5 Takeaways From Hornets’ 119-80 Loss to Celtics

The Charlotte Hornets trailed the Boston Celtics 40-20 after one quarter Friday night and lost 119-80 at Spectrum Center. It was their sixth straight loss, and it dropped them to 3-7.

Kon Knueppel, Grant Williams, Moussa Diabaté, and Dennis Schröder were all unavailable before tip-off. Brandon Miller left in the second quarter with right groin soreness and did not return.

The Hornets went 11-of-50 from 3-point range. They were 2-of-14 in the first quarter and 5-of-23 at halftime, when Boston had already made 17.

Grayson Allen missed all four of his attempts from deep and went scoreless in 21:35. Christian Anderson Jr. went 0-of-7, Coby White went 1-of-6, and Liam McNeeley went 1-of-6. Tidjane Salaün made 2 of his 8.

Boston finished 24-of-44. Jayson Tatum went 5-of-8 from deep, and Derrick White and Payton Pritchard each went 4-of-6.

Hornets coach Charles Lee wants the layups going in, too. Charlotte shot 15-of-38 in the paint.

"No, the mindset is still to find the best uncontested shot we can get," Lee said. "We got some layups, and we got to make sure we make our layups, and we're getting to the free throw line at a decent clip. But the goal is to try to create advantages and look for the best uncontested shot we can get."

Charlotte went 15-of-17 at the line. Boston shot 23 free throws, 11 of them by Tatum, who made every one.

The Celtics assisted on 33 of their 38 field goals. Tatum had 9 assists, and White and Pritchard had 5 apiece.

Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla said there is never one way to attack a cross-match, because every possession looks a little different.

"It's twofold, right? You can't have an assist unless the shot goes in," Mazzulla said. "So I like the fact that we shared it, and I think we shared [for] good shots. Played great basketball, pretty well-balanced basketball, but part of efficiency is making the right read. I think our guys did a good job making the right read throughout the game, and it helps to knock it down."

Boston tries not to tell the whole gym which matchup it is hunting. Tatum said the Celtics want to get there on a second or third action instead.

"Different teams, different matchups," Tatum said. "Some teams switch, some teams [are up to] touch. Had a matchup tonight where they were kind of in drop. Just reading the defense."

Tatum scored 18 points in the first quarter and 24 in the first half. Boston had 16 fast-break points to Charlotte's 10.

Charlotte sent Hannes Steinbach to the Greensboro Swarm on Thursday and brought him back Friday. With Diabaté out, the 14th pick in June's draft played a team-high 27:13.

Steinbach had 4 points, 11 rebounds, 1 assist, and 3 blocks. Five of the rebounds came on the offensive glass, and two of the blocks came against Luka Garza in the fourth quarter.

He had appeared in three of Charlotte's first nine games. His first points Friday came on a tip dunk at 3:48 of the first quarter, about half a minute after he checked in.

Practice puts Steinbach against Ryan Kalkbrenner, Diabaté, and Naz Reid every day.

"It was good to get in the game in the beginning," Steinbach said. "Just kind of figured out how the physicality is against those guys that regularly play. It was definitely tough at the beginning. I think I got used to [it] a little bit better throughout the game."

Boston won the third quarter 26-18, and Charlotte played Boston even in the fourth, 23-23.

All 11 of Sion James' points came in the third quarter, on 4-of-4 shooting with three 3-pointers. Two nights earlier at Brooklyn, he scored 7 of his 10 in the third and called out the Hornets' careless turnovers afterward.

Salaün scored 8 in the fourth, and McNeeley scored 7. Royce O'Neale and McNeeley had steals in the final 48 seconds, and both turned into fast-break dunks.

Lee set a standard at halftime that had nothing to do with the final score.

"One possession at a time. There's a lot of game left," Lee explained. "We said that our standard, no matter what the final score was, we wanted to make sure that there was still a mark of competitiveness and physicality that was going to be given, playing the right way offensively. And I thought the group continued to do that. To see the level at which they continued to play, that group at the end, I thought, really fought and competed and picked up full court and got some deflections and made some things happen."

"And then the communication, to see Royce O'Neale out there at the end of the game, to see Naz talking to Christian, we got to keep at it, and we'll fall back on our habits," Lee continued. "And I think that this group has been really consistent with how they work. So at some point, I know we're on the verge of a breakthrough."

Brandon Miller went to the bench for the last time Friday with 7:14 left in the second quarter, and the Hornets ruled him out for the night at 8:03 p.m. ET with right groin soreness. He had 8 points on 3-of-10 shooting in 13:46, and every one of those points came in the first quarter.

Miller came into the game leading Charlotte at 22.0 points per game.

He was the fifth Hornet unavailable by halftime. Kon Knueppel sat again with a left hamstring strain after lasting 5:51 in his season debut at Brooklyn on Wednesday. Grant Williams, out with a right hamstring strain, has not played in 10 games.

Moussa Diabaté and Dennis Schröder were downgraded to out Friday afternoon, both missing a game for the first time this season. Diabaté has right quadriceps tendinopathy and had started all nine games before Friday. Schröder has left thigh soreness.

Miller asked out of the game himself, Lee said.

"To be honest, I saw him start to limp a couple plays, and he was good," Lee said. "And then he asked for [a sub], and I think that we'll evaluate him over the weekend, and then we'll have more information, I think, on Monday."

A lot of the Hornets got to the NBA through some type of adversity, in Lee's view, and he thinks that helps now.

"Like we said coming into the year, it was going to be by committee, and we had to commit to everything that was going to go on and embrace every day of our journey," Lee said. "And this is part of it. And right now, you're in a little bit of a storm, and we got to band together even more. We got to continue to work at an even higher rate. But in these moments, you grow even stronger. You learn about yourself, the resilience of this group, and how hard they want to work."

"I know that we'll be able to kind of get through this thing, but we definitely got to make sure that we are staying together and focused on just the daily approach," Lee continued. "We don't get to choose the circumstances that go on right now, but we do choose our actions and our response to what's going on right now."

Charlotte hosts the Cleveland Cavaliers at 7 p.m. ET on Monday.