GAMENOTES: Regular Season Game #75 Charlotte Hornets (18-56) vs. Utah Jazz (16-59) - March 31st, 2025

He who fights with monsters should be careful lest he thereby become a monster. And if thou gaze long into an abyss, the abyss will also gaze into thee. — Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil

FINAL

Charlotte Hornets 110 (19-56) - Utah Jazz 106 (16-60)

THE BOXSCORE

WHY DID THEY WIN? (AND OTHER IMPORTANT STORIES)

• The Charlotte Hornets notch their first wire-to-wire victory of the season against the Utah Jazz and sweep the series for the first time since 1995. Both of those things would be neat if not for these pesky facts:

  • The Jazz are actively tanking, even more so than the Hornets.

  • This is game #76

  • The Hornets have lost 56 games

• The Hornets decided to play starters Miles Bridges, Mark Williams and Josh Green to close the game and the Hornets needed all of their contributions to fend off a pesky Utah attack at the end.

• It will make a lot of tankinistas mad but I don’t know that it’s realistic for the Hornets to make up enough ground to pass the Wizards and Jazz the rest of the way. I appreciate the Hornets not shamelessly tanking in front of the few sickos who are still buying tickets to see them in the Spectrum Center and the truly lost who choose to spend two hours with them on television. I hated the benching of Miles in the 4th quarter against the Pelicans. If you’re going to tank a game, TANK A GAME. Don’t play him at all. To bench him and the other starters in the 4th is just open, naked corruption which has come to characterize so much of March NBA basketball and the American experience writ large. I believe in basketball gods that are spiteful and wrath-filled. Best not to tempt them.

• Also, there were solid developments from both KJ Simpson and Tidjane Salaun in this game. Do you get those if there aren’t some players out there who know what to do with the ball?

• Alright, alright…if you want to be mad at someone be mad at Josh Green who suddenly found his shooting stroke 70 games too late.

• The Hornets experimented with some double big lineups in this game and it didn’t go well for them defensively.

  • The Nurk/Mark lineup was very brief but had a -34 net rating

  • The Nurkic, Salaun, Taj lineup was outscored 15-11 with a net rating of -25

• Miles Bridges almost sleep-walked his way to a 26 point triple double.

• Mark Williams had an 18-13 double-double but honestly he should have had 20 boards. Not much size in this game on Utah’s part and the Jazz pounded the Hornets on the offensive boards. He dominated offensively late and helped them win the game though.

• Tidjane Salaun hit some triples off the bounce that should give you all of the tingles.

• We don’t talk about Josh Green.

• Nick Smith Jr. cannot have an okay game. He either has to go 6 of 7 from the field for 17 points or he turns in a -1.5 gamescore in 19 minutes like he did tonight. Unbelievable.

• Stay tuned below for fun facts about Utah and a picture of me with an NBA legend.

NEWS AND NOTES

• Out for the Jazz: Jordan Clarkson, John Collins, Walker Kessler, Lauri Markkanen, Collin Sexton…among others

• Out for the Hornets (besides the usual): Josh Okogie (hammy management)

  • Josh Green, Seth Curry and Mark Williams all available

THINGS I THINK I SAW