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Hornets’ Defense Struggles to Slow Down Hawks in 2nd Half

An early fourth-quarter run for the opposition doomed the Charlotte Hornets for the second straight outing as they lost to the visiting Atlanta Hawks, 122-107, on Sunday, Dec. 8 at Spectrum Center.

Rookie PJ Washington led the way for Charlotte with a team-high 20 points, eight rebounds, three assists, a steal and two blocks in the loss. This marks the second time in franchise history a first-year player has recorded at least 20 points and eight rebounds with multiple assists and blocks in a single outing (Kemba Walker; Jan. 28, 2012 vs. Washington).

Trailing by five at the start of the fourth, the Hornets watched the Hawks embark on a 12-2 run over the next two-and-half minutes of play, opening up a 15-point advantage. Charlotte never got the deficit back to within single digits and trailed by as many as 22 over the final 12 minutes, snapping a seven-game home winning streak against the Hawks.

“The 71 points in the second half were the problem,” said Head Coach James Borrego afterwards. “We just didn’t get enough stops in the second half. I’ll watch the film, but we have to get better ultimately. We’ll come in tomorrow, get some work in, work on our defense some more and get after it another day.”

Washington added, “I just thought we were going through the motions in the second half. It felt like we could have put them away, but we just let them hang around. They got on a run, started making shots and they just put us away. We have to do a better job of getting in there, being on task and staying with the game plan.”

Miles Bridges racked up another 20 points with Devonte’ Graham (12), Bismack Biyombo (11) and Cody Zeller (11) joining him in double figures. Graham also added a team-high eight assists and Marvin Williams missed his first game of the season (right knee soreness), an ailment that forced him out of Friday’s outing against Brooklyn.

Trae Young notched game-high totals in scoring (30 points) and assists (9) for Atlanta. Fellow starter Jabari Parker added 19 points with Vince Carter (season-high 17 points), Alex Len (13), Allen Crabbe (11) and De’Andre Hunter (10) all posting double-digit scoring performances off the bench. Len added a game-high 10 rebounds for his second double-double of the year.

Atlanta knocked down a season-high 18-of-45 three-point attempts (40.0%), scored 71 second-half points on 53.1% shooting (26-of-49) and had a 57-36 advantage in bench scoring. Charlotte had just 11 turnovers leading to 15 Hawks points and shot 11-of-31 from distance (35.5%).

The Hornets will now close out their five-game homestand on Tuesday, Dec. 10, when they host the Washington Wizards starting at 7 PM EST. Watch the game on Fox Sports Southeast or listen on WFNZ 610 AM/102.5 FM or the Hornets app.