Kemba Walker reaches 10,000 career points as Hornets outlast the Heat

Considering how many horrors the Charlotte Hornets have experienced in Miami, only fair something so pleasant happened there, too.

All-Star point guard Kemba Walker, already the Hornets’ all-time scorer, reached 10,000 career points Saturday as the centerpiece of a 113-112 road victory over the Heat. Walker finished with 39; he needed 26 to reach the milestone.

The Hornets seemingly had this game wrapped up, leading by as many as 26 points. But their 3-point shooting collapsed in the second half. The Heat’s Rodney McGruder drove to the rim with 45 seconds left to trim the Hornets’ lead to one.

The Hornets’ Michael Kidd-Gilchrist drew a foul from Heat center Hassan Whiteside, who grew up in Gastonia. Kidd-Gilchrist made one of two free throws to make it a two-point game with 24.7 seconds left.

The Heat’s Dwyane Wade, in his final NBA season, missed a 3-pointer, but grabbed in his own rebound and scored on a layup with 12.3 seconds left for the tie.

Walker responded with a drive, picking up a foul from McGruder. He made the first free throw for the lead, hitting the rim with the second to kill the remaining time for the victory.

The Hornets improved to 2-1.

Walker has had a spectacular start to this season: In the first half Saturday, he made five 3-pointers, which set an NBA record. No player had previously started a season with three games of five or more 3s. Walker entered this game already having tied a league record: His 12 3s in the first two games tied Ray Allen for most in a season’s first two games.

American Airlines Arena has been a brutal venue for the Hornets, who had lost 14 of their prior 16 games here. Their past two playoff appearances both ended in first-round losses to Miami, the most recent a Game 7 blowout in this building in 2016.

Walker set the Hornets’ scoring record late last season, passing original Hornet Dell Curry, who still serves as color analyst on the team’s telecasts. Walker becomes an unrestricted free agent for the first time in his career in July. He has said he wants to remain a Hornet, and team general manager Mitch Kupchak said as recently as this month the franchise wants Walker to end his career in Charlotte.

Three who mattered

Walker: The second game of a back-to-back, when the opposing team is home waiting, is rough, and Walker set the tone on the road.

Malik Monk: He made some gutsy shots in the fourth quarter after starter Jeremy Lamb fouled out.

Goran Dragic: His weaving drives to the rim were a major problem for the Hornets in the second half.

Observations

▪ Hornets rookie Devonte Graham was activated for the first time Saturday, in part because this was the second game of a back-to-back set and coach James Borrego wanted to have an alternative to playing veteran Tony Parker heavy minutes. There was thought Parker might even be inactive Saturday.

▪ With Graham active, Borrego did not activate guard-forward Dwayne Bacon. That meant all four Hornets centers were available to play.

▪ Power forward Marvin Williams made his 500th 3-pointer as a Hornet Friday in Orlando, and that’s a tribute to re-invention. Williams was nothing like a 3-point threat initially, coming out of North Carolina in 2005. He made a total of 25 3s his first three NBA seasons, off 108 attempts. In his four full seasons in Charlotte, he’s never failed to shoot at least 265 3s and has made at least 35 percent of them.

▪ This team didn’t look like it was built for rim-protection, but Saturday the Hornets had eight blocks in the first half Michael Kidd-Gilchrist and Marvin Williams combined for seven of those.

▪ The Hornets actually shot a higher percentage from 3-point range in the first half (60 percent) than from the field (57 percent).

Worth mentioning

▪ This was the second of four consecutive road games for the Hornets. They were scheduled to spend the night in Miami Saturday before the long flight Sunday to Toronto.

▪ The Hornets entered Saturday’s game with no injuries, as was the case for the prior two games. The Heat played without former Duke star Justise Winslow (hamstring).

▪ Friday’s victory in Orlando was the 12th in a row over the Magic, the longest such streak in Hornets history. The previous record was 11 consecutive victories over the Detroit Pistons.

They said it

“He drives our spirit, our culture. He doesn’t take a play off, doesn’t take a game off, doesn’t take a practice off. That’s an infectious spirit that we need.” – Borrego on the standard Walker sets for his teammates.

“If I wasn’t competing against him, he’d be one of those guys that I’d pay to watch play..” – Heat coach Erik Spoelstra on Walker.

“It speaks to our league - the diversity, the openness, the inclusion - and I’m proud to be part of that.” – Borrego on the Hornets’ G-League affiliate, the Greensboro Swarm, hiring Chasity Melvin, a former N.C. State and WNBA player, as an assistant coach.

Report card

B OFFENSE: Those two halves couldn’t have been more different, but they came away with enough points.

B+ DEFENSE: The 12 blocks were a pleasant surprise.

A COACHING: If you’d told Borrego he’d be 2-0 on this road trip when the schedule came out, he probably wouldn’t have believed it.

This story was originally published October 20, 2018 at 10:58 PM with the headline "Kemba Walker reaches 10,000 career points as Hornets outlast the Heat."