Weekly Roundup: Charlotte Hornets’ Week Leads up to Toronto

Feb 25, 2015; Chicago, IL, USA; Chicago Bulls guard

(left) and forward

(right) chase the ball with Charlotte Hornets guard

(center) during the second quarter at the United Center. Mandatory Credit: Dennis Wierzbicki-USA TODAY Sports

The first game of the week was full of excitement. The team was back after the break, and with a new scoring point guard – Mo Williams – to help out with the woes of not being able to get the ball in the basket.

Williams would go on to do just that, scoring 24 points. He also tallied up 12 assists, a great first night as a Charlotte Hornet. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough to take down the Oklahoma City Thunder.

Kevin Durant didn’t play, but the Thunder were still able to beat the Hornets. The game was fairly close until the last quarter, which was a plus. Despite a loss, there was a lot to be taken away from the game, as the team was seemingly optimistic about the second half, how well they played against a Western powerhouse, and the new faces on their team.

Additionally, the team was able to score over 100 points, a rare occurrence for the Hornets this year.

The next day, the Hornets traveled to Dallas to take on another Western powerhouse. They were unable to take Dirk Nowitzki and the Mavericks down, and were also unable to put many points up.

The real downfall of this game was a slow start. While normally, the Hornets are slowing down as the game progresses, they started this one quite slow, going down by quite a bit in the first quarter. They were never really ever to overcome that momentum that the Mavericks gained.

As always, their defense was decent, limiting the Mavericks to just 92 points, but only being able to put up 81 was definitely not a good part of the game. Mo Williams proved his worth to the team yet again by putting up 22 points.

As a Hornet, he’s averaging some high scores and putting up big numbers. Even though he’d only played two games, those two games have spoken a lot towards just how much this late transaction meant for the Hornets.

After this loss, the Hornets had tallied up five straight losses counting back to before the All Star break. They were looking for an Eastern Conference matchup to give them an easier game, and maybe even a win.

After the Hornets lost to the Mavericks, they were sporting a five game skid. Going into their next games, it looked like things weren’t going to get easier. They were facing the Chicago Bulls, one of the best teams in the East.

The day before the game, however, news came out that all star point guard Derrick Rose was going to have to undergo surgery for a torn meniscus. This put the Hornets at an advantage in one big way: the Bulls would be without their best player. The rest of the team did have something to prove without Rose, though, so the Hornets were expecting them to play quite hard.

Even without Rose, the Bulls are a good team with a good roster. Jimmy Butler, Joakim Noah, and Pau Gasol are all great players who have contributed to the Bulls success this season.

The Bulls pulled out to a large lead early in the game, but weren’t able to hold that. At the half, things were tied up between the two teams, and the game was evenly matched. Lots of players were stepping up for Charlotte, as Michael Kidd-Gilchrist scored 18 points. MKG has proven to be a great force and continuing to improve every game for the Hornets.

As always, Al Jefferson‘s involvement is important, and him scoring 16 points was a key part of the game. Fans continue to doubt Jefferson at times, but he continues to produce and put out points and great numbers. Jefferson is a foundation for the team.

Mo Williams was in his scoring fashion again, this time scoring 17.

Late in the game, the Hornets were playing great. The Bulls called two timeouts late in the fourth quarter as an attempt to diffuse the situation, but they were unable to do so as the Hornets were really working well together. The win was big for Charlotte as they now would go onto Boston to face the Celtics.

The last game of the week featured a trip up to Boston to face the Celtics. Despite another amazing performance from Mo Williams, the Hornets couldn’t get things done against Isaiah Thomas and the Celtics. Williams finished with thirty one points, and Thomas with 28.

Williams averages 23.5 points per game as a Hornet. He was brought in not only to lead, but to fill some offensive voids the Hornets had. As a proven scorer, he’s done just that.

Additionally, ESPN reported on the night of this game that coach Steve Clifford was optimistic about Lance Stephenson‘s attitude in Charlotte. He said that his attitude has actually been better than perceived by some fans and media.

Charlotte continues to have problems winning, even against teams as bad as Boston. Going into next week, they have some games that could be considered as “easy,” but so could the game in Boston. They’ll need to really buckle down in the game plan and try to win some games, including the hard one against Toronto that they have.

Next: The End Of The Road Trip...