Charlotte Hornets come up short against Chicago Bulls

Nic Batum performed a feat of remarkable concentration.

Hours earlier an apparent terrorist attack in his native France left the world locked on their television sets. Batum, the Charlotte Hornets’ starting shooting guard, had to compartmentalize his feelings about Paris and focus on the Chicago Bulls. Focus he did, scoring a season-high 28 points. But it wasn’t enough as the Bulls prevailed 102-97 at the United Center.

Bulls guard Jimmy Butler iced this victory with a 20-foot jump shot with 5.4 seconds left, giving Chicago a five-point lead.

The Hornets had a tremendous night from the 3-point line, making 15 of 33 attempts. But they were outscored at the foul line 24-10 and outrebounded 57-45.

Three who mattered

Batum: He was keeping close track of the tragic events in his native France. Impressive he managed to maintain focus in this game.

Pau Gasol: Bulls big man Gasol might not play with a lot of flash, but he’s off the chart in his efficiency on the basketball court.

Joakim Noah: Grabbing 16 rebounds and handing out six assists off the bench is a feat.

Observations

▪  Cody Zeller missed Friday’s game with a sore ankle, which opened up playing time for Chicagoan Frank Kaminsky. Steve Clifford has been looking for minutes for Kaminsky to exploit his offensive skills. That’s been tough behind Zeller and Marvin Williams at power forward. Like most rookie big men, Kaminsky needs to get stronger to hold his ground against veterans defensively.

▪  There was a lot of chatter pre-game about Charlotte reserve guard Brian Roberts throwing up a jump shot at the end of the Hornets’ prior blowout of the Bulls. Bulls guard Jimmy Butler called Roberts’ shot “disrespectful.” Seemed like much ado over nothing.

▪  Matt Carroll sang the national anthem. No, not the former Bobcat who now does radio and other duties for the Hornets; but the guy sure had a great voice.

▪  Hornets coach Steve Clifford said pre-game he’s open to sending undrafted rookie Aaron Harrison for a development-league stint. But Clifford added Harrison has been quite useful in practice, particularly in the absence of the injured Michael Kidd-Gilchrist.

▪  Bulls coach Fred Hoiberg is a big fan of the Hornets’ bench, particularly two guards: “Jeremy Lamb and Jeremy Lin are playing as well as any two bench players in the league right now.”

Worth mentioning

▪  Kaminsky air-balled a 3-point attempt in the first quarter. His hometown crowd was less than sympathetic.

▪  Shooting guard Troy Daniels got his first non-garbage time minutes of the season in the first half of this game.

▪  The Bulls ended up signing Pau Gasol as a backup plan after losing out on Carmelo Anthony two summers ago. That defines an alls-well-that-ends-well story.

Report card

B OFFENSE: The three-point shooting was excellent, but the Hornets didn’t get to the foul line much.

B+ DEFENSE: Three-point defense, a flaw much of this early season for the Hornets, was much improved Friday.

B COACHING: Steve Clifford needs to figure out how to get Al Jefferson more involved in the offense.

 

This story was originally published November 13, 2015 at 10:37 PM with the headline "Charlotte Hornets come up short against Chicago Bulls."