CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The thing about this Charlotte Hornets team is that you never know which team will show up each night.
For a five-game stretch in early February, the Hornets struggled to reach 100 points. In recent games, they’ve done it with ease.
But Wednesday night’s game against the Boston Celtics was more of a struggle as the Hornets dropped their second consecutive game against a team they needed to beat.
The Hornets led briefly in the third quarter, but that lead quickly vanished. Celtics star Jayson Tatum was just too good, and the Celtics went on to win 115-101. The Hornets fell to 32-35 on the season and are in 10th place in the Eastern Conference.
Here were some takeaways from the game.
LaMelo’s turnovers
LaMelo Ball, the Hornets’ best player, is turning the ball over far too many times. He had six turnovers by himself in the first half. A few of those turnovers, Ball was trying to make a play for his teammates, but others were careless passes.
Ball controls the pace of the game for the Hornets, and when he’s sloppy, so is the Hornets’ offense.
Those turnovers also often led to points for the Celtics. The Celtics had 14 fastbreak points.
Ball was better in the second half. He didn’t have a single turnover, and finished with 15 points. Ball has to be careful.
The Hornets had 31 turnovers in the past two games. They had 15 turnovers against the Nets and 16 against the Celtics.
Pro-Celtics crowd
There was so much green at Spectrum Center, you would have thought it was St. Patrick’s Day already. In some ways, it felt like the Hornets were on the road.
Celtics fans came out, and whenever their team made a play, they were loud.
The loudest cheer was when Jayson Tatum hit a 3-pointer with about 10 minutes left to put the Celtics up 96-78. It was at that time that it became clear, that this one was out of reach.
They even chanted, “Let’s go Celtics!” when Montrez Harrell was at the free-throw line with about 8:50 left.
Isaiah Thomas’ 10-day contract
It’s been an interesting road for the former Celtics and MVP candidate Isaiah Thomas. The Hornets signed Thomas to a 10-day contract on March 2. The backup point guard played in his first game with the team, scoring 11 points in a win against the Cleveland Cavaliers.
But he didn’t play in the Hornets’ next two games.
On Wednesday night, Thomas played against his former team. He played some minutes in the second quarter after Ball struggled with turnovers. He played 11 minutes and scored five points and had two assists. He was 1 of 4 from the floor.
It’s unclear if Thomas will remain with the team. His contract expires on March 11. The Hornets can sign him to a second 10-day contract on March 12 before making a decision on whether to sign him for the rest of the year.
Tatum goes off
Just one night after Nets’ point guard Kyrie Irving scored 50 points against the Hornets, Tatum scored 44.
There was nothing the Hornets could do to stop him. They tried double-teaming him late in the game. He made some clutch baskets to the joy of Celtics fans in the building.
And every time he’d hit a shot, he’d turn to the crowd and celebrate with them. Tatum scored 28 of his 44 points in the second half.
Tatum finished 16 of 24 from the field and 6 of 9 from 3-point range.
He also had five rebounds and six assists.
