Kelly Oubre Jr Highlights vs Bulls – 11/02/22
Oubre Ties Season High With 24 PTS, Hayward Exits at Halftime Following Shoulder Injury
The Charlotte Hornets haven’t had the best of luck when it comes to injuries in this very early part of the schedule, to say the least. On Wednesday night in Chicago, an already-depleted roster took another hit and just couldn’t get anything going on offense in a 106-88 road loss to the hometown Bulls at the United Center.
Kelly Oubre Jr. led the Hornets with a season-high-tying 24 points on 9-of-17 shooting, including a season-best 5-of-11 clip from 3-point range. He was about the only thing Charlotte – still down a pair of 20-point-per-game scorers in LaMelo Ball and Terry Rozier plus Cody Martin – had going on offense in the second half, as Gordon Hayward exited the contest at halftime with left shoulder soreness and did not return.
Ahead by one after the opening quarter, Chicago canned six second-quarter 3-pointers to extend its lead to nine by the midway intermission. The Bulls’ shot-making cooled off in the third, but Charlotte was even colder, as evidenced by its 6-of-17 mark from the field mixed in with eight turnovers. In the end, not having any of their primary ball-handlers was too much to overcome in the 36-point second-half showing.
“We’re playing without LaMelo, Terry, Cody and then to take Gordon out, a guy we’re playing through a majority of the time, it’s a totally different dynamic and game on the floor,” said Hornets Head Coach Steve Clifford afterwards. “Actually, I thought those guys in the third quarter did a good job just to hang in there. With nine minutes left in the game, we had an outside shot to get back into it. This wasn’t about effort. There’s short-handed and then there’s where we’re at right now. This is tough stuff here. It’s not about how we played at all.”
Mason Plumlee notched his second double-double in a row, finishing with 11 points and a game-high-tying 13 rebounds, three assists and two blocks. Doing a little bit of everything off the bench was Jalen McDaniels, resulting in 13 points, six rebounds, two assists, a career-high five steals and two blocks in 35 minutes of action.
Reserve Javonte Green had 17 points on a perfect 7-of-7 shooting and was a major reason why Chicago’s bench outscored Charlotte’s by a 49-28 margin. Goran Dragić and Patrick Williams each added 16 points and Nikola Vučević double-doubled with 14 points and 13 rebounds.
Hayward’s status moving forward is still to be determined as of the game’s conclusion. Although certainly not ideal, it’s easier to plan to be without a player ahead of time going into a game versus losing him halfway through and trying to figure things out on the fly.
“The [shoulder injury] has been something that’s been going on for a couple games,” added Clifford. “It’s been really sore and the pain just got to be too much at halftime. This is where as a coach, you better have a good feel for what [your players] are capable of. Hopefully, it’s nothing serious [with Gordon] and in the meantime, we have to have the right attitude. If we have to play without all those guys, we have a day tomorrow and a shootaround on Friday morning to get ready.”
The Hornets will now close out their two-game road trip with the first half of a back-to-back against the Memphis Grizzlies on Friday, Nov. 4 beginning at 8 PM ET. Follow all the action on Bally Sports Southeast and WFNZ FM 92.7.