Postgame Coverage: Game Gallery | Fashion Gallery | Washington Highlights | Coach Borrego | P.J. Washington | Malik Monk
Third-quarter play has been a challenging area for the Charlotte Hornets this season, but it certainly wasn’t on Wednesday night as they pulled away in the second half for a 118-111 win over the hometown Sacramento Kings at Golden 1 Center.
Rookie PJ Washington was magnificent for the visitors, finishing with 23 points on 10-of-13 shooting, eight rebounds, three assists and zero turnovers in 36 minutes of play. Terry Rozier followed up with a statsheet-stuffing 22 points, five rebounds, six assists, three steals and two blocks in the team’s first road win of the campaign.
Charlotte trailed by 14 points midway through the second quarter before rallying to enter the break down just three. The tide fully shifted in the third as the Hornets outscored the Kings, 32-18, after draining 8-of-12 three-point attempts. Down by as many as 15 in the fourth, Sacramento mounted a late rally in the closing moments, but it wasn’t enough in the end.
“The game’s 48 minutes. You can have bad starts, you can have good starts,” said Rozier afterwards. “We have to look to finish it and that’s what we did tonight. We stayed the course, we found each other, we ran and we just played hard.”
“We showed a lot of resiliency tonight,” added Head Coach James Borrego. “[Sacramento] came out very hungry, very aggressive, which we thought they would. They built a 14-point lead, but this team didn’t hang their heads. They’ve been resilient all year. We kept coming, built a nice lead there and closed them out.”
Malik Monk (18 points), Miles Bridges (17), Cody Zeller (12), Devonte’ Graham (12) and Marvin Williams (11) all had double-figure scoring outings as well. Zeller grabbed a career-high 15 rebounds, making him just the second player in franchise history to double-double in each of his first four appearances of the season (Emeka Okafor, 2005). Graham added a team-high nine assists, narrowing missing his second-straight (and second career) double-double.
Buddy Hield led Sacramento with a team-high 23 points, although shot just 8-of-22 from the floor. The Kings’ other four starters – Harrison Barnes (22), Richaun Holmes (17), De’Aaron Fox (16) and Nemanja Bjelica (11) – also scored in double figures as did Bogdan Bogdanović (12) off the bench.
Charlotte shot a scolding 16-of-32 from three-point range (50.0 percent), while the Kings went just 14-of-46 from deep (30.4%). Sacramento came out on top in second-chance points (26-12) and fast-break points (19-8), although were out-rebounded, 46-39.
The Hornets will wrap up their All-California road trip on Saturday, Nov. 2 when they take on the Golden State Warriors beginning at 8:30 PM EST. Watch the game on FOX Sports Southeast or listen on WFNZ 610 or the Hornets App.