I hope you didn’t watch this game.
Normally this starts with a player or two that played well. This game was so bad there’s no one to put here. The Charlotte Hornets were simply outclassed by the Memphis Grizzlies and were blown out by a score of 130-99.
The Hornets fell behind quickly. Dillon Brooks got hot from three while the Hornets couldn’t manufacture any looks in the half court on offensively. The Hornets trailed 24-7 after six-and-a-half minutes of play. They were able to hold that margin for a while when the benches came in and the fight evened up a bit. After one, the Hornets trailed 41-24.
The offensive production wasn’t the only problem for the Hornets. On the rare occasion the Grizzlies did miss a shot, it was more likely that Steven Adams would get the rebound than any Hornet. At a point early in the second quarter, the Hornets had five defensive rebounds as a team while Steven Adams alone had six offensive rebounds. At halftime, the Hornets had 13 defensive rebounds while the Grizzlies had 12 offensive rebounds. Adams had 10 of those. The Hornets committed 11 turnovers compared to just 16 made shots. At the half, they trailed by 24.
The Grizzlies splashed a pair of triples coming out of the break to quiet any thoughts of an early half run from the Hornets. Another Dillon Brooks three put the Grizzlies up 31 just four minutes into the second half. The teams traded buckets for a bit before misses and turnovers from the Hornets were answered my more Grizzly threes. The Grizzlies had a couple of chances to go up by 40 before the end of the third, but the Hornets were at least spared that embarrassment. The Hornets trailed 104-69 heading into the fourth quarter.
The only reason to play the fourth quarter was to see how bad the score could get. It took the Grizzlies 99 seconds to go on a 6-1 run to go up by 40 and force Steve Clifford to take a timeout to empty the bench.
There were no bright spots in this loss. The Hornets couldn’t generate good looks and couldn’t make the shots they got. The Grizzlies made offense on the other end look effortless, and when they did miss, they were just as likely to get the rebound as the Hornets were.
Kelly Oubre led the Hornets in scoring with 17 points, but he made almost no other contributions and had a team worst plus-minus of -40. PJ Washington was two of 15 from the field and was stripped and blocked more than the box score would suggest.
The Hornets will travel home to face a Nets team that’s been in disarray but will be fresh off a win over the Wizards in which they outscored their opposition 59-29 in the second half.