Recap: Atlanta Hawks soar past Charlotte Hornets

The Charlotte Hornets saw their season come to an unceremonious close on Wednesday night as they suffered a 132-103 loss to the Atlanta Hawks. The evening got off to an inauspicious start when the team was late arriving to the arena due to their bus being delayed by a train, resulting in the team walking to the arena. Things only got worse from there, as Charlotte shot poorly en route to a nine-point deficit after the first quarter. The second frame saw resilience from the Hornets, but a poorly executed end-of-half set resulted in a four-point swing and an eight-point Hawks lead at halftime.

The third quarter was disasterous as Atlanta outscored Charlotte 42-24 and extended their lead to 26, effectively ending the game before the 4th quarter. Trae Young had 13 points in the 3rd quarter after shooting 3-13 and scoring eight points in the first half. For the game, Atlanta had six players reach double figutes in scoring while Charlotte had just four double-digit scorers. Atlanta dominated in bench scoring (40-24), points in the paint (54-40), rebounding (54-41), and three-point shooting (50% – 32%). The Hornets continued to unravel in the 4th quarter as Terry Rozier was assessed a technical foul while Miles Bridges was ejected from the game after a disagreement with an official.

While the season certainly ended on a sour note, there are positives from the year as well. The Hornets had their first winning season since 2015-16, while LaMelo Ball made his first All-Star appearance. The off-season will certainly bring changes, and it will be interesting to see what adjustments are made before tipoff of the 2022-23 season.