Heyyooo, it wasn’t pretty but the Hornets are back in the win column after a 39 point performance from Gordon Hayward. LaMelo and Miles provided a spark off the bench in the first half and kept the Hornets within striking distance. The pair (M&M(Melo&Miles)) plus Zeller were the only 3 players for the Hornets with positive +/-‘s in the first half and it showed. Miles built upon his first half with 7 more points in the third quarter but the Hornets turned the ball over 5 times in the 3rd and allowed the Magic to add 4 points to their lead going into the fourth quarter.

The 4^th quarter is where the fun started for the Hornets, with Devonte’ knocking down a 3 only seconds into the quarter bringing the lead down to 9. Devonte’ continued to show out by either scoring or assisting on the Hornets next 9 points while the team defense only allowed a Vucevic’ jump shot, bringing the lead down to 2 points. After some free throws from both sides Devonte’ hit another three to put the Hornets up 1 for the first time since the 4 minute mark in the 1^st quarter. Gordon Hayward, feeling left out on the fun, began his own bucket-fest scoring 8 straight points in the game and pushed the lead to 9 points, which should have been out of reach…. But our young Hornets let the Magic back in the game, and ultimately tie it up behind a couple of nut dragging threes from Fournier and one from ross with 8 seconds to go (which wouldn’t have mattered if Biz hit ONE of his damn free throws.). With the game on the line and 8 seconds to go Hayward eyed Fournier up and blew past him with physicality to hit the buzzer beating layup in traffic, off the glass, leaving only 0.7 seconds left on the clock. After a 5 second call(Cole Anthony is young too) on the ensuing play the Hornets got the win we were desperately needing.

Notes:

-The bench goes as LaMelo goes; Starters go as Graham goes.

-Gordon did everything he could do to not get 40pts, missing 4/8 at the free throw line

-Miles needs to stay aggressive like he was tonight, while not getting happy feet travels

-The defensive scheme needs a lot of work. It’s hard to be a hardass about defense and turnovers(looking at you Borrego) when your whole scheme revolves around seemingly switching EVERYTHING.