Charlotte Hornets: 3 takeaways from 2018-19 season opener

The Charlotte Hornets tipped off the 2018-19 NBA season against the Milwaukee Bucks. What can we learn from the team’s season opener?

The 2018-19 season has finally arrived for the Charlotte Hornets. For the team’s season opener Wednesday night, they hosted Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Milwaukee Bucks. However, after a hard-fought second and third quarter, they couldn’t quite finish off their comeback in the final frame.

In the first half of their game, the Hornets struggled to make almost any shot in the first half, hitting 22 of their 50 attempts, including just 8-of-22 shooting from beyond the arc. This is a product of head coach James Borrego’s new system of trying to play faster, but the Hornets just struggled finding the bottom of the basket. It was quite the opposite for the Bucks.

Milwaukee hit 55.6 percent of its shots, including 11 3-pointers in the first half. The Bucks’ scoring drought didn’t hit until the second half, as they hit just three of their 12 triples, allowing the Hornets back in the game.

The last few minutes were exciting for Charlotte fans. Nicolas Batum and Jeremy Lamb both hit huge shots to get the team within striking distance. Probably the surprise of the game was Malik Monk, who finished with 18 points, giving the Hornets life with just under a minute left in the game.

The star of the game, however, was Kemba Walker, who dropped a game-high 41 points. While he did his best to put the Hornets in position to win, they came up just short on their last possession. Starting the season with a heartbreaking loss is never easy, but there are a few observations we can make from the team’s season opener.