Kemba Walker’s franchise record 52 push Hornets past Jazz in 2OT
After their strong, high-scoring start to the 2015-16 NBA season, the Charlotte Hornets have come crashing down to Earth over the past month, losing 12 of their last 15 games (including nine of their last 10) to fall to 18-22, and from the No. 2 seed in the East to the outside of the conference’s playoff bracket, heading into Monday’s action. With the wounded but feisty Utah Jazz coming to Time Warner Cable Arena for a Martin Luther King Jr. Day matinee, the Hornets needed a big performance to get back on the right track.
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Kemba Walker, please pick up the nearest teal-and-white courtesy telephone.
The 25-year-old point guard had the game of his life on Monday, scoring a career-high and Charlotte-franchise-record 52 points to lead the Hornets past the Jazz, 124-119, in double overtime. Walker made 16 of his 34 field-goal attempts and 14 of his 15 free throws; all either set or matched a career high, as did his six made 3-pointers in 11 tries (one shy of his previous career high in attempts). He added a season-high-tying nine rebounds, eight assists and two steals against just three turnovers in 46 1/2 minutes of work to propel the Hornets to their 19th win, drawing them within three games of the No. 8 spot in the crowded lower reaches of the improved East.
Walker made seven of his first 10 shots from the field, putting up 18 points — one off his season average — in the first quarter alone. That got the attention of teammate Marvin Williams.
“Marvin told me, ‘You’re going to get a 50 ball tonight,'” Walker said after the game, according to Bill Kiser of The Associated Press. “I didn’t pay no attention actually until he told me again after the game. He was right. He called it.”
Walker showed off his improved mid- and long-range touch early and often, making 11 of his 22 shots outside the paint en route to blowing away both his own previous high-water mark (42 points, tallied in a December 2014 loss to the Orlando Magic) and the Charlotte franchise record of 48, set back in 1997 during the Hornets’ first run in the Queen City by Glen Rice in March of 1997. He also set a new record for most points in an MLK Day game, topping the 51 that Gilbert Arenas poured in back in 2007, while hanging the league’s fourth half-a-hundred this season, joining previous monster nights from Stephen Curry, James Harden and Jimmy Butler.
Walker’s explosion also made a slightly more arcane bit of NBA history:
Kemba Walker becomes 1st player in NBA history w/ at least 52 points, 9 rebounds, 8 assists & 6 three-pointers in one game. (h/t @bball_ref)
— Tommy Beer (@TommyBeer) January 18, 2016
… and got himself achingly close to a nice round number for this breakout season:
Kemba Walker woke up this morning needing to score 56 points to push his 19.1 PPG to the 20 PPG mark. He scored 52. Now at 19.902 PPG.
— Tom Haberstroh (@tomhaberstroh) January 18, 2016
… and earned plenty of praise from his, um, son?
Big game from my Dad @KembaWalker #NBAVote
— Frank Kaminsky III (@FSKPart3) January 18, 2016
So, as you might expect, when Kemba stepped to the mic for his on-court postgame interview with FOX Sports Southeast’s Stephanie Ready, the first words out of his mouth were … “I’m a little upset, actually.”
Wait, what?
“I basically made all the plays — all the mistakes — down the stretch to keep these guys in the game,” he explained. “As one of the best players on this team, I can’t make those mistakes.”
Walker might have been referring to a couple of tense moments in the final few minutes of the fourth quarter. He committed a turnover on an attempted pocket pass to a rolling Cody Zeller with the Hornets leading 93-90. He missed a pull-up jumper on the next possession that would have put Charlotte up five, then momentarily lost Utah point guard Trey Burke on the ensuing defensive trip, allowing Burke to get off a 3-point try that missed but was rebounded by Gordon Hayward, who got fouled, went to the line and hit both of his free throws, cutting Charlotte’s lead to one.
After making a pair of free throws with 17 seconds remaining, Walker didn’t sprint back in transition, allowing Burke to get behind him and into the right corner, where Hayward — pushing the ball off the made freebie — found him for a 3-pointer that went through to tie the game at 95 with 13 seconds remaining. And with the ball in his hands and a chance to end it in regulation, Walker pulled up from 27 feet away and caught back rim, sending a long rebound soaring and the game — which Charlotte had led by 15 points midway through the third quarter — into overtime. He’d also miss a second potential game-winner, coming up short on a stepback jumper in the closing seconds of the first overtime period with the score tied at 108 that gave Utah another five minutes of life.
So, “yeah, I’m just a little upset with myself,” Walker told Ready.
But despite having been walked down by a Jazz team led by top gun Hayward (who finished with a season-high 36 points, nine assists, five rebounds and two steals in 48 1/2 minutes), reserve gunner Burke (25 points off the bench) and recently-returned center Rudy Gobert (14 points, 14 rebounds, three assists, two blocks), Charlotte persevered in double-OT, with Zeller making four big free throws in the final 36 seconds and Walker making four more in the final three seconds to keep Utah at bay.
“We could have folded, we could have stopped playing together, but we didn’t,” Walker told Ready. “I thought we fought more and more, especially in the first overtime and the second one, to pull out a big win.”
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Dan Devine is an editor for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
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