Buzz City Beat is Swarm and Sting’s one stop for the best articles from around the internet surrounding the Charlotte Hornets.
According to ESPN, the Charlotte Hornets have had the toughest strength of schedule so far this season. In this edition of Buzz City Beat, we look at the Hornets’ best lineup, the Greensboro Swarm’s loss to the Erie BayHawks and Dwight Howard going crazy at WWE Smackdown Live in Charlotte.
Hornets best lineup (BleacherReport.com)
"Kemba Walker, Dwayne Bacon, Jeremy Lamb, Marvin Williams, Dwight Howard. The Hornets have also found success with Kidd-Gilchrist in Bacon’s place but that pairing has been neither as heavily used nor as effective as quintets featuring the rookie."
Charlotte has the ninth-best five-man lineup in the entire NBA. That is a bit surprising considering their 12th in the Eastern Conference with only a 5-7 record. The Hornets’ struggles have mostly come from their bench play, or lack thereof, rather than from their starters who have actually excelled production-wise early in the year.
Also surprising is that the lineup with Bacon and not MKG has actually played a bit better. Although, it’s worth noting that the team is 4-2 with Kidd-Gilchrist as the starter. Only the five-man lineups of Milwaukee, New Orleans, Miami, Denver, Orlando, Golden State, Washington and Houston rank ahead of Charlotte.
Greensboro Swarm fall to the Erie BayHawks at home (Gleague.NBA.com)
"The Greensboro Swarm, the NBA G League affiliate of the Charlotte Hornets, suffered a 123-108 setback to the Erie BayHawks at the Fieldhouse at the Greensboro Coliseum Complex on Tuesday night. Greensboro moves to 2-2 on the season while Erie (1-4) earned its first victory of the season."
The Swarm dropped to .500 despite having three players score at least 20 points. Terry Henderson led the team with a season-high 22 points while also putting up eight rebounds and seven assists. L.G. Gill (21 points, seven boards) and Sam Thompson (20 points) also had big games for Greensboro.
In the end, it wasn’t enough to match Josh Magette‘s monster game as he finished with 23 points, 17 assists and six rebounds. After winning at The Fieldhouse on opening night, Charlotte’s G-League affiliate dropped their first game at home this season. Two-way player, Mangok Mathiang, did not play in this one as he was inactive while fellow two-way player Marcus Paige shot only 4-16 from the field.
Dwight Howard put on a show for the camera at WWE Smackdown Live in Charlotte (UPROXX.com)
"While the Hornets had an off night on Tuesday, Howard was joined by teammates Jeremy Lamb, Julyan Stone and Treveon Graham at WWE Smackdown Live in Charlotte and, well, he didn’t exactly waste the opportunity to make his presence known ringside."
Next: How Nic Batum's return can help save the Hornets
It looks like a few members of the Charlotte Hornets had fun at the WWE event that took place in the Queen City. Jeremy Lamb just munched on some popcorn while Dwight was hyping up the crowd. Come to think of it, Howard, who stands at 6’11 and 265 pounds, could be a pretty good WWE superstar one day.