thing for the Hornets. They can’t shake it no matter what.
“That’s been a trend here,” Ball said. “You never want to see nobody go down. It’s always tough to see your gang go down. Hopefully he’ll get the treatment, get him back out here, go from there.
Miller was walking gingerly after the game, clearly still in some discomfort.
“Yeah, it’s just unfortunate,” Miles Bridges said. “Hopefully Brandon’s good, but it’s definitely frustrating when we get somebody back and then somebody else goes out; it’s definitely frustrating. But we’ve got to hope he’s good, and we’ve just got to continue to play.”
Here’s what else the Hornets (8-28) had to say after extending their losing streak to four games and falling for the 15th time in their last 16 outings:
On what the Hornets need to correct
“When you lose by that much, it’s a whole collective,” Ball said. “Everybody. We’ve just got to lock in.”
On keeping the positive despite the team’s non-stop struggles
“We are still blessed to be able to play the best game in the world,” Bridges said. “So, we’ve just got to continue to remember that. We’ve just got to continue playing the right way. Just be happy to be alive, you know? It’s deeper than basketball, so we just can’t be down. But this losing stiff ain’t it. But we can’t be down about it.”
“A lot of that stuff is the guys you have on your team,” Clifford said. “Terry has been unbelievable, having Miles back this year, he’s such a positive guy. Our guys have played hard. It’s just we don’t have any room for error, and we’ve had these stretches in every game, where lately — not the other night — but for the most part our defense is getting better. It’s been the offense.
“Now, the first 10 games of the year, we were 10th in offense. And that was before we got Miles back. We were playing with more pace, we were more inside out. Funny, we weren’t shooting as many threes. We were scoring an incredible amount of points in the paint, which I’m not sure if that is a shot profile we will sustain over time.”
On Spurs’ rookie Victor Wembanyama
“He shot the ball well from three,” Clifford said. “So that adds to his game. He was at 29 percent coming in. I think you’ve got to get into him and try to be as physical as you can. Don’t let him get to his spots”
On Terry Rozier shifting back to shooting guard
“Yeah, Terry’s been playing the ‘1’ the whole time so I’ve been adjusting to his game and then with Melo back, we’ve all got to adjust to his game,” Bridges said. “And that’s all it is. We’ve just got to get organized. Once we get organized, we’ll be good.”
“Terry is playing at a great level, and he now should get some easy shots,” Clifford said. “If you watch the way teams have defended him over the last seven or eight games, it’s really remarkable that he’s been able to play at the level that he has.
“He’s going to have a chance to get some possessions where they don’t double team. Literally the other night, every time he touched the ball, there’s two defenders, and it’s a hard way to play for anybody. He’s playing incredibly well, but obviously with someone like Melo out there he should get some easy ones, which will help him and help us.”
On Brandon Miller’s play this season before getting hurt
“I would say the biggest issue right now is he’s played too many minutes,” Clifford said. “He’s a little bit tired. He’s coming off sickness, still playing very well. He’s going to be a really good two-way player. He has size, he has IQ. He’s very much a throwback kid. You show him something, he does it. He’s super coachable, the game comes easy to him. He really has a chance to be a special player
“We’ve played 35, 36 games. He’s all-out on every possession, and he’s played a ton of minutes. I just don’t like it when he’s not out there. But I should have been more careful. But he’s tough enough. A big part of this league, you’ve got to know how to play when you are tired. He’s still playing well. But yeah, he’s played a ton of minutes.”
On what they miss without Mark Williams
“We went from 15th, 16th in defensive rebounding — it wasn’t great, but it was good — to 30th by a lot,” Clifford said. “We’ve lost four or five games just because we don’t have both of them. But with the two of them out there and (when) we can play both Mark and Nick (Richards), we’re big.
“Mark’s big and we were fine on the glass, and then just playing one of them has hurt. Now defensively in the last seven, eight games, we’ve played a lot better. But Mark’s talented, he also scores, and you execute when he’s on the floor. So we’ve missed him in a lot of areas.”
This story was originally published January 12, 2024 at 11:56 PM.
