CHARLOTTE — The Charlotte Hornets jumped on the Washington Wizards with 69 first-half points for a dominant 119-97 home victory Sunday afternoon at Spectrum Center.
Shooting guard Terry Rozier finished with 26 points, making 5-of-9 shots from 3-point range. Small forward Gordon Hayward added 25 and got to the foul line 10 times.
Rookie LaMelo Ball, in his fourth consecutive start, finished with 19 points, seven rebounds and five assists.
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Observations from the game:
LAMELO BALL’S SHOOTING
One of the concerns about Ball going into the draft was his shooting form. But of late, he has been nailing open 3s, which surely makes it hard to defend his dribble-drive and passing.
Ball made 3-of-6 3-point attempts, which put him on a run of 14-of-27 inclusive of his previous four games.
The assumption it was better to play off him defensively to prioritize the drive is getting harder for opponents to justify.
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ANOTHER LINEUP SHIFT
The Hornets played their fourth different lineup in as many games Sunday, with P.J. Washington returning from a sprained foot and Devonte Graham missing his first game of the season with a groin strain.
Graham’s injury kept rookie Ball in the starting group. Washington returned to the starters, after Hornets coach James Borrego tried a three-guard lineup against the Utah Jazz, with Ball, Graham and Terry Rozier. That shifted Hayward from small forward to power forward.
Borrego said pregame that Graham’s injury is day-to-day beyond him being ruled out for the Wizards game.
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SHORTER ROTATION
It was common over the first 10 games for Borrego to play a 10-man rotation, but he also said that would shorten over time.
In the first half Sunday, when the Hornets built a 17-point halftime lead, Borrego played just three reserves — Miles Bridges, Malik Monk and Caleb Martin — and even that’s a bit misleading, because Martin played just three minutes.
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EXTENDING POSSESSIONS
Because the Hornets are a poor defensive-rebounding team, they usually are fortunate to end a game even in second-chance points (points scored off offensive rebounds).
Sunday was an outlier, in that by halftime, the Hornets had outscored the Wizards in this category by a dominant 14-4. It helped that reserves Bridges and Monk combined for four offensive rebounds by halftime.
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GOOD TIME FOR A BIG LEAD
With three games in four days, Sunday felt like a particularly helpful time for the Hornets to build a big lead.
After this rare day game, the Hornets play the Houston Rockets at home Monday. Starting center Cody Zeller got in foul trouble early in the second half Sunday, which might have been a blessing of sorts, since that limited Zeller’s minutes to 20 going into the second game of a back-to-back.
