Three things to watch when Charlotte Hornets host Memphis in preseason home opener
Some anxiety was flowing through James Borrego leading into the team’s preseason opener on Monday.
Never mind the subtle fact the final result technically didn’t matter. The Charlotte Hornets coach is just like most of his bench brethren, finding himself constantly concerned about a variety of things. But once the clock inside the arena struck triple zeroes and the Hornets secured a victory, making their review film session a day later more enjoyable to view, that feeling finally subsided.
Knowing everything came together in their first game in five months provided them with reason to be excited about their potential, a sensation they will look to continue when they host Memphis at Spectrum Center on Thursday.
“It was encouraging,” Borrego said Wednesday. “That night I wasn’t sure if we’d able to score the ball, get a stop. As a coach, you are worried about everything. I didn’t even know if we’d even score a single point that night, and you just worry about every possible scenario.
“But I came away optimistic, positive and really energized by the group the way we played in such a short period. I’m encouraged by that and it gave us something to build off of, and shows why our group is so excited right now — is (because) there is an opportunity to play some meaningful basketball.”
That is still off in the distance and they have to deal with the current happenings first. The Hornets will likely not have Gordon Hayward, Mason Plumlee and Kelly Oubre available against the Grizzlies. Hayward and Plumlee are listed as out due to the NBA’s health and safety protocols, and Oubre is doubtful with the right ankle sprained suffered in the third quarter Monday night.
Hayward and Plumlee can’t play until they are cleared by the league.
“I don’t have much right now, I don’t have a timeline on it or anything,” Borrego said. “We are just gathering more information from the league and we’ll adjust day-to-day. It’s really hour to hour, the feedback they give us.”
Here are three things to keep an eye on during the Hornets’ preseason home opener:
THE REPLACEMENTS
Although it’s not necessarily ideal to be minus two-fifths of the starting lineup and missing the person who’s expected to be one of the first people off the bench, that’s the scenario the Hornets will most likely be in against the Grizzlies.
No Hayward, Plumlee or Oubre means Borrego is going to have to take a look at different combinations that may not be his most preferred. Still, there is one positive: the back end of their depth gets a chance to shine in the spotlight.
“We’ll obviously have some different rotations with those guys being out,” Borrego said. “It will allow us to evaluate and look at some other guys, in particular some of the young guys. Nick Richards will get a good amount of run and minutes. Kai Jones, Vernon Carey will get some run as well with Mase being out.
“And having both Gordon and Kelly out will open up some wing minutes, as well. So we’ll look at some of those younger guys, like Cody Martin, Wes (Iwundu), JT (Thor). So the blessing in all this is the opportunity to evaluate other guys in an NBA basketball game, which is a positive. And hopefully we’ll get these guys back sooner rather than later.”
CUTTING BACK ON TURNOVERS
The Hornets whipped passes everywhere against the Thunder. Whether it was finding a cutter motoring to the basket, someone parked beyond the 3-point arc or leaking out on a fastbreak, the ball was never stuck much in any particular area of the floor.
A positive result: it led to 25 assists.
Now the bad: they had 22 turnovers, directly leading to 20 points for Oklahoma City. Cutting back on that number is one of the main to-do items on their checklist.
“The turnovers, for sure, we’ve got to clean up,” Borrego said. “I’d say 10 of those turnovers were just bad passes, just bad execution. They are trying to make the right play. We just executed it poorly. But if we expect our guys to move the ball and share it we are going to have some turnovers. But we’ve got to limit that. We can’t win games turning the ball over (22) times. We are going to shoot ourselves in the foot with that. So the big thing for us is we’ve got to win the possession game.”
MINIMIZE DEFENSIVE LAPSES
Miles Brides knows they can’t completely rely on outscoring the opposition. Digging in on the other end of the floor is a requirement in Borrego’s system, and there were times when, even for a preseason outing, they Hornets didn’t make it difficult enough.
Curtailing some of the miscues on defense is also on the agenda.
“We want to focus on locking down the paint more,” Bridges said. “They were getting a lot of easy layups. People were getting inside the paint, making plays. You see Josh Giddey was picking us off left and right. So yeah, we want to fix that part of our game.”
This story was originally published October 7, 2021 at 2:00 AM with the headline "Three things to watch when Charlotte Hornets host Memphis in preseason home opener."
