The Charlotte Hornets entered Friday night’s game in Chicago on the tail end of a long west coast road trip, one that stretched back to the day after Christmas and without three of their top seven scorers. By the end of the first quarter, the Hornets found themselves down one, both on the scoreboard and in the rotation. PJ Washington played just six scoreless minutes before spraining his right ankle, by stepping on Nathan Mensah’s foot. Mensah was in the process of drawing a charge, so even on a solid defensive play, the unrelenting injury bug struck again. Washington was listed as doubtful after the injury, but did not return.
The first half was even between Chicago and Charlotte, with Miles Bridges and Cody Martin doing the majority of the damage against the Bulls’ balanced attack, which welcomed both Zach LaVine and Nikola Vucevic to the rotation, returning, respectively, from foot and groin injuries. The former All-Stars would come off the bench scoring a combined 26 points. The Hornets bench, without Washington’s contributions, accounted for just 22 points combined. Nick Smith Jr. was a bright spot off the bench, with 10 points, highlighted by a sequence with he connected from 3, then stole the ball at midcourt and finished with his first NBA dunk (sort of). The Bulls led 47-41 at halftime, with their free throw advantage being the difference. Charlotte was 1-2 from the free throw line in the half. Despite eight first half offensive boards, the home team only scored two second chance points.
Terry Rozier would come alive in the third, scoring eleven, after a scoreless first half. Midway through the quarter, Chicago built a fourteen-point lead, before Charlotte, led by Bridges and Rozier, would cut the lead to five by the end of the third, when Rozier connected from deep, as he was fouled, and completed the four-point play with less than 10 seconds left. Bridges was the Hornets most consistent scoring option all night, scoring 28 on 12-18 from the field, and multiple times being the one to snap a scoring drought, as the rest of the team struggled most of the night.
The Bulls came out of the gates quick in the fourth, with a quick 6-0 run to push the lead to double digits. By the 8 minute mark they were up 16 and the lead continued to swell past twenty by the halfway point. A 22-8 run to open the fourth made it look like the Hornets have begun looking ahead to sleeping in their own beds, but they continued to fight. With 2:30 left, the Bulls lead had shrunk to eleven when Terry Rozier pulled up with a chance to cut the lead to eight, but was unable to connect. Rozier finished the night with 15 points. On the other end, Coby White banked in a shot to extend the lead back to 13. The margin would hold, and the Bulls win the first of the home and home, 104-91.
The Hornets will be back in action on Monday, when they take on the same Chicago Bulls team, but this time they will be hosting in the Spectrum Center, for the first time in the new year. Pregame Coverage on WFNZ starts Monday at 6 PM, with game time set for 7 PM.
