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The Charlotte Hornets provided a rare cause for celebration Monday night as they downed the Cleveland Cavaliers 124-112 in a much-needed victory. The Hornets had lost six in a row prior to the game and had been inconsistent offensively.
While it is somewhat surprising that the Charlotte Hornets defeated the Cleveland Cavaliers Monday night, the Hornets were missing three players, including Brandon Miller, Kon Knueppel and Moussa Diabaté, and were able to build a 33-point lead over the Cavaliers.
While it is great that the Hornets can find a way to win without some of their key players, it is unknown whether or not this is something that the team can use to its advantage in the next few games.
Going into the game against the Cavaliers, the Hornets were shooting 28.8% from three-point range as a team. Against Cleveland, Charlotte shot 23-of-46 from deep, making a huge difference for a team that has been struggling to score outside of the paint.
Grayson Allen scored 27 points, Naz Reid scored 25 points and had 13 rebounds, and Tidjane Salaün scored 14 points coming off the bench for the Hornets. Charlotte received contributions from several players with three starters sitting out. The contributions were also highlighted in Hornets On SI's takeaways from the Cleveland victory.
But this team is not going to shoot 50% from three-point range every game. There will be games where those shots do not go in, and Charlotte will have to find other ways to score.
Where the Hornets can look to build on their performance against Cleveland is in the areas of rebounding and ball movement. Charlotte had 29 assists on 44 made field goals against the Cavaliers and also had 17 offensive rebounds. Ryan Kalkbrenner had 10 of those offensive rebounds on his own, as detailed in the Hornets' official game recap.
These are areas of the game that the Hornets can look to build upon, as they don't require Charlotte to have an unusually good shooting night from three-point range in order to be effective.
There was still one glaring issue for the Hornets on Monday night, however. They led by as many as 33 points but allowed the Cavaliers to make a run in the fourth quarter and get back to within eight points. Charlotte scored only 17 points in the fourth quarter after scoring 40 in the second quarter and 38 in the third quarter.
That is something that Charles Lee will need to address with his team. They cannot rely on building up a big lead and then holding on for a win.
Don't get too excited, Charlotte. This was just one game. There are plenty of offensive problems for the Hornets to figure out.
The Hornets can continue to get contributions from different players, move the ball and score on second chances.
Yes, the Hornets had a good night shooting the ball from the three-point line, but that doesn't mean that the rest of their performance has to follow that pattern.