Miles Bridges and Gordon Hayward of the Hornets talk openly about their victory over the Raptors.
The Charlotte Hornets defeated the Toronto Raptors 119-116, securing a much-needed victory. Much of the game was spent with Charlotte leading by double digits. At one point, it even skyrocketed to 20 points. Unfortunately, things fell apart quickly in the fourth quarter, and Toronto even gained the advantage. Fortunately for Charlotte, however, a number of factors worked in her favor to prevent the big collapse. With a combined 46 points, Miles Bridges and Gordon Hayward both had significant roles to play in their late push for the victory.
Both Bridges and Hayward kept it genuine after the 119-116 victory, even if they were on the verge of breakdown.
Miles Bridges discusses the Hornets’ misfortune.
For us, I think it was the turnovers, according to Bridges. “They got rolling because of the turnovers, and from there they started to get offensive rebounds and gained confidence. We should be alright if we keep the ball out of their hands, keep making excellent shots, and just give them one chance. However, they did a fantastic job of sticking with it and returning.
Being a long, athletic club, Toronto is accustomed to clogging up the passing lanes. They block the paint and move players so that they are in the ideal position to play either side of the ball. Two of the better defenders in the NBA are Scottie Barnes and OG Anunoby. Bridges went on to explain how they managed to pull off that difficult victory despite this.
All we needed to do was calm down. We kind of calmed down after Brandon (Miller) made that jump ball, we missed a shot, grabbed an offensive rebound, and then made that three. All we needed to do, Bridges continued, was calm down a little and react to their physicality.
“If my memory serves me correctly, Miles [Bridges] hit a tremendous three. We made a big shot, and I believe that’s what got us going,” Hayward remarked. “They were on a huge run after we got punched in the face, and we were unable to hit any shots. They were making layups, open threes, and anything they wanted.” We were able to get some saves to end the game after we made some huge shots that helped us settle down a little. It was definitely not how we had hoped to win. When you’re up that much, you want to finish the game, but they weren’t going to give up because they had veteran players who had experienced it.
20-point leads are not really significant in the NBA these days. Any team at any time can erase them just as quickly as they were formed. This also applies to the Raptors. They lingered long enough to convince everyone in the arena that the home team was a bust. Cleary the Hornets held their ground and won’t give up this one.
- In the process, Charlotte saw six players score in double figures and four players score 20 points or more. Shockingly, they were 90 percent from the stripe, 52 percent from three, and 55.7 percent from the field. They have only seen such shooting splits twice in team history. The last encounter was in 2018 against the Orlando Magic. In light of LaMelo Ball’s absence, perhaps this bodes well for Charlotte as they continue to climb the Eastern Conference rankings ladder.
