The Charlotte Hornets lost a tight one against the Cleveland Cavaliers on Friday night, with the final score settling in at 118-117. The main reason behind the near win was because of Miles Bridges’ productivity, as he scored a career-high 46 points. The Hornets made key runs to stay within 10 points throughout the game, and they even took the lead with just under six minutes to go in the fourth quarter.
Miles Bridges talks about his career high and more
When it came down to the key to his scoring explosion, Bridges kept it simple.
“Just taking what the defense gave me and going at mismatches the whole game,” Bridges said.
High pick and rolls did force switches, putting Darius Garland on Bridges and allowing him to play bully ball against him. If that didn’t happen, mismatches were created for Charlotte’s big men, leading to easy baskets for them. Bridges kept the game plan as basic as possible, and it worked in his favor. Attacking mismatches is an easy way to get and stay hot. Unfortunately, it just didn’t end with the team coming out on top against the top team in the Eastern Conference.
Miles Bridges wants Hornets to focus on what works
Bridges was asked about how Charlotte could maintain leads to begin to win these tight games with more frequency moving forward.
“Just paying attention to details,” Bridges said. “When we have those lapses, usually we go away from what’s working. We go away from focusing on the details, so for us it’s just communication on defense, offensive rebounding and executing on offense. That’s what a lot comes down to.”
Most of that starts on the defensive side of the ball for the Hornets. In their loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves on Wednesday night, head coach Charles Lee mentioned that his team focuses a little too much on the offensive side of the ball, which impacts how they play on the other side of the ball. Keeping up a high intensity on both ends of the floor could help seal the deal in these tightly contested matchups.
Charles Lee pleased with Hornets effort in loss to Cavs
Lee gave his team props for going toe-to-toe with one of the top teams in the NBA season.
“I thought Miles [Bridges] did a really good job of helping pick up the offensive load with ‘Melo [Ball] being in foul trouble,” Lee said. “I thought we saw some good possessions from ‘Melo. Even though he was only out there 22 minutes, he has seven assists and helped us keep the ball moving … I thought Josh Green’s defense, him and Damion Baugh, face guarding [Donovan] Mitchell, making multiple efforts on Mitchell and [Darius] Garland was really good.”
The Hornets end their home stand against the Brooklyn Nets Saturday. They have gone 0-4 so far, so they will have an extra incentive to pick up a win against another team towards the bottom of the East.
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