Williams, Hornets Make Most Of Second Chances In Washington

One of the more dominant single-game rebounding performances in franchise history helped catapult the Charlotte Hornets to a come-from-behind 124-117 In-Season Tournament victory in Washington on Friday night.

Mark Williams had the best night of his NBA tenure thus far, finishing with 21 points on 10-of-21 shooting and a career-high 24 rebounds, a franchise-record 15 of which were on the offensive glass. This marks the first 20-20 game of Williams’ career and it’s also the first by a Charlotte player since Dwight Howard’s historic 30-30 showing in Brooklyn on March 21, 2018.

Washington raced out to a 17-5 lead and led by 16 in the first half, before the Hornets rode their second-chance scoring to enter halftime down, 63-57. The deficit yo-yo’ed for most of the second half, with the Wizards working their way to a 109-99 lead with 7:23 to go. Soon though, a LaMelo Ball 3-pointer ignited a pendulum-swinging 21-4 run to put Charlotte up by seven with 75 seconds left. Williams then flushed in two second-chance dunks in the final minute to seal it.

In addition to Williams, the Hornets’ 28 offensive rebounds and 67 total rebounds were the second-most and third-most in any game in franchise history, respectively. They also outscored Washington by 25 in second-chance points (32-7) and the plus-31 rebounding margin (67-36) broke a franchise record that was set on March 6, 1998, against Seattle (48-20). This win makes the Hornets a perfect 1-0 in IST play and likely eliminates Washington from the Knockout Round.  

“We struggled a lot of the game trying to guard them,” said Hornets Head Coach Steve Clifford. “The fourth quarter was better – we held them to 20. We didn’t shoot the ball well obviously, but we didn’t turn the ball over tonight. We had only 10 turnovers and we got a bunch of points in the paint. We’re going to have to figure out the 3-point shooting. We got ones we’ll make eventually, and we did make them late. As much as anything, just great fourth-quarter play.”

Gordon Hayward (27 points and nine assists, both season highs), Ball (25), Nick Richards (season-high 15), Brandon Miller (12) and PJ Washington (11) also scored in double figures, with Washington snagging 10 boards for his second double-double of the season. Charlotte missed its first 12 3-point attempts and finished 6-of-28 (21.4%), with four of those makes coming in the late fourth-quarter swing. “For me, I know with percentages, I’m destined to make a lot, so I just keep shooting,” said Ball, who had 13 points and was 3-of-3 from deep in the fourth.

Charlotte made some significant defensive adjustments following Wednesday’s 16-point home loss to the Wizards, holding Kyle Kuzma to only 17 points after he had 33 the other night. Tyus Jones added 16 points, but Italian marksman Danilo Gallinari had only nine points and was 1-of-4 from 3-point range, a big drop-off from the 18-point showing he had in the Queen City. Added Clifford, “We made less mistakes on Gallinari than we did the other night. Our high pick-and-roll defense is our biggest problem right now. We got to get that down.”

The Hornets will close out their short two-game road trip with a matinee battle against the New York Knicks on Sunday, Nov. 12 starting at 12 PM ET at Madison Square Garden. Catch all the action on Bally Sports Southeast and WFNZ 92.7 FM.