![]() "And I certainly wanted to make a statement offensively. "Scoring six points, my career-low, I'm pretty sure you guys were saying how old I was," said Jordan, who last scored 50 when he put up 55 in a 1997 playoff game against Washington. Jordan's performance occurred 48 hours after he posted the lowest point total in his 13-year NBA career, a six-point effort against Indiana on Thursday that was also the first time in 866 games he failed to score in double figures. He made a team-record 21 field goals on 38 attempts and converted 9 of 10 free throws, and the Wizards ended a two-game losing streak and improved to 15-14 before a capacity crowd of 20,674. In his best game since returning from retirement, Jordan, 38, became the oldest player in league history to score at least 50 points in a game. The Charlotte Hornets are playoff pretenders.Two days after playing the worst game of his career, Michael Jordan gave a vintage performance, scoring 51 points in Washington's 107-90 victory over the Charlotte Hornets last night at MCI Center. Unfortunately, due to the depth of the Eastern Conference and the fact that Charlotte most likely Draws the Brooklyn Nets in the first game, this year won’t be the year to kick off that run. If this franchise can keep this core together while finding a few key pieces to add, we could see this team in the playoffs for years to come. The Charlotte Hornets are one of the most exciting young teams to watch in the NBA today. However, they certainly want to avoid sliding into the postseason as they did at the end of the year last year. An opportunity the Hornets should relish as they will have a chance at avenging Wednesday’s 15-point loss at home.Ĭharlotte has a six-game lead on New York for the final play-in spot, so they should be comfortable with their odds to make the tournament. One of the three remaining will be against the New York Knicks. Six of Charlotte’s last nine regular-season games come against playoff-caliber teams. The Hornets will need that confidence to carry them through this final stretch. That recent five-game winning streak included only one team, not in play-in consideration. The recent experience against quality teams should play in Charlotte’s favor. These losses came at the hands of Brooklyn, Chicago, and Cleveland, among others. The other? They were playing against some good teams. One of the common threads was the Hornets’ offense. I previously mentioned the Hornets’ poor performances in a recent stretch of games. Games tend to slow down in the playoffs, so Charlotte will hope for big nights from Mason Plumlee and PJ Washington in the paint as the post-season draws near. The best approach the Hornets can take is to get all of its runners in the mix. They don’t play great defense, so Charlotte needs to get into track meets to win games. This team needs its offense firing on all cylinders in order to win. These games feature an offense that feels off, often leading to big nights from Ball or Rozier while the team plays from behind. The common thread in these losses? An unbalanced offensive attack. Including that performance, the Hornets are 5-6 in the last 11 games in which their leading scorer had over 30 points. Of course, we have the recent win against the Nets where Ball dropped 33. This could be a coincidence, but I believe this offensive approach is key to the Hornets winning games.Ĭonversely, let’s look at the Hornets’ record in recent games where the leading scorer eclipsed the 30-point mark. Additionally, each of these three players scored at least 10 points in each of these wins. Sticking with the win streak, in the five wins, only one included a game-high of over 30 points. This team seems to thrive when all members of this three-headed monster are well fed. Terry Rozier, Lonzo Ball, and Bridges have formed a nice three-pronged attack offensively. Looking at the five-game winning streak, Charlotte had three different leading scorers in those five games. The most impressive part of this Hornets run has been the balanced offensive attack. The Hornets are getting hot at the right time. A bounce-back performance led by Miles Bridges saw Charlotte take down the Utah Jazz on Friday night. The Hornets had won five games in a row and seven of their last 10 contests prior to a tough 121-106 loss to the New York Knicks. Charlotte can thank a recent winning streak for that above. At 39-36, Charlotte is eight games behind the top-seeded Boston Celtics and only 3.5 games behind the Toronto Raptors for a guaranteed place in the first round. The Hornets currently sit in the eighth spot in the Eastern Conference standings after last night’s win against the Brooklyn Nets.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |