Hornets Extra: Hornets 122, Hawks 119(2OT)

119

122(2OT)

When the Charlotte Hornets announced their intentions to bring in Lance Stephenson, they wanted him to do one thing: Step it up when it matters, and last night, Lance was indeed "Born Ready" to end the game in a big way to send the 15,891 in attendance at "The Hive", with most of them staying until the end, home happy as his game-winning three-pointer at the buzzer gave the Hornets a dramatic, but yet thrilling 122-119 win over the Atlanta Hawks, as Charlotte returns to the .500 mark(3-3), while the Hawks fall to 1-3.

"For me to hit that big shot, there was a lot of emotion that came out. I haven't made a shot all season long, but hopefully that will give me more confidence to keep hitting more shots." said Stephenson, who finished the night with 17 points and 13 rebounds to notch his first double-double in a Hornets uniform.  Al Jefferson, who led the team with a game-high 34 points, was relieved to see Stephenson hit that game-winner in a huge situation last night to give the Hornets the win, instead of sending it to a third overtime. "Lance is a tough as nails." Jefferson said, "You see when he got the ball what he did with it."  

Charlotte finished last night's game shooting 49.5% from the field, with much of it coming from both, Jefferson and Stephenson, but they did see 4 players reach double figures in the win, including Gary Neal, who once again came off the bench to finish the night with 23 points, while Kemba Walker was 6-of-16 from the field to end his night with 15 points and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist returned to the lineup after missing the previous 2 games with a rib contusion, and he contributed 10 points to the effort for the Hornets in their win last night.

Over on the Hawks side in their loss, they were led in scoring by center Al Horford, who was 11-for-16 from the field to end up with 24 points to go with 10 rebounds, while Jeff Teague had a double-double on the night as well for Atlanta, with 22 points and 15 rebounds.  Atlanta also saw their three-point specialist, Kyle Korver, get into double figures with 20 points, while he was 4-for-7 from beyond the arc, with Paul Millsap and Demarre Carroll each with 13 and rounding out the double-figure scoring for the Hawks was Dennis Schroeder with 10 off the bench.

Now the Charlotte Hornets will embark on a long 4-game, 7-day road trip, which begins tomorrow night in Los Angeles as they take on Kobe Bryant and the L.A. Lakers for a 9:00 p.m. start at the Staples Center.