– by Adesina O. Koiki
A Lot of Sports Talk editor-in-chief
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WASHINGTON — If at first you don’t succeed, try again. As far as the Charlotte Hornets were concerned, getting 25 second chances at redeeming themselves for missed opportunities was the perfect tonic to exact a little bit of revenge on their opponent.
Second-year center Mark Williams had a career night by scoring 21 points and grabbing 21 rebounds — including 12 on the offensive glass — in helping to lead the Hornets to a come-from-behind 124-117 victory over the Washington Wizards at Capital One Arena, the second game of the NBA’s In-Season Tournament for both teams. Gordon Hayward scored 11 of his 27 points in the fourth quarter while LaMelo Ball had 25 points as Charlotte ended the game on a 25-8 run to overturn a 10-point deficit midway through the fourth quarter.
The Hornets were coming off a 132-116 home defeat to the Wizards on Wednesday, a game in which Charlotte committed 20 turnovers and allowed Washington to attempt 18 more shot attempts from the field.
The roles were reversed on Friday, as the Hornets’ 25 offensive rebounds in the contest allowed Charlotte to attempt 19 more shot attempts from the field, and it outrebounded the Wizards 64-36 overall.
Washington led for the majority of the game, and a Landry Shamet three-pointer at the 7:23 mark gave the Wizards a 109-99 lead and forced the Hornets to call a timeout. Right after the break, Ball drained three three-pointers in a three-minute span, the last capping an 11-0 run to give Charlotte its first lead of the fourth at 110-109.
Kyle Kuzma scored on a layup to give Washington the lead right back, but then Hayward hit a three from the top of the key on the following possession to give the Hornets the lead for good.
On the next possession down the floor for the Hornets, Williams had three shots blocked by Wizards center Daniel Gafford, grabbing the offensive rebound twice before getting his shots stuffed. Though Gafford was the one yelling with glee afterward, the possession epitomized the stick-with-it nature of Williams and the Hornets on the offensive glass, and he later had two more offensive rebounds that resulted in dunks late to put the game away.
Kuzma led the Wizards with 17 points, as nine players scored at least nine points for Washington, with eight of them scoring in double figures.
*Editor’s note: Above the byline is the photo gallery from Friday evening’s event, with all photos taken by DC-area photographer Yusuf Abdullah. After clicking on the first photo to enlarge the picture, make sure to press the left and right arrow buttons to scroll through the rest of the pictures. There are 16 pictures in total.
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