A decent first half fell by the wayside after the halftime intermission.
The Charlotte Hornets mustered just 43 second half points as they lost to the Washington Wizards, 118-104.
Both teams came out of the gate hot after missing their respective first shots. Terry Rozier and LaMelo Ball combined for three early 3-pointers and the Hornets took a modest early lead. The Hornets held that modest lead until Anthony Gill led the Wizards bench on a little run, but a Ball runner briefly put the Hornets back on top before a Kendrick Nunn buzzer beater to end the quarter.
Ball continued as the catalyst for the Hornets offense early in the second with another three and a nice assist inside. A trio of baskets by Dennis Smith and a short jumper by Gordon Hayward helped the Hornets build a lead as large as nine, but the Wizards responded with a 12-2 run to level the game once again. The game stayed even from there through halftime. The Hornets hit 61 points on a rare 35-foot alley-oop from Ball to Mark Williams in a halfcourt situation, and that was matched by a Deni Avdija three on the other end with just two seconds to play in the half.
The Hornets were dealt a scare when Mason Plumlee had to leave the game after taking a hard hit on the hand when going up for a dunk attempt. Het got the fingers taped up on the right hand and was back in the game before the third quarter was over. The Hornets offense went cold shortly after with a bunch of perimeter misses while the Wizards did the opposite. Threes by Avdija and Kristaps Porzingis put the Wizards up seven seven minutes into the quarter. Porzingis got hot from there. He made four 3-pointers and scored 18 points in the third quarter alone. The Hornets made just 6-of-25 shots in the period and trailed by 12 at quarter’s end.
The game continued to slip out of the Hornets grasp and they quickly found themselves in a high-teens deficit. That eventually grew to 20 as Porzingis continued to pour it on. The only real threat from the Hornets was a 10-2 run in the middle parts of the quarter, but by that point they were in too deep a hole without enough time to dig out of it. The Wizards eventually shut it down and drained the clock, and some meaningless possessions set the final score.
PJ Washington led the Hornets with 20 points, but much of his night felt worse than the box score would suggest. Six other players scored between nine and 19 points, but no one stood out in a good or bad way.
The Hornets have a day off to gather themselves before back to back games against the two best teams in the league. That starts with a nationally televised game against the Celtics on Friday.