The Charlotte Hornets dropped a Monday night game to the Los Angeles Lakers. Miles Bridges had 34 points and hit seven triples, while rookie Kon Knueppel finished with 19 points, `10 rebounds and nine assists for Charlotte. Luka Doncic of the Lakers led all scorers with 38 points.
Playing without their top two scorers in LaMelo Ball and Brandon Miller, the Charlotte Hornets lost to the Los Angeles Lakers 121-111 Monday night.
Miles Bridges had 34 points while hitting seven buckets from downtown. Rookie Kon Knueppel almost pulled off a triple-double as he scored 19 points, grabbed 10 rebounds and had nine assists on the evening.
The Hornets are still struggling without their top playmakers.
The Hornets allowed Luke Doncic to score a game-high 38 points, while Rui Hachimura had a big third quarter as he scored 13 of his 21 points to give the Lakers a comfortable lead heading into the fourth.
Hachimura and the Lakers broke a close game open in the aforementioned third quarter as they outscored the Hornets 31-15. The Hornets appeared to be concentrating on slowing down Doncic while Hachimura did the damage from downtown.
Doncic still electrified the crowd by drilling five triples and flew threw the lane and made a two-handed dunk. For good measure, he hung on to the rim and gave the crowd something to moan about while he was stuck in traffic.
The Lakers fans on hand even got a chuckle when Doncic hit a three-quarter floor shot after a timeout was called. It didn't count, but it was impressive nonetheless.
Charlotte made a game out of it as they cut the lead to eight points with 4:30 left in the game. Bridges and Knueppel refused to go away, but Doncic drove through the land and drew the foul for a three-point play to put the game on ice.
As if that was not enough Marcus Smart hit a long shot from downtown with 2:30 left to give the Lakers a 14 point lead that they would never relinquish.
The Hornets started strong with Bridges scoring 16 points in the first quarter behind four triples. However, the Hornets were as cold as ice in the third quarter, running out of answers on offense while struggling to stop the Doncic who was scoring at will.
The Hornets will next face the Milwaukee Bucks as home on Wednesday night. The Lakers will continue their road trip as they face Oklahoma City, also on Wednesday.