When the Charlotte Hornets’ starters are having a shooting off-night against a San Antonio Spurs team that just shackled the reigning defending champion and league-leading Golden State Warriors in its last game, everyone was expecting a blowout of gigantic proportion.
With a seven-point first quarter output, Steve Clifford and the thousands of Hornets fans that showed up at the Time Warner Cable arena were looking at a horrible game night especially when the Hornets’ main scorers like Kemba Walker, Marvin Williams, and Nic Batum were having trouble making a field goal.
In fact, things really looked headed that way especially when the Spurs took a commanding 23-point lead over the Hornets during the early minutes of the second quarter, following a 28-7 score after the first quarter.
When Coach Clifford fielded Jeremy Lin off the bench, things started looking good for the Hornets. With his hot shooting, supported by Cody Zeller, they were able to claw back to the nearly insurmountable lead, cutting the deficit to seven points at the start of the fourth quarter.
The 27-year-old Harvard graduate practically re-lived ‘Linsanity’ for the Hornets on his way to scoring 29 points including a flawless 4 out of 4 from beyond the arc to inspire a come-from-behind 91-88 victory against the Spurs.
The first time that the Hornets led the Spurs during the game was at the opening moment of the first quarter with 2-0 before the Spurs completed the first canto with a 28-5 windup.
Getting the lead back
It was also Jeremy Lin who brought back the lead to the Hornets with 48.4 seconds remaining in the game in the fourth quarter by hitting a fallaway jump shot to put the score at 89-88.
The Spurs had an empty possession in the next play and Jeremy Lin was fouled and calmly sinks his two free throws to put the score at 91-88, notes Yahoo! Sports.
Greg Popovich called a timeout to draw up a play. The Spurs had two attempts beyond the arc and they got nothing. After the second attempt, the ball went out of bounds under the basket in favor of the Spurs with 0.4 second remaining. When the ball was inbounded supposedly for a catch-and-shoot to Danny Green on the side, Jeremy Lin steals the pass and sealed the victory.
After the game, Steve Clifford had nothing but praises for Jeremy Lin. He said that Lin is a very committed player because he comes into the game and works so hard. Clifford also likes Lin a lot because he gives out his best effort every night. He cited that Jeremy Lin came in and raised the team’s energy in both halves. He became the Hornets’ catalyst in defense and offense.
Positioning for the top half
The victory gave the Hornets’ a 40-30 win-loss slate with 12 games remaining on its schedule, opening for the team a clear shot at making it to the top half of the Eastern Conference playoff picture. Miami is now at 3rd place in the Eastern Conference but is only ahead of the 4th and 5th place, Atlanta and Boston, respectively, which enjoy only a half game lead over Charlotte.
So it would be an exciting windup in the East as the four teams battle to make it to the top half of the playoff picture and join Cleveland and Toronto and the homecourt advantage in the first round.
In the interview after being named the best player of the game, Lin said that they just turned the game up and played hard. He said that he is just thankful to God because he has been struggling so much especially in their loss to the lowly Denver Nuggets two days before.
He said that it was a game that they should not have lost so they came out against the Spurs determined to do better. Getting the win in the process is just a huge boost for the Hornets, Lin said.
Interesting postgame interview of CLIFFORD regarding the Asian reporters questions about JLin playing well enough to start after the 3/22/2016 game with Brooklyn. Clifford responded, and I paraphrase, “JLin is a role player. He has always been a role player in the NBA. He will continue to be a role player.” NOW, if we use CLIFFORD’s logic, let’s apply it to him as a coach. “CLIFFORD has always been an Assistant Coach. He has always been an Assistant Coach.” Time for JLin and anyone who wants to get promoted to leave this bad-coach-attitude team, ASAP. Clifford is a dunce. Anti-American, Asian Bias.