In the three games since hosting Golden State, Charlotte has made a point of starting out the game with energy and precision. Below are the scores with four minutes left in the first quarter of each of the last four games, including Friday’s tilt against Memphis:

Score of Game 8 Minutes In Hornets Opponent @ Chicago 21 12 Detroit 17 15 Miami 20 14 @ Memphis 11 24

Those first three games all turned into major victories for the Hornets, and the key was being able to turn the bench loose with a lead heading into the second quarter. Friday night was a different story, as the Hornets came out flat on both ends of the floor and the Grizzlies were keen capitalizing early. Using size to their advantage, the Grizzlies made a point to attack in every situation, a strategy that led to 17 first quarter free throws. Instead of giving the bench a lead to play with, Clifford turned to the Jer Pair, Frank Kaminsky, and Spencer Hawes needing a spark. The rest is well documented elsewhere, as the Hornets put those first 8 minutes behind them to win the final 16 minutes of the half 48-30. The bench played in such impressive fashion, the starters minus Marvin Williams (who frequently runs with the second unit) played just 10 minutes total in the second quarter (about half as many minutes as they had in the previous three 2nd quarters). A 5 point halftime lead ballooned to 31 for the Hornets as the 2nd quarter play carried over into the second half. The Hornets forced the Grizzlies out of their first quarter strategy as they tried to play catch-up, and they only dug the hole deeper as the Hornets seemingly capitalized on every empty possession by the Grizzlies.

Kemba Walker

Kemba Walker was the catalyst in the run that opened the game up in the second half, but also led the way in scoring in the first quarter once the Hornets woke up. It sure didn’t look like that would be the case after the start. The Hornets found themselves down 6-0 quickly, and the below drive from Kemba was their first real chance at a bucket. After blowing past a poor hedge from Zach Randolph, Kemba had Marc Gasol in front of him. Thinking Gasol would come after the shot, he leaves his feet ready to pass. When Gasol retreated towards Cody Zeller, Walker didn’t have enough time to readjust for the easy four footer, and the resulting passes led to a contested PJ Hairston three late in the shot clock.

Memphis scored on their next possession to make it 8-0. On the ensuing Hornets possession, Kemba uses another pick and roll to his right to get in the paint where he met a familiar foe in Gasol. This time, Gasol stays with Kemba. While he didn’t have a clear open pass to make, the decision to shoot a falling away 10’ runner resulted in a big block from the trailing Mike Conley, which led to a layup on the other end and a timeout from Steve Clifford.

After that, I don’t think Kemba made a wrong choice on a drive the rest of the night. After a tough transition layup for the team’s first points, Kemba takes advantage of Randolph on a pick and roll and never looked back:

He repeatedly got into the lane and passed when he drew help and shot when he was open. Jeremy Lin was able to follow the same strategy for most of the second quarter, and the spread out offense of the Hornets dissected the once feared Grizz defense.

The third quarter was arguably Kemba’s best, and he did much of his damage from the outside. As opposed to just one three pointer attempted out of nine first half shots, Kemba was 3-4 from deep in the third. When he was covered on the outside, he found an open teammate as the Hornets scored 21 of their 34 third quarter points from deep. When you are feeling good, you are feeling good:

The Grizzlies Defending End of Quarter Pick and Rolls

As noted earlier, the Hornets, specifically Walker and Lin, targeted the Grizz bigs in pick and rolls all night. As the Hornets often do in last shot situations, the PG (Walker in the below video) will have the ball near half court while the other four line up on the baseline. On the signal, one of the bigs (Hawes) will come up for a screen to hopefully put a big on Kemba and let him work him in isolation, usually for a pull up jumper to close out the quarter:

Memphis coach Dave Joerger was ready for this, and instead of Gasol following Spencer Hawes, Mario Chalmers switches from Lin to follow Hawes, eliminating a potential Gasol-on-Kemba isolation. Hawes somehow conned the refs into calling a foul on Chalmers so it worked out for the Hornets. The Hornets still could have gotten the matchup they wanted if Walker had recognized this and swung it to Lin, with Gasol on him.

The Hornets ended up in the same situation at the end of the 3rd quarter as Lin had the ball this time. Again, Gasol was guarding Hawes as he came to screen. Courtney Lee switched off of Jeremy Lamb to cover for Gasol this time. The Hornets could have passed to Lamb to isolate him with Gasol. Instead, Lin tried to take the very athletic Lee off the bounce, and the resulting fadeaway jumper did not work out for the Hornets. You can bet that Coach Steve Clifford will be ready to swing the ball to the desired isolation the next time this happens.

Nicolas Batum

I want to preface this by saying Batum was magnificent shooting the ball. Coming off of a triple-double against the Pistons, he shot 7-11 and had 20 points. Now that that is out of the way…

…Batum should have had one of his easier defensive match ups of the year, nearly exclusively guarding Tony Allen, Jeff green, and Matt Barnes. At best, these guys will be the fourth option. Instead, he had a rough go in the first half repeatedly getting beat off the dribble. The Grizz recognized this, and for much of the first quarter, they found success in targeting Batum.

Here is Jeff Green, who has been successful in isolations this year (26 points on 18 FG attempts of this variety), just punish Batum as he gets in the paint with ease and draws the foul.

A few possessions later, the offensively inept Tony Allen takes Batum right to the basket for an easy layup as Batum gets slightly out of position on a shot fake. Defenders’ hands should go up on a Tony Allen shot fake, but in celebration that he might shoot from the outside.

And one last first quarter example, Batum is matched up with Jeff Green in transition. Batum’s responsibility is to slow Green down, but instead he makes no move to get in front of Green’s dominant hand, and Batum almost had to bear responsibility for Marvin Williams being on a poster.

By the time, Batum came back in the game after his first half rest, the Hornets had built a lead and the Grizzlies stopped going to any of these players on the offensive end in iso situations as they quickly tried to stop the bleeding. He didn’t have to focus much energy on his defensive play and his third quarter shooting helped seal the win for the Hornets. This may have just be a case of a guy not feeling great defensively on a particular night, but could be something to monitor in tougher matchups.

A great, resilient win from the Hornets will make playing the second half of a back-to-back much easier. The Celtics come to town on Saturday for a matchup of two surprising Eastern Conference teams. The Celtics will surely be tired after a 2OT battle with the Warriors last night. If the Hornets can get a win, expect a lot of media attention to be on Charlotte.

Header Photo: Brandon Dill – AP