How Kemba Walker, small ball fared in Charlotte Hornets’ season opener

Small ball found a home Monday night at Spectrum Center.

Down by as many as 20 points, new Charlotte Hornets coach James Borrego went with an unorthodox lineup that had 6-foot-7 Michael Kidd-Gilchrist as the power forward and 6-8 Nic Batum as the center. It got the Hornets all the way back to a fourth-quarter tie before the Milwaukee Bucks held on 113-112 in both teams’ season opener.

Hornets star Kemba Walker (41 points) gave the Hornets their first lead with 36 seconds left, making two free throws off a foul by Ersan Ilyasova. Bucks star forward Giannis Antetokounmpo responded with a drive, drawing two free throws off a foul by Hornets center Willy Hernangomez with 24 seconds remaining. He made both.

Walker then drove the lane, and missed a layup. Teammate Marvin Williams grabbed the offensive rebound and passed to Nic Batum, who missed a 3-pointer to end the game.

That undersized unit included Walker, plus Tony Parker and Malik Monk (18 points).

Antetokounmpo finished with 25 points, 18 rebounds and eight assists, despite foul trouble that kept him on the bench much of the second half.

Three who mattered

Antetokounpo: A viable, NBA MVP candidate, he closed in on a triple-double in the first half.

Walker: He reached 20 points by midway through the third quarter. He did that 50 times last season.

Parker: Looked sharp off the bench in his Hornets debut, running the second unit.

Observations

▪ The Hornets had major difficulty early dealing defensively with the Bucks’ drive-and-kicks. They were converging on the ballhandler, but not closing out on the shooters, and Milwaukee hit its first five 3-point attempts.

▪ Popular in-house play-by-play announcer Big Pat wasn’t available for the opener (or the preseason) while recovering from a prior illness. The Hornets say they hope to have him back calling games soon.

▪ New Hornets coach James Borrego went 10 deep in the rotation in the first quarter, including rookie first-rounder Miles Bridges..

▪ Borrego said he was willing to experiment with going small and that got pretty extreme in the second quarter, when he played a few minutes with Kemba Walker, Malik Monk, Jeremy Lamb, Nic Batum and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist. Batum, who was a guard last season, was the tallest in that group at 6-8.

▪ While Borrego is looking for ways to allow Walker to play more off the ball, that doesn’t mean a de-emphasis of Walker as first offensive option: He took 13 shots in the first half, making seven..

Worth mentioning

▪ Malik Monk played big minutes off the bench and nailed four of his first eight 3s.

▪ Hornets rookie point guard Devonte Graham was inactive Wednesday, as were Joe Chealey and J.P. Macura, the two two-way contracts. Borrego said Tuesday he might sit out veteran Tony Parker occasionally for rest during the season, which would move Graham up to backup point guard.

▪ Walker and Parker played together starting late in the third quarter.

They said it

“You felt like the way he works and the way he connects with people, there was no limit to what J.B. could do.” – Bucks coach Mike Budenholzer on mentoring Borrego when he started out in the San Antonio Spurs’ video room.

“That’s the hottest seat in the building. Nobody understands how much pressure is on the video guy. If something screws up, you catch it.” – Budehnolzer on how he and Borrego started out in the NBA.

“We’re a work-in-progress at both ends of the floor.” – Borrego, entering his first game as Hornets coach.

Report card

B OFFENSE: The other starters have to do a lot more than they did in the first half to take pressure off Walker.

C- DEFENSE: In the first quarter it was as if the term “Drive-and-Kick” was foreign terminology - constant wide-open 3-point looks for the Bucks.

B COACHING: Borrego isn’t reluctant to experiment, as that super-small grouping demonstrated. The offense is far ahead of the defense.

This story was originally published October 17, 2018 at 9:40 PM with the headline "How Kemba Walker, small ball fared in Charlotte Hornets’ season opener."