With the schedule quickly winding down, the Charlotte Hornets were hoping to scrounge up one last home victory in their final appearance of the season at Spectrum Center on Tuesday night. They couldn’t send off the home crowd on that sought-after high note though, lacking the firepower to keep pace with the red-hot Dallas Mavericks in a 130-104 loss.
This unsightly defeat was the Hornets’ 60th of the campaign, marking the first time in 11 seasons that they’ve reached this ill-fated threshold and fifth time overall in franchise history. For Dallas, it’ll have a top-six seed and playoff spot locked up with either one impending Phoenix or New Orleans loss, both of whom hadn’t yet tipped off upon the conclusion of this contest.
Dallas wasted no time asserting its dominance, using a 20-1 run and 21 Luka Dončić points to double up the Hornets, 36-18, after the opening frame. Whether off drive-and-kicks or second-chance tap-outs, the 3-pointers kept raining in for the Mavericks, as they cruised into halftime clutching a 22-point lead. Thanks to quarterly outputs from Miles Bridges (13) and Brandon Miller (10), the Hornets won the third, 36-28, to enter the fourth trailing by 14. Though Charlotte grinded the deficit to 11 with 7:04 left, Dallas quickly scored 13 unanswered to end it.
“We just came out so flat,” said Hornets Head Coach Steve Clifford afterwards. “To me, we never really got going in the game. We made a run at it, but we didn’t play with nearly the intensity level that we have been. Dončić was great. He made five 3-pointers in the first quarter, and I think four of them were just isos. Then, you give up 28 second-chance points, it’s hard to win.”
At halftime, Dallas had an overwhelming 20-2 advantage in second-chance scoring, which came on 7-of-9 shooting. The final rebounding differential was +16 in favor of the Mavericks (55-39) and 16 of those boards came on the offensive glass, matching the fifth-highest single-game total by a Charlotte opponent this season.
Bridges (22) and Miller (21) both had 20-point performances in the loss, with Bridges passing Raymond Felton for eighth place on the franchise’s all-time scoring leaderboard (now at 5,320 points). Miller’s four 3-pointers also moved him ahead of Saddiq Bey for the fourth-most single-season 3-pointers by an NBA rookie in history (now at 178). Dāvis Bertāns (13), Grant Williams (12) and Tre Mann (11) also crossed into double figures for a Charlotte squad that shot only 10-of-32 from 3-point range (31.2%).
Dallas swept the season series with the Hornets for the first time since 2018-19 and pushed its record to a league-best 15-2 dating back to March 7. Dončić, the NBA’s leading scorer, cooled off a little as the game wore on, still finishing with 39 points on 13-of-28 shooting – 8-of-13 from 3-point range – 12 rebounds and 10 assists for his 21st seasonal triple-double. Center Daniel Gafford notched a career-high-tying 26 points on a perfect 12-of-12 shooting, with 11 of those makes coming inside the restricted area.
The Hornets will begin a season-ending three-game road trip starting with the Atlanta Hawks on Wednesday, April 10 beginning at 7:30 PM ET. Follow all the action on Bally Sports Southeast and WFNZ 92.7 FM.
Hornets vs Mavericks Gallery ‑ 04/09/24
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