Forty-eight hours after Boston held them to 12-for-43 from three-point range at Spectrum Center, the Charlotte Hornets walked into Barclays Center on Tuesday night and scored 35 points in the first quarter against a Brooklyn team that stopped playing for wins sometime around Martin Luther King Day. By halftime it was 58-45. By the middle of the third it was over. The final was 117-86, and Charles Lee had his starters on the bench for the entire fourth quarter of a game played in front of a building that was half-empty before tipoff and quieter than that by the end.
Miller Attacked the Rim and Made the Nets Pay
Brandon Miller attacked the rim from the opening possession, drew contact on switches the Nets had no answer for, and finished with 25 points on 7-of-13 shooting — including 4-of-8 from deep and a perfect 7-for-7 from the free throw line. That free throw line is the detail. After a 3-for-11 night against the Celtics and a stretch run that has asked more of him than any 23-year-old should be expected to carry, Miller didn't settle for jumpers in Brooklyn. He went to the basket, he got fouled, and he made every one. All of it in 29 minutes before Lee shut it down.
LaMelo Ball went 4-for-12 from the field and 3-for-10 from three, which on paper looks like a continuation of the shooting problems that cost Charlotte both weekend games. It wasn't. Ball had 9 assists and 7 rebounds in 28 minutes and ran Lee's offense with the kind of tempo control that turns a blowout into a rest day for your starters. Charlotte needs Ball to shoot better than 3-for-10 from deep when Phoenix visits Thursday. Against a team building a draft lottery position, distribution was enough.
Miles Bridges added 19 points on 7-for-12 shooting with 4 steals and zero turnovers. Moussa Diabaté posted another double-double — 10 points and 12 rebounds in 27 minutes — and continued looking like a player the Clippers will regret waiving for a long time.
White's Bench Resurgence Continued
Coby White scored 16 off the bench with 5 assists. His stretch over the past week — 27 against Sacramento, 17 against New York, 16 against Philadelphia, and now 16 in Brooklyn — has given Charlotte something it didn't have during the nine-game winning streak in January: a second-unit scorer who can create his own shot and run a pick-and-roll when Ball sits. Grant Williams added 10 points. Ryan Kalkbrenner had 8. Lee emptied the bench in the fourth quarter, and the bench held a 31-point lead.
Knueppel's Three-Point Chase Has Gone Quiet
Kon Knueppel went 0-for-3 from three-point range. He's at 257 for the season — four away from passing Kemba Walker's franchise record of 261 — and the record that felt inevitable a week ago has gone six games without meaningful progress. Knueppel still had 8 points on 4-of-12 shooting with 7 rebounds, a steal, and a block. He's contributing in other ways. But with six games left, four threes is no longer a foregone conclusion.
40-36, Tied With Miami, Six Games Left
The win moves Charlotte to 40-36 and snaps a two-game losing streak that threatened to undo three weeks of momentum. The Eastern Conference play-in standings through April 1: Philadelphia holds seventh at 41-34, Orlando eighth at 40-35, and Miami and Charlotte are knotted at 40-36 — separated by tiebreaker, with Charlotte currently in the tenth spot.
The remaining schedule is not a gift — Phoenix, Indiana, Minnesota, and Boston are all playing for something before Charlotte closes with Detroit at home and the regular-season finale at Madison Square Garden against the Knicks on April 12. Charlotte needs to win more games than Miami over the final six to avoid the 9-vs-10 elimination game on April 14.
Miller scored 25 in 29 minutes and spent the fourth quarter on the bench watching the lead hold at 31. Six games left in a season Charlotte hasn't played in ten years.
(Also: Kon Knueppel broke the franchise three-point record Thursday night against Phoenix. Walker's number is gone.)