GT: Charlotte @ Miami Sun Nov 23 6PM EST

[JDR720]

I dont mind Kemba struggling for a few games, but if he has another stretch like he did last year where he shot like 35% for months he will drive me crazy, if im not already crazy.

[yosemiteben]

I dont mind Kemba struggling for a few games, but if he has another stretch like he did last year where he shot like 35% for months he will drive me crazy, if im not already crazy.

Interesting fact - Kemba is currently shooting 13 - 35 on the season (37.1%) on shots 25 - 29 ft, but is only shooting 5 - 19 (26.3%) on three point shots from 23 - 24 ft.

He needs to step back farther.

He's also 8 - 31 (25.8%) on shots from 5 - 14 ft.

[HornetJail]

I dont mind Kemba struggling for a few games, but if he has another stretch like he did last year where he shot like 35% for months he will drive me crazy, if im not already crazy.

He really did look a step slow after the ankle sprain. That wasn't everything, but he shook it off right around April, about 3 months after the injury, which is really when you really feel 100% after a sprain like that.

[Liver_Pooty]

I dont mind Kemba struggling for a few games, but if he has another stretch like he did last year where he shot like 35% for months he will drive me crazy, if im not already crazy.

Interesting fact - Kemba is currently shooting 13 - 35 on the season (37.1%) on shots 25 - 29 ft, but is only shooting 5 - 19 (26.3%) on three point shots from 23 - 24 ft.

He needs to step back farther.

He's also 8 - 31 (25.8%) on shots from 5 - 14 ft.

He basically can't shoot.

[yosemiteben]

I dont mind Kemba struggling for a few games, but if he has another stretch like he did last year where he shot like 35% for months he will drive me crazy, if im not already crazy.

Interesting fact - Kemba is currently shooting 13 - 35 on the season (37.1%) on shots 25 - 29 ft, but is only shooting 5 - 19 (26.3%) on three point shots from 23 - 24 ft.

He needs to step back farther.

He's also 8 - 31 (25.8%) on shots from 5 - 14 ft.

He basically can't shoot.

He's actually not that bad in close range. He shoots a higher percentage from 0 - 5 feet than guys like Ty Lawson, Chris Paul and John Wall.

But yeah, he's not a great shooter. Amusingly enough, from 25 - 29 feet he shoots almost the same percentage as JJ Redick and Steph Curry.

[therebirth]

"The stretch of games we've played has definitely taken their toll on our confidence," Hornets coach Steve Clifford said

To borrow Lebron's phrase, this team is fragile right now.

[Braggins]

The only narrative that should be talked about IMO is how unbelievably bad we are at closing out games. If we could close out games more effectively we could have the second best record in the East.

I am completely on board with abandoning the Kemba - Big Al PNR as our go to play in end game situations. That play rarely does anything productive earlier during games, it's pretty obvious that it's not going to get it done when we absolutely have to have it. Al does not set solid screens and is not quick to roll, and Kemba doesn't have great size or superior vision to get the ball where it needs to go. If we're going to do something with just those two involved, I'd rather do that play where Kemba runs to the wing and dumps it down to Al then cuts baseline for a dribble handoff from Al.

I'll take a high PNR with Lance and Cody over with one with Al and Kemba every time.

Random thoughts I had during the course of this game:

I think Lance LOVES operating in pick and rolls and that's part of the reason he's not gelling with Al. Al sets soft screens and doesn't roll hard to the rim so he's not a viable option for that PNR with Lance. With the second unit both Cody and Biz are solid options and Lance takes advantage of that.

I am starting to be convinced that Marvin needs to double his field goal attempts. He is 47% from the field and 41% from three. Those numbers are somewhat artificially high because he generally only shoots when he is WIDE open, but he has shown that he can be a viable part of this offense and we should be trying to get him more involved.

What a bizarre game from Biz statistically - 0 boards, 0 FGAs, he only shows up on the boxscore with 2 TOs and a steal. I felt like he was active defensively so didn't have a terrible game, but was surprised that he didn't get a single board.

Was hoping we were at the point where we could count on some more consistent offense from Roberts. All of his shots looked good tonight and were in the flow of the offense, but 1 - 5 is not going to get it done.

The biggest issue down the stretch IMO, even more than the terrible plays at the end of the game, were the lazy TOs by both Lance and Neal. Simply inexcusable, as bad or worse than Green running by Kemba for the putback off the FT against ORL. The fouls and TOs completely destroyed any rhythm to our offense.

I'm with you on this game. We actually played well but just choked down the stretch for numerous reasons. Al had a great offensive game and was making much quicker decisions. He wasn't really stopping people on defense but his only real bad plays were due to physical limitations. Kemba and Lance both played great for almost the entire game and we really established our PnR game which let us get the ball to Al in tons of situations where Miami couldn't double him. Kemba and Lance were both excellent in the pick and roll with Biz and Cody and until the 4th Al was actually setting better screens than normal and getting involved a little too. Did we actually get to practice before this game?

Our defense was better but mostly because our second unit with Biz is actually better than our starters without MKG especially considering how many minutes Lance played with Biz. I honestly think Biz is the key to our entire second unit. He had a bad game statistically but he and Cody defended the paint well. Our starters weren't terrible but they weren't very good. Al did well enough for him but I still feel like Marvin is just not going to work next to Al and especially not with MKG out. He needs to be hitting a lot more 3s to make up for the defensive issues he and Al create.

We obviously should have won but I liked a lot of things I saw. We simply didn't execute at the end of the game and we didn't defend quite well enough before that to put the game out of reach before that. Kemba made some critical errors at the end which hurt us. He was probably right not to immediately throw it into Al when Chalmers first got switched onto him because Deng was waiting behind for the lob. He missed a decent look but he should have pulled it back out and looked to go into Jefferson with the mismatch. The Kemba/Al pick and roll definitely shouldn't be the go to play on the last possession. With that much time I'm fine with a pick and roll with either of our guards (preferably Kemba) and Cody and then immediately looking into Al who would be waiting on the opposite block if nothing develops. With Marv in we would have just been better off going with an Al post iso. If we do a pick and roll with Al if we don't score immediately off it we don't have enough time to let Al establish position and dump it into him or swing the ball for another look so the ball-handler is forced to create his own shot with Jefferson's man in perfect position to protect the rim against a drive. Obviously the loss sucks but it wasn't a disaster like some of the others.

[Braggins]

Interesting fact - Kemba is currently shooting 13 - 35 on the season (37.1%) on shots 25 - 29 ft, but is only shooting 5 - 19 (26.3%) on three point shots from 23 - 24 ft.

He needs to step back farther.

He's also 8 - 31 (25.8%) on shots from 5 - 14 ft.

He basically can't shoot.

Amusingly enough, from 25 - 29 feet he shoots almost the same percentage as JJ Redick and Steph Curry.

I've noticed hes been floating in too much on his outside shots which is making them flat and long. He usually tends to float in a little bit instead of going straight up on 3s but it has been a lot worse the last few games. That could explain why he is shooting better from deeper too.

[ammofan]

I really dont even feel like Lance ISNT gelling with Al. He gets Al the ball where he wants it. Not like he's keeping Al from getting it in the post.

Al has just been off or something this season. He put up the stats last night but still something seems different.

Again last night I feel like all of our players played pretty well. Kemba HAS to shoot better tho.

I'm not sure what to blame at this point. We need MKG back and a few wins. No excuse for losing these last 3.

[BobsBuddy]

We could have had a clean look had Kemba penetrated and passed to the open man. But he elected to shoot with 2 players collapsing on him and the other 3 on AL..2 other Hornets were wide open.
4-10 now...If we are 9-20 by the end of December,we will need to trade some players.