Miles Plumlee Makes Impact in His Charlotte Hornets Debut in Loss to Utah
Miles Plumlee made a solid contribution in his debut while Frank Kaminsky continued to light up the nets as the Charlotte Hornets fell to the Jazz.
The Charlotte Hornets (23-28) dropped their seventh straight game as they lost a close one to the Utah Jazz (32-19). The game came down to the wire but clutch shots from the home team led them to victory. Charlotte was shorthanded but they still blew a late lead to pile on top of their current struggles.
The Hornets were led by Kemba Walker as he finished with 18 points. Although, he did struggle with his shooting as he was only 6-17 from the field. Marvin Williams put together one of his best games of the season as he scored 16 points to go along with 12 boards. This was the team’s first game with Roy Hibbert and Spencer Hawes after they were traded to the Milwaukee Bucks.
Charlotte played well but as the buzzer sounded, the once again found themselves on the short end of the stick. They are desperately in need of a win but it was not to be in Salt Lake City. Gordan Heyward had other plans as he scored a season-high 33 points and led the Jazz to a 23-6 run to close out the game.
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Miles Plumlee Plays Well in Debut
The Hornets’ newest player was able to be cleared just before tip-off. Plumlee ended up manning the backup center role as he played 17 minutes off the bench. His debut was short lived but Miles gave us a glimpse of what may be to come this season and going forward. He scored four points (2-3 shooting), grabbed down eight rebounds, and blocked two shots.
The numbers don’t jump off the stat sheet but he made an impact as Roy Hibbert/ Spencer Hawes’ replacement. With very limited playing time this season, Plumlee was visibly gassed only a few minutes into his debut. His conditioning should get better with time but his strength and athletism will be a welcome sight for the Hornets. His new teammates will need to get used to throwing him lobs because there were a few of those opportunities that were missed.
Ray McCallum Deserves a Shot
Charlotte recently signed McCallum from the NBA D-League to a 10-day contract. He adds point guard depth after Ramon Sessions went down with a knee injury. Ray didn’t see a single minute in his first game with the Hornets as Brian Roberts played as the main backup to Kemba Walker against the Jazz.
It makes sense since McCallum hasn’t been able to practice with the team yet. After B-Rob only scored two points and dished out four assists in 14 minutes off the bench. That performance made it clear that Ray deserves a shot to try and make the backup point guard spot his own. He will likely get a chance in the coming days as he practices with his new team and gets familiar with the system.
Frank Kaminsky is Finding His Shot
After scored a career-high 24 points against the Golden State Warriors in his last outing, Kaminsky followed that up with a 15 point game against Utah. He even scored the first seven points of the game for Charlotte and scored 10 in the first four minutes. This was only the second time this season that he’s put together back to back 15 point games.
Maybe his sophomore slump is starting to come to an end. The Hornets need the best out of Frank off the bench going forward. Even though he was forced to start in this one and cover Rudy Gobert, he played surprisingly well.
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The Charlotte Hornets will look to finally to snap their losing streak as they return home to take on the Brooklyn Nets in their next match.