By Sam Perley, hornets.com
The road woes continued for the Charlotte Hornets as their losing streak reached a season-high five games after falling to the Celtics, 108-98, on Monday, Jan. 16 in Boston. Playing from behind much of the night, things really started to slip away from the Hornets midway through the third quarter as the Celtics closed out the frame on a 15-8 run to open up a nine-point advantage heading into the fourth. With the loss, the Hornets have also now dropped seven of their last eight meetings with the Celtics, which is a stretch that began on Feb. 27, 2015.
After Charlotte battled back to cut the deficit down to 100-96 with 2:43 remaining in the game, Isaiah Thomas uncorked four answered points to give the Celtics an eight-point lead with 33.2 seconds left on the clock. Thomas’ two made jumpers during this stretch sandwiched a bad sequence for the Hornets which included a turnover and three-consecutive missed three-point attempts. Cody Zeller would put home a dunk to trim Boston’s advantage to six but the Celtics drained four free throws down the stretch to seal the victory.
Marvin Williams mustered a season-high 21 points on 8-of-14 shooting (3-of-6 from three-point range) to go along with four rebounds in the loss. This is Williams’ highest-scoring performance since a 22-point game against the Cleveland Cavaliers on April 3, 2016.
Isaiah Thomas had another throughly impressive outing as he finished with a game-high 35 points (17 in the fourth quarter), five rebounds and four assists in the victory. Thomas has now scored 20-or-more points in 25-consecutive games, the first player in franchise history to accomplish this feat since Kevin McHale did so in 30-straight games between the 1985-86 and 1986-87 NBA seasons (via Elias Sports Bureau).
Kemba Walker led the Hornets with a team-high 24 points, four rebounds and two assists… Nicolas Batum just missed his second triple-double of the season, tallying eight points and game-high totals in both rebounding (10) and assists (10)… Cody Zeller added 13 points and eight rebounds… Michael Kidd-Gilchrist chipped in six points and nine rebounds… Boston knocked down 15-of-39 three-point attempts (38.5 percent) while the Hornets drained 8-of-25 shots from long distance (32.0 percent), including just one in the second half (1-of-14; 7.1 percent)… There were 15 total lead changes in the game… Jeremy Lamb missed his second-straight game for the Hornets (foot).
“We have to get ourselves right. We have to get back to what we’ve been for four years. Defense first, compete on every play play smart. When we do that, we’ll give ourselves a chance to win. We have a good enough team to play a lot better and again the big thing is finishing. We got to finish more plays out there.” – Hornets head coach Steve Clifford
The Hornets will begin a five-game homestand by taking on the Portland Trail Blazers at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 18 in Charlotte. The game can be seen on FOX Sports Southeast or heard on WFNZ or on the official Charlotte Hornets mobile app.
