Buzz City Beat: Charlotte Hornets turnaround, Kemba Walker praises Kyrie Irving
Buzz City Beat is Swarm and Sting’s one stop for the latest news and stories from around the web about the Charlotte Hornets.
After an off day, the Queen City team’s playoff odds went up from 25% to 27% as they chase a postseason berth in the East. (FiveThirtyEight.com) In this edition of Buzz City Beat, we look at the Charlotte Hornets‘ turnaround, Kemba Walker praising Kyrie Irving and Stephanie Ready calling games for TNT.
Charlotte Hornets turnaround (HashtagBasketball.com)
"This turnaround has been impressive, but my guess is it will be a too little too late, and Charlotte will unfortunately only hurt their draft position. Still, give them credit this is impressive and if they do pull it off it will be one of the biggest turnarounds ever."
The Hornets have looked like a completely different team since the All-Star Break. They won their first four games after the ASG and five consecutive in total. After looking dead in the water, that turnaround launched Charlotte back into playoff contention. The main reason for the change in play was their bench play and three-point shooting improvement.
During their win streak, the Hornets made an average of 14.4 three’s per game which is much higher than their season average of 10.0 per game. And as Chris Kroeger pointed out, Charlotte’s second unit was playing their best basketball of the season. The real question is if they can keep this up going forward and if it will be enough to get into the playoffs. I also think that it is too late for a postseason run considering how slow they started the year but anything can happen in the NBA so we’ll see.
Kemba praises Kyrie Irving (BostonHerald.com)
"“Kyrie’s a competitor. He’s a phenomenal player, man, and it’s fun to watch. It is. It’s fun to play against him,” Walker said. “I try to take some moves from him, and he always pulls something out every single game.”"
Walker spoke highly of Irving and talked about the incredibly tough shot that Kyrie hit on him during Boston’s victory against the Hornets. Kemba said that the Celtics’ point guard hit him with “about a million moves in one” and called that particular sequence “a special play.” The two all-star players had quite the dual when they faced off with Walker putting up 23 points (21 in the first half) and five assists while Irving had 34 points and five assists.
Kemba also called Kyrie a “tough-shot maker.” Irving has taken his game to the next level this year as the main man in Boston. He’s helped lead the Celtics to one of the best records in the East despite losing Gordon Hayward early in the season. When Kyrie is locked in and playing at the top of his game, there are few players who can slow him down as he is one of the most creative offensive players in the NBA.
Stephanie Ready to call games for TNT (CharlotteObserver.com)
"Longtime Charlotte Hornets broadcaster Stephanie Ready is branching into the cutting edge of new technology. Ready will do color analysis for TNT for a handful of games the rest of the season on a virtual-reality platform."
Next: Chris Bosh challenges Dwight Howard
Stephanie Ready, who is one of the best analysts in the game today, will get the chance to broadcast her voice for millions of basketball fans on a national level for TNT. This VR platform is a new venture but it could be the wave of the future. When Ready misses Hornets’ games, Kelsey Wingert will fill in for her during the FOX Sports Southeast broadcasts.