Charlotte Outscores Pacers, 52-19, in Final 18 Minutes; Offensive Boards Provide Huge Lift

By Sam Perley

By the middle of the third quarter, shots still weren’t falling for the Charlotte Hornets, as the visiting Indiana Pacers had slowly began pulling away in Friday night’s game at Spectrum Center. Suddenly though, Brandon Miller got going, the defense found some juice and the hosts soon started surging their way to a 103-83 blowout victory.

Top Performers: Exiting halftime with a modest nine points, Miller exploded in the third quarter for 17 points, later finishing the contest with 29 on 10-of-17 shooting, a career-high-tying seven 3-pointers, six rebounds and six assists. He also became the third-fastest player in NBA history to reach 200 3-pointers (79 games), trailing only Duncan Robinson and Keegan Murray. LaMelo Ball didn’t have the most efficient showing (10-of-29, 5-of-18 from 3-point), but found his flow in the fourth, totaling a game-high 31 points, seven rebounds, six assists and one turnover.

Pascal Siakam led the Pacers with 27 points – season-high 18 in the first half – on 11-of-17 shooting, while also burying 5-of-7 from downtown. Bennedict Mathurin added 22 points on 8-of-16 shooting, good for his second straight and fourth 20-point performance of the season. 

Turning Point: Tied 44-44 at the break, Indiana used an early 16-2 third quarter run to help build a 13-point lead, but just like that, the Hornets responded emphatically with a 3-pointer-heavy, frame-finishing 23-2 cascade. With Charlotte now up eight, both sides traded buckets over the opening few minutes of the fourth, before back-to-back triples courtesy of Ball and Miller ignited a 19-4 game-ending stretch to put the Pacers away. From the 6:06 mark of the third quarter on, Charlotte outscored Indiana by a staggering 33-point margin (52-19).

Great Defense Gets the Job Done

Indiana’s 83 points – which included two quarters of 18 or fewer – was a season low for a Charlotte opponent (previous: 105 at Houston) and would have been the second lowest last year. The Pacers, who owned the NBA’s No. 2 offense in 2023-24 and entered sitting 12^th, shot 39.8% and got very little from struggling star Tyrese Haliburton (six points on 2-of-11 shooting). 

Charlotte Keeps Crashing the Glass

Even without their two seven-footers, the Hornets continue to prove that size is merely just a number. From the jump, they used physicality and attention to detail to gobble up boards on both ends, resulting in a 56-37 advantage in this area. Moussa Diabaté collected a career-high 15 boards off the bench, while Charlotte topped Indiana, 26-8, in second-chance points.

Hornets Adjust to Another Frontcourt Injury

With Miles Bridges (right knee hyperextension) now sidelined, rookie Tidjane Salaün became the second youngest player in franchise history to start a game (19 years, 90 days) behind only Michael Kidd-Gilchrist. Though the scoring wasn’t necessarily there, the youthful Frenchman looked solid and managed to snag a career-best seven rebounds, three being offensive.

Postgame Quote

“The first thing that I was happy with was the fact that we continued to play defense even though our offense wasn’t as good as it probably could’ve been or should’ve been… I think in the past, the team has resorted to letting the offense affect our emotional spirit, and I thought that we just continued to play through it, and we continued to trust each other and keep getting stops… I thought the effort level, the communication level just went up, and the physicality. I thought the physicality defensively actually transferred over to our offense, too, and we started screening better and creating more advantages.” – Hornets Head Coach Charles Lee.

What’s Next?

Another two-game road trip for the Hornets begins on Sunday, Nov. 10, when they face the Philadelphia 76ers starting at 7 PM ET on the FanDuel Sports Network. The 76ers, who will be without both Joel Embiid (suspension) and Tyrese Maxey (hamstring), have won all but two of the past 21 head-to-head meetings with Charlotte, a stretch that began back on Jan. 13, 2017.