Brandon Miller, Tre Mann and Tidjane Salaün led the Charlotte Hornets as they defeated the Memphis Grizzlies 119-104.

The summary

LaMelo Ball and Josh Green got the evening off. The Hornets got off to a bit of a slow start with some sloppy turnovers, but a few three-pointers from Brandon Miller and strong offense from Miles Bridges generated enough offense to pull even with the Grizzlies. Miller got hot and scored 16 first-quarter points over a couple of whirlwind seasons to help the Hornets to a three-point first-quarter lead. They began to increase the defensive intensity in the second half of the second quarter, and that allowed the Hornets to build a double-digit lead at the break. The Hornets cruised to victory with the reserve players in the game.

The third quarter was a drag. After some really efficient shooting in the first half, the Hornets couldn’t afford a basket in the third quarter as they continued to turn the ball over at an alarming rate. The Grizzlies scored 13 straight points at one point, but that run was finally stopped by a three-pointer from KJ Simpson. After that, the Hornets stabilized and eventually increased most of their lead with Tre Mann taking the lead.

The good

It was nice to see Brandon Miller get off the ground after a few quiet starts in the first two games. He exploded in the first quarter and looks like he has a good, calm demeanor on the floor.

Tre Mann might actually be a really good player. He has been one of the best players on the floor in each of the three preseason games so far. I’m very excited to see what kind of player he can be off the bench for the Hornets this season.

He did almost all of his damage in the fourth quarter against the reserves, but it’s still fun to see Tidjane Salaün have so much success in the preseason. He was 3 of 10 from three, but it’s good to see he has the confidence to keep moving up, and the misses were very close for the most part. As Eric Collins says, “something to dream about.”

The evil

Vasilije Micic has had some really tough games. He had four turnovers in four minutes on Tuesday and another four turnovers in 20 minutes against the Grizzlies. He could have had more. There were a few times when the ball was knocked away from him, but he was lucky enough for a teammate to win it back. He looked slow and uncertain with the ball in his hands, and his misses weren’t even close. If he doesn’t get his game in order, he’ll lose some minutes at the point against Tre Mann and Seth Curry at defense.

It’s preseason, but there were some pretty poor defensive efforts, especially in the first quarter and a half. There were plenty of possessions with no leftovers and fairly unencumbered trips to the basket. I don’t think Charles Lee will tolerate much of this, but it’s also hard to play with full competitiveness in a game that doesn’t count. We’ll see what it looks like when the real games start.

What’s next?

The Hornets have the entire weekend off before playing the Knicks again on Tuesday.

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