Takeaways from the Charlotte Hornets season opening loss to the Detroit Pistons

Despite 24 points from Kemba Walker and a double-double from Dwight Howard, the Charlotte Hornets dropped their season opener in Detroit.

In Game One of the 2017-2018 regular season, the Charlotte Hornets fell to the Detroit Pistons 102-90. For the third time in the last five years, the team has dropped their season opener. Here are the biggest things to take away from the game:

This isn’t the preseason

Yes, an obvious statement I know, but it’s true.

It’s not that older players don’t try at all in the preseason, they just haven’t kicked it into gear yet. All preseason, Malik Monk and Dwayne Bacon dominated, last night was not the case.

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Bacon had a solid game. In 20 minutes he was 3-6 from the field, 2-4 from three, totaling to eight points. However, he also had two turnovers and looked very much like well… a rookie on defense.

Now Malik Monk was the one that really struggled. In 21 minutes he was just 1-9 from the field, 1-6 from beyond the arc, and finished with just 3 points. To go along with that, he also had 3 turnovers of his own, and a couple of them were at very untimely moments.

So yes the rookie’s success in the preseason is a great sign, but now it’s time for reality. The learning curve in the NBA is bigger than many thinks, so we can’t expect that success from preseason to be directly translated right away.

We knew this would be the case. They’ll learn to take care of the ball, Monk’s open shots will start falling. No reason to panic, we just shouldn’t expect that they will be super effective right away.

Hornets need MKG to come back soon

Michael Kidd-Gilchrist was not with the team last night due to personal family issues. We all wish him and his family the best, but man the Hornets sure missed him.

The Piston MKG would’ve been matched up with, Tobias Harris, had a huge night. Harris finished the night with 27 points, including a 4-7 showing from three, and 10 rebounds. Every single time the Hornets seemed to start cutting into the lead, there he was with a bucket.

Sure Harris is a good player, but in reality, the Hornets just had nobody that could guard him. Marvin Williams or Cody Zeller was much too slow for him, and Dwayne Bacon wasn’t strong enough and very inexperienced.

It feels like Tobias Harris always manages to play well against the Hornets, but MKG was the only real chance they had to slow him down.

The Atlanta Hawks aren’t as good of a team as the Pistons, but it sure would be nice to have him back by Friday.

Dwight Howard is ready to go

For a guy entering his 14th season, Dwight didn’t look like he was tonight. Tallying 15 rebounds to go along with 10 points and 2 blocks, he was a force on both ends.

It’s no secret that Dwight’s defense has fallen off some as the years have progressed. However, last night looked like it may be the start of a comeback campaign on that side of the ball. The stats only showed two blocks, but there were a couple others that he tipped along with all the shots he changed.

Offensively, Dwight was solid too. Early on he was getting involved and managed to get Andre Drummond in foul trouble. The Hornets were down double-digits most of the second half forced them to sort of get away from the inside game and begin shooting for catch-up. So while only scoring 10 points, in the future I expect Dwight to get more touches late whenever the team is in close games.

Dwight looked in shape, happy, engaged, the opposite of what some of the critics say about him. You never want to overreact after one game, but I will anyway. He looks to be locked in and gelling with teammates.

He and Kemba still need to get on the same page for lobs, though.

Next: Hornets may have finally hit the draft jackpot

After one game into the season, these were some of the biggest takeaways I got from the game, aside from the obvious need to cut down on turnovers. As the home opener approaches keep an eye on how these storylines play out going forward.

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