Charlotte Hornets’ defense culprit for ninth loss in 10 games

Everything looked good on the surface early Saturday night for the Charlotte Hornets, but even then Steve Clifford’s coaching staff could see trouble brewing.

Mistakes on defense have become a common refrain for the Hornets of late, and the Milwaukee Bucks feasted on them in the final three quarters of a 105-92 victory at Time Warner Cable Arena. Khris Middleton had 24 points to lead the Bucks, who dealt the Hornets their ninth loss in 10 games.

The Hornets surged to an early lead, and led by 10 after the first quarter, but the Bucks racked up 65 points in the middle two quarters and easily fended off one mini-charge early in the fourth quarter.

Jeremy Lin had 15 points, and Marvin Williams had 14 for the Hornets. Charlotte shot 37.9 percent from the field, including 25 percent from beyond the 3-point line, but the defense was yet again the biggest problem.

Three who mattered

Kris Middleton: The silky-shooting swingman went 11 of 16 from the field, including 11 of 14 from inside the 3-point arc. He had 20 of his 24 points in the final three quarters.

Giannis Antetokounmpo: A matchup nightmare, the athletic “Greek Freak” filled up the box score with 14 points, 11 rebounds, three assists and three blocked shots.

Nic Batum: He led the Hornets with nine assists, and the offense looked so much more fluid with him on the court, but he also missed 8 of 10 shots from the field.

Observations

The Hornets made their first four 3-pointers, but made only four of the next 28 en route to a 9-for-36 night. As the game wore on, even wide-open shots were not falling.

The bench, which is second in the league in scoring, provided 43 points for the Hornets, but the reserves clearly struggled at the defensive end.

Lin provided a little “Linsanity” magic with a flurry of drives to get the Hornets back in the game early in the fourth quarter, and also couldn’t keep Middleton from pushing the lead back to double-digits when they picked on him at the defensive end.

Milwaukee has one of the tallest starting lineups in the league, and the Bucks’ length bothered the Hornets. The Bucks had nine blocked shots in the first half, and several were on jump shots or layups that normally would not get deflected.

“The Amazing Sladek” finished his halftime performance act involving a tower of connected chairs by also trying to pull off the “Dab.” He should stick to furniture-related acrobatics.

Worth mentioning

Both teams were playing for the third time in four nights. The Bucks went to overtime Friday night, and had two players (Antetokounmpo and Middleton) who played more than 45 minutes. It didn’t appear to affect them.

After the Bucks put together a 12-0 run to extend the lead to 21 points with 3:50 left in the fourth, Clifford had seen enough and made four changes, including the three healthy guys who hadn’t played to that point.

Jeremy Lamb missed his second straight game because of a toe strain, joining Al Jefferson (knee) and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist (shoulder) on the injury list.

They said it

“When teams get that many easy baskets … it takes a lot out of you when they’re scoring that easily.” – Hornets coach Steve Clifford

“They are very long and athletic, but we had some open shots. There were a few for myself that I feel like I could go make right now. We just made so many mistakes at the defensive end.” – Hornets forward Marvin Williams

“It’s been a while since we’ve been able to play much defense.” – Clifford

Report card

C- OFFENSE: The ball moved well and the shots fell in a beautiful first quarter, but not so much after that. The Bucks are the second-worst team in the league in defensive efficiency (106.4 points allowed per 100 possessions), so the Hornets should have expected better.

D DEFENSE: Milwaukee’s starters shot nearly 62 percent from the floor, and did nearly all of their damage inside the 3-point line. The Hornets couldn’t offer enough resistance in one-on-one matchups and yielded far too many easy looks.

C COACHING: Clifford tried some different things, whether it was different players matching up on the wings or eventually providing more help on isolation plays. He said improvement on defense isn’t likely to come from an immediate lineup change.

This story was originally published January 16, 2016 at 10:29 PM with the headline "Charlotte Hornets’ defense culprit for ninth loss in 10 games."