CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Terry Rozier’s pregame warmup routine was all done, the final touches on his shooting regimen wrapped up.
Before trotting off, the Charlotte Hornets guard fulfilled a request, stopping to take time to mingle with a young fan sporting a pinstriped No. 1 jersey bearing the name of the team’s star point guard LaMelo Ball. Rozier put his John Hancock on the uniform and posed for a keepsake cell phone picture, undoubtedly creating an unforgettable memory for the boy.
It’s a wonder that Rozier didn’t grab a broom and dustpan first so he could sweep the court on the Spectrum Center floor, too. He’s seemingly been asked to do nearly everything else for the Hornets this season and his workload has only increased since Ball’s season-ending ankle surgery.
Rozier was at it again on Sunday night, perhaps energized even more than usual knowing he was playing his hometown team and the footage was being broadcast back in Ohio. The slippery veteran left his imprints all over the action in the Hornets’ 114-108 loss to Cleveland and raised his career average against the Cavaliers to 17.7 points per game – his highest versus any opponent.
“I don’t really look at it like it’s Cleveland, let me go extra hard today,” Rozier said. “I just play my game. But obviously, something always works when I play against them. It’s the hometown.”
Rozier pumped in 27 points to go with six assists, four rebounds and a season-high tying four steals. Still, the competitor in him laments misfiring on a potential game-tying 25-foot 3-pointer with 33.3 seconds remaining, sealing a defeat that kept Charlotte (22-48) five games off the pace for the best odds to land the top overall selection in the June draft.
But Rozier has topped 20 points in six of his past seven games, which includes the Hornets’ last three wins.
“Yeah man, just staying where my feet are,” Rozier said, “just trying to do everything for this team. It’s no excuses. We get up and this is our job to play basketball, so nobody really wants to hear that we played last night and we lost an hour (with daylight saving time) and we played again at 5 today. This is what it is. This is what we signed up for.
“So, I have no complaints and I just want to come in and be the best version of myself. I’ve got great teammates and coaches who allow me to do that.”
Without Ball, the Hornets have been forced to switch some things up schematically and a brunt of the playmaking chores is falling on Rozier’s shoulders. He’s shifted over to be the primary ball handler, displaying his versatility.
Rozier did uncharacteristically turn it over eight times against the Cavaliers, though, snapping an impressive stretch that left him steamed at his misfortunes.
“That was mainly me,” Rozier said. “I knew they were blitzing to try to get the ball out of my hands. You’ve just got to make adjustments and a lot of that is on me. I had eight turnovers tonight. That’s nobody else’s fault but mine.”
In the Hornets’ previous three games, Rozier posted 24 assists and zero turnovers, making him the second player this season to average at least eight assists with no turnovers in a three-game span. The only other player in franchise history to do that? Muggsy Bogues.
Overall, Rozier is averaging career bests in points per game (21.4) and assists (five). He’s been a pretty steady force in the Hornets’ up and down campaign.
“If you look at him for the year — he had the one injury where I think he missed 10 or 11 games – he’s a warrior,” coach Steve Clifford said. “He has played off the ball, on the ball. He guards primary scorers every night. He plays huge minutes.”
Beyond all that, there’s something else about Rozier that gets a good rise out of Clifford.
“He’s about winning,” Clifford said. “As much as any of them, it kills him when we lose. And yet, he’s come in here every day, he’s always practiced. The days when I want to do more, I go right to him, ‘I need you to help me today, I want to do more in practice.’ ‘I got it.’
“He’s been incredible. I can’t say enough about him. But it starts with this: he loves to compete. He likes the competition, he likes practice, he has a love for basketball, a passion. That, you can’t teach. There’s guys that like it because of the money. He’s not 6-9 and this or that. He’s 6-1, 6-2. It’s a different world for a guy like him.”
Particularly, because as Clifford mentioned, Rozier isn’t being matched up defensively with players his size. It’s quite the opposite, in fact, and the disparity in stature often poses a stiff challenge for him.
“There are still guys in this league that, at least from the beginning, if they were 6-1 they wouldn’t even be close to NBA players,” Clifford said. “He’s different. He’s made himself into a terrific player. When you’re around him even for a short period of time, you can see why he’s had the success that he’s had.
“The load that he carries for the group is just phenomenal.”
And it hasn’t gone unnoticed by his teammates.
“I love to see it,” Dennis Smith Jr. said. “T-Ro, he’s a guy I was watching in high school when he was at Louisville. I was just a fan of his game. And then when he got to the league and I was in college, it was still the same thing. So, to see him balling right now, it doesn’t surprise me at all.
“I definitely salute him because we are down a lot of players. We’re down two starters and he’s stepping up and filling a big gap for us. I think everyone on the team appreciates that.”
