The Hornets were never really competitive after the first quarter.
The Charlotte Hornets made exactly two 3-point field goals as they lost to the Utah Jazz, 120-102.
The Hornets led after a somewhat odd first quarter. They missed all three of their 3-point attempts and both of their free throw attempts, so they scored 24 points on 12 made 2-pointers. Terry Rozier scored eight early points and was later joined by Mark Williams, who made all four of his shot attempts in the final minutes of the first.
Mark Williams kept it rolling with a floater early in the second quarter. On the other end, the Hornets struggled to keep the Jazz out of the paint, and that led to a slew of open 3-point attempts. The Jazz hit six 3-pointers in the first seven and a half minutes of the second quarter and flipped the Hornets lead into a double digit deficit. That margin held into the halftime break, where the Hornets trailed 58-45.
The teams traded turnovers to start the second half before Mason Plumlee hit a nice little up and under, which was answered by Lauri Markkanen attempting a highlight dunk. Terry Rozier finally made the Hornets first 3-pointer on just their eighth attempt of the game earlu in the third. It was part of an 8-0 run that narrowed the deficit to five, but Mike Conley and the Jazz answered with a run of their own to put the Hornets back at arm’s length. Dennis Smith Jr. and Jalen McDaniels scored five straight for the Hornets to end the third quarter, and they went into the fourth quarter trailing by 10.
The Jazz opened the fourth quarter with a 12-2 run to take a 20 point lead. With how the Hornets were shooting the basketball, the lead quickly seemed insurmountable. The Hornets never threatened after that point, and a Walker Kessler dunk show really drove home the finality of the contest. A few pointless minutes passed before both teams emptied their benches for garbage time. The Hornets dominated the garbage time to make the final score look a little more respectable.
Terry Rozier led the Hornets with 23 points, but he took 23 shots to get there. The Hornets bigs combined to go 10-for-13 from the field to score 29 points. Dennis Smith Jr. had a quiet but very solid 15 points and nine assists off the bench.
The Hornets only attempted 16 3-pointers and made only two of them—both came from the hands of Rozier in the third quarter.