The scene is brief but testifies to the frustration in which the Charlotte team found itself after having conceded a 35-8 in the third quarter, to spin towards a fourth consecutive defeat, against Miami (86-104).
After a lively exchange with his coach before the fourth quarter, we see the rookie James Bouknight, who had only come into play for the last 14 seconds of the third quarter, getting up to face his coach before to be restrained by a teammate and an assistant, then to be accompanied towards the exit, towards the locker room with the support of a member of the security service. He didn’t come back afterwards.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29X5Etu1o74
James Borrego will not hold it against his rookie
After the meeting, James Borrego insisted on extinguishing this beginning of fire, justifying this altercation by the frustration which ended up winning both sides.
“Obviously we’re all a little frustrated, all of us. At the end of the third quarter, at the start of the fourth, it got a little emotional. Beyond that, I want to leave it at that., he said after the Hornets’ fourth straight loss. “As I said before, he is in a complicated situation. Of course he wants to play, I understand that. He’s a kid we believe in and we’re going to find more minutes for him, more time. So I won’t go into details, it was just two competitors trying to help this team.
As confirmed by Miles Bridges, the frustration of James Bouknight is mainly due to his playing time.
“We’ve all been there. When I was a rookie, I also wanted to play”, he recalled. “He’s very talented but he doesn’t see the floor as much as he would like. I try to explain to him that we’ve all been there, whether it’s me or LaMelo who was rookie of the year behind. I spoke to him, he understood. “
The blow of the breakdown at the worst time
This altercation, however, reflects quite well the state of tension that reigns in the workforce of James Borrego, while a new opportunity to finally pass a course in the hierarchy in the East may have just flown away. While Toronto, Boston and Atlanta are finally fueling, Charlotte is stalling at the worst time.
“Over the course of a season, you always end up facing adversity at some point. And now it’s up to us to find the parade, “ recognized Miles Bridges. “We have strong characters in the team, so I think we will get there. Adversity always ends up getting to us, and the only way out is to keep fighting. And that’s what we have to do.”
With two big Tests coming up at home at the start of the week, against Toronto and then against Chicago, James Borrego insisted on the state of mind and unity to try to reverse the trend while it is still. time.
“It’s the key, to stay united. Of course, we come out of difficult matches. Friday (102-101 defeat against Cleveland), it was very hard emotionally and here we are playing one of the best teams in the NBA. We are in the game at halftime and we lose control in the third quarter. We have to stay together and come back together”.
| Shots | Bounces | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Players | GM | Minimum | Shots | 3 points | LF | Off | Def | Early | pd | bp | Int | CT | party | Points |
| Miles Bridges | 51 | 35.8 | 48.7 | 31.5 | 78.6 | 1.2 | 6.0 | 7.2 | 3.5 | 1.8 | 1.0 | 0.9 | 2.6 | 19.8 |
| Lamelo Ball | 46 | 32.3 | 42.4 | 36.1 | 87.5 | 1.6 | 5.5 | 7.2 | 7.6 | 3.1 | 1.5 | 0.4 | 3.1 | 19.8 |
| terry rozier | 44 | 33.0 | 43.1 | 36.9 | 80.8 | 0.7 | 3.4 | 4.1 | 4.0 | 1.2 | 1.2 | 0.4 | 1.4 | 18.4 |
| Gordon Hayward | 46 | 33.0 | 46.6 | 39.3 | 84.6 | 0.8 | 3.9 | 4.7 | 3.7 | 1.7 | 1.0 | 0.5 | 1.8 | 16.7 |
| Kelly Oubre, Jr. | 47 | 28.1 | 44.8 | 36.4 | 69.2 | 1.1 | 3.0 | 4.0 | 1.1 | 1.0 | 1.2 | 0.4 | 2.5 | 16.7 |
| Pj Washington | 36 | 24.2 | 44.6 | 39.5 | 72.9 | 1.3 | 4.0 | 5.3 | 2.1 | 1.4 | 0.7 | 0.9 | 2.4 | 9.9 |
| Cody Martin | 48 | 27.1 | 45.5 | 41.4 | 66.2 | 1.2 | 3.0 | 4.2 | 2.6 | 0.8 | 1.3 | 0.5 | 1.7 | 8.0 |
| mason plumlee | 44 | 25.4 | 63.2 | 0.0 | 33.7 | 2.5 | 5.2 | 7.7 | 2.9 | 1.3 | 0.9 | 0.7 | 3.1 | 6.8 |
| Jalen Mcdaniels | 39 | 17.6 | 49.2 | 37.2 | 67.4 | 0.7 | 2.7 | 3.5 | 1.1 | 0.8 | 0.5 | 0.4 | 1.8 | 6.6 |
| james bouknight | 24 | 10.4 | 36.8 | 34.1 | 85.2 | 0.7 | 0.9 | 1.6 | 0.8 | 0.4 | 0.2 | 0.0 | 0.9 | 5.0 |
| Ish Smith | 34 | 14.0 | 39.5 | 41.7 | 63.2 | 0.3 | 1.3 | 1.5 | 2.6 | 1.0 | 0.6 | 0.3 | 1.0 | 4.6 |
| Nick Richards | 38 | 8.3 | 67.5 | 0.0 | 74.3 | 0.7 | 1.3 | 2.0 | 0.3 | 0.5 | 0.2 | 0.5 | 1.2 | 3.4 |
| Jt Thor | 15 | 8.5 | 34.4 | 25.0 | 70.0 | 0.4 | 0.9 | 1.3 | 0.5 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.4 | 0.9 | 2.3 |
| Vernon Carey, Jr. | 4 | 4.2 | 50.0 | 0.0 | 66.7 | 0.8 | 0.5 | 1.2 | 0.0 | 0.2 | 0.2 | 0.0 | 0.2 | 2.0 |
| Kai Jones | 16 | 2.9 | 66.7 | 50.0 | 25.0 | 0.1 | 0.4 | 0.5 | 0.2 | 0.3 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.3 | 0.9 |
| Scottie Lewis | 2 | 3.3 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 50.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.5 | 0.0 | 0.5 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.5 |
| Arnoldas Kulboka | 1 | 2.7 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
