Hornets gameday: Marvin Williams’ injury, figuring the best defensive approach
A week ago, Charlotte Hornets forward Marvin Williams suffered a right shoulder injury that briefly left no feeling in his arm. Five days later, Williams started against the Denver Nuggets.
“You’ve got to give Marvin a lot of credit; most guys would not have played,” Hornets coach James Borrego said Saturday. “This is not an injury (that heals easily), especially on his shooting shoulder. He’s a warrior. He’s a competitor. He wanted to be out there with his team. He battles.”
The Hornets originally projected Williams would miss a minimum of a week after he was examined Monday. He was upgraded to questionable Thursday, then cleared to play pre-game. He played 33 minutes, hit three 3-pointers and finished with 14 points and 10 rebounds.
Williams participated in practice Saturday before the flight to New York and was expected to play Sunday night against the Knicks. He said after Friday’s game his shoulder injury doesn’t impede his shooting motion. The injury is primarily on the back of his shoulder, so it’s aggravated more by the things he does to defend and rebound.
Williams said his shoulder was pretty painful after Friday’s game, and he expects to play in some discomfort for a while.
Defense travels
If there are two things that have held the Hornets back in this 12-13 start, they’ve been defense and road performance. These are not unrelated.
The Hornets were just 3-8 away from Spectrum Center entering Sunday’s game and have lost road games already to the three worst team in the Eastern Conference (Cleveland, Atlanta and Chicago). Forever the expression in basketball has been that defense travels because it’s less dependent on conditions: Different lighting or tight rims or unfamiliar backgrounds behind baskets can detract from shooting but don’t impede a team’s ability to guard.
Entering Sunday’s game at Madison Square Garden, the Hornets were fifth among 30 NBA teams in offensive rating at 113.37 points per 100 possessions. They were 19th in defensive rating, allowing 110.34 points per 100 opponent possessions.
It’s not surprising this team’s offense is ahead of its defense: Borrego helped the offense, to the potential expense of defense, when he replaced Michael Kidd-Gilchrist with Jeremy Lamb in the starting lineup (moves that, on balance, have worked well). Also, the increased switching the Hornets have done defensively was always going to require an adjustment period.
Borrego was encouraged by what he saw Friday, when the Hornets held the Denver Nuggets, then leading the Western Conference, to 107 points and 39 percent shooting. The Nuggets are ninth in offensive rating.
“I think we’re covering for each other more than we ever have,” Borrego said. “We don’t want to give up the easy shots, and I think that’s where we’re making progress. We’re not giving up (as many) layups, dunks, and-ones. And we’re not giving up the wide-open 3s.
“You can’t always control how well a team shoots it. Your hope is that you run the (best) guys off, that you limit the 3 from the big-time shooters. We talk about being disruptive as a unit and (Friday) night we were disruptive, we were physical.”
Borrego is adjusting how much the Hornets switch. It’s less widespread than it was early in the season. You still see it extensively with players such as Williams and Kidd-Gilchrist, less so with center Cody Zeller or point guard Kemba Walker.
Shot search
The Hornets have not generally been a strong offensive team the past few seasons. They have been in the upper half of the league this season in points and shooting. Borrego thinks they can be that much better, and that is about not settling for mediocre shot attempts.
“Keep trusting each other with the pass,” Borrrego said. “Not just the good shot, we want the great shot and I think you’ve seen that in the last two games..”
This story was originally published December 9, 2018 at 11:55 AM with the headline "Hornets gameday: Marvin Williams’ injury, figuring the best defensive approach."