Celtics suffer worst loss of season against Hornets
The Celtics’ win streak has come to a screeching halt, falling victim to the Hornets’ recent buzzsaw run.
The Boston Celtics' recent hot streak has come to a screeching halt.
Continuing their recent buzzsaw run, the Charlotte Hornets came out hot and never looked back on Wednesday night at TD Garden, blistering the Celtics by a 118-89 final at TD Garden. For the C's, the loss marks their worst point margin of the season, after they'd come into the game having won three in a row and 12 of 14, with all of those wins coming by double digits. The Hornets, meanwhile, have now won seven in a row by an average margin of 20.7 points. Wednesday marks a statement win for a Charlotte team that is looking like much more than the play-in team they currently are in the Eastern Conference standings.
Rookie Kon Knueppel led the way offensively for the Hornets with 20 points, with three other players scoring in double digits. Derrick White enjoyed one of his best offensive outputs of the season for the Celtics with a game-high 29 points, but the C's ultimately shot just 38.0% as a team, compared to 46.1% for the Hornets. Charlotte's bench dominated to the tune of a 44-26 score between the reserves.
The Hornets played a much cleaner game overall, committing just four turnovers on the night, while the Celtics gave it away 15 times. Charlotte jumped out to a quick 8-0 lead and never trailed, fending off Celtics runs and establishing a 64-43 haltime lead. A Celtics early-third-quarter burst cut the deficit to 14, but the Hornets pulled away again by extending the lead to 82-54 with just over five minutes left in the third.
Up Next: The Celtics will look to bounce back from a blindsiding loss on Friday night, when they remain on their home court to take on the Dallas Mavericks.
