Poteau Daily News

Hornets top Thunder

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — P.J. Washington scored 22 of his career-high 43 points in the fourth quarter, and the Charlotte Hornets rallied to beat the Oklahoma City Thunder 137134 on Tuesday night for their third straight win.

Washington made 8-of-11 field goals and 3 of 5 3-pointers in the final quarter to help the Hornets recover from an eightpoint deficit early in the period.

“Credit to my teammates getting me in the right spots,” he said. “I was just trying to be aggressive with the shots that I did take.”

Three Thunder players scored career highs — Isaiah Joe with 33 points and Josh Giddey and Jalen Williams with 31 each. But Williams and Giddey each missed one of two free throws in the final 16 seconds, and Williams missed a 3-pointer at the buzzer that would have forced overtime.

It was a potentially costly loss for Oklahoma City. The Thunder were looking to strengthen their position in the Western Conference play-in race despite being short-handed. Oklahoma City guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who entered the day fourth in the league averaging 31.3 points per game, sat out with a sprained left ankle.

Charlotte was short-handed, too. Terry Rozier (right foot discomfort) and Kelly Oubre (strained right shoulder) sat out for the third straight game and Dennis Smith (sprained right toe) also did not play.

That didn’t stop the Hornets from scoring 80 points after halftime.

“I was most disappointed in our defense, especially in the second half, really from the first five minutes all the way through,” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said. “We’ve got to look in the mirror on that.”

The Hornets were coming off two wins over the Dallas Mavericks, who also need victories to get into the Western Conference playoffs.

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2023-03-30T07:00:00.0000000Z

2023-03-30T07:00:00.0000000Z

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Alberta Newspaper Group