Empty Cup in Orlando: Charlotte Hornets roughed up during in-season tournament loss to Magic
In case people forgot or were just totally impervious to the happenings, the specialized court with a huge trophy logo at center court was a reminder.
The NBA Cup, the league’s in-season tournament brainchild now in its second season, took center stage on Tuesday night, providing the Charlotte Hornets’ first-year coach with yet another challenge he embraces.
“I think it’s been a great addition to the season,” Charles Lee said. “I think the league did a really good job of implementing something that was going to bring a little intensity, almost create that playoff-vibe and intensity in the middle of the season.
“We’ve approached it with a lot of excitement and understanding what the grand prize is at the end of the day, too.”
Charlotte has a little work to do if it plans on having any shot at a December trip to Las Vegas, site of the tournament’s championship game for the second straight year. A 114-89 loss to the Magic in a East Group A matchup at Kia Center means the Hornets will have to dig out of a hole to advance out of pool play.
Matchups with Brooklyn, the New York Knicks and Philadelphia remain on tap over the next three weeks and the Hornets will need to bounce back quickly to punch a ticket to the next round. Once group play is complete, the six teams with the best standing in their respective groups earn a place in the knockout round.
Two wild card teams — one from each conference that finished with the next best record in group play action — also receive a nod. So a total of eight teams move onto the group stage and the final two left standing meet in the championship game on Dec. 17 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
“It’s a difficult hole we just dug ourselves in,” Grant Williams said. “But we’ve got to be mindful. Just because we dug ourselves a hole doesn’t mean we can’t beat somebody else by 30 points and put ourselves right back in it. For us. We’ve just got to approach each game with that same mentality.
“We play Brooklyn next, so we have to... actually go out there and compete and try to beat them by a large margin — and each one of these guys. Brooklyn, New York and Philly. We have to go out there and perform. … (The Magic) kind of punked us. They got the offense they wanted.”
It will be quite a chore for the Hornets (4-7) to reach anything beyond group action if they don’t cut back on the unforced miscues. The turnovers have been an issue of late and the problem cropped up once more against the Magic.
A 10-turnover second quarter helped erase LaMelo Ball’s flourishing first quarter, when he posted a career-best 16 points, surpassing his previous mark. Down four key players with Tre Mann (lower back soreness) joining Miles Bridges (knee), Mark Williams (foot) and Nick Richards (shoulder) on the injured list, the Hornets didn’t have enough firepower to give Orlando all those extra possessions, leading to a first-half separation they couldn’t recover from.
“That was the key to the game,” Williams said. “Turnovers was how they were going to score (to) make sure they were confident … When you are giving them 12, 15 points in transition, that’s how they beat you.”
The footage will be more teaching material for Lee.
“A couple of the turnovers, we saw the right play and we just couldn’t execute it,” Lee said. “So, I sit there sometimes and I’m like, ‘This is great for us. This is good for us to learn.’ We see the bigs are up in the pick-and-roll, we see our big is rolling and we try to make that pass and it’s a little high or it’s a little wide.
“So, it’s actually encouraging for me because I know as we continue to go through the season, we are going to keep getting better and better.”
Tre Mann sits
The Hornets didn’t have their Sixth Mann available and it hurt.
Mann, dealing with lower back soreness, couldn’t suit up against Orlando and he must’ve been in some pain to miss what is essentially a home game for him. Mann played at Florida and was also born in Gainesville, which is about a two-hour drive from Orlando.
“I actually thought in the Philly game, he started to feel a little bit of soreness,” Lee said, “and the competitor he is, he wanted to do it individually and also for the team. I thought he didn’t have his full burst, his full array of talents I guess you could say, on both ends of the floor.
“He tried to give it a go. I think he was still in a limited space physically and so it was unfortunate not to have him. But I know these next couple of days, it will be nice for him to get home, get some treatment and continue to kind of strengthen his back.”
Without Mann’s services, Lee went deeper into the rotation than he has in a while and summoned Vasa Micić off the bench. Micić collected seven consecutive DNP-coach’s decision after seeing action in the season’s initial three contests.
The offensive firepower of Mann, who entered Monday night’s action seventh in the NBA in scoring off the bench this season at 14.8 points per game, was sorely missed.
Just how much of a difference did Mann’s absence alter things? The first reserve off the bench turned out to be Moussa Diabate, and he continued his solid play, recording the first double-double of his career with 12 points and 15 rebounds.
“It’s very tough,” Diabate said. “Obviously, he’s one of our better scorers on the team and not having him around to bring us a couple of more buckets, it’s always more difficult. But I think he understands and he knows that. He’s trying to do everything he can to come back on the court, so we are just waiting on him, man.
“It’s definitely not easy at all.”
And Mann’s offensive prowess isn’t the only thing he does well.
“Missing his defensive impact, I think he’s been really good on that end of the floor,” Lee said, “coming up with deflections, taking on a lot of different matchups and stuff. So, we missed him in a lot of different ways.”
Going with Grant Williams
After inserting Tidjane Salaün into Miles Bridges’ starting power forward spot for the first two games following Bridges’ bruised a bone in his right knee, Charles Lee switched things up against the Magic.
Lee went with Grant Williams instead and explained why he moved Williams into the starting lineup, insisting the change wasn’t an indictment of Salaün.
“In a Cup game, on the road, there’s been a little bit of a trend with our first-quarter starts,” Lee said. “And so just wanted to have a veteran out there that brings a little extra stuff to his game, understanding who he is already and then that defensive savvy Grant brings to the lineup, too.
“So, I thought it was a good roster balance tonight.”
Still, Lee is pleased with Salaün’s incremental progress over the last month-plus.
“I just see a guy who continues to grow, to get more comfortable,” Lee said. “He’s just getting better with more reps, which makes sense for young guys. I think the speed of the game a lot of times and just understanding personnel can be a bit overwhelming. But for him, I just see, especially defensively, he’s better in coverages.
“And so whether we are switching, whether we have him at center, he’s just executing them better I think just technically, But also his communication, because I think the language barrier and also just new terminology at times, guys will execute the right coverage but they are just walking instead of actually communicating to their teammates.”
That’s not all.
“I think that he’s just done a much better job in the games as he gets more comfortable and more reps. And I think offensively, he’s had to play with a lot of different groups, so I think he’s just trying to get familiar with some of the offensive spacing and concepts. But he is shooting it without a conscience, which is good. We need catch-and-shoot 3s. And he’s also crashing the glass really, really well. So, I love his energy and effort and the competitiveness he plays with every time he’s on the floor.”
This story was originally published November 12, 2024 at 11:12 PM.
