Amid the chaos of the final moments of Saturday’s game, Terry Rozier never saw the final play drawn up. As Draymond Green was being ejected during a timeout with 9.3 seconds left, Rozier was making his way to the free throw line for the technical free throws while head coach James Borrego drew up the final play.
But on a night when Rozier could do no wrong, it didn’t matter as his fadeaway in the corner as time expired gave Charlotte its most improbable victory of the season over the Warriors, 102-100.
Rozier scored the final 10 points for Charlotte and the final seven points of the game as Golden State, minus Steph Curry, handed the Hornets as unlikely a win as Borrego and his team have ever seen.
“It’s not how we drew it up,” he said. “I’ve never seen a game like that end that way, in that type of fashion, I’m not sure we’ll ever see that again. But I give credit to our guys, give credit to Terry Rozier. He just willed us to another victory. He was fantastic. But everybody pitched in. That’s not the game we envisioned today but in this league, you got to find ways to win and we found one way to win.”
As Rozier spent much of the fourth quarter burying shot after shot, finishing with 20 in the period, it was the final 80 seconds that proved to be his best shot-making of the season. A pair of Rozier 3-pointers sandwiched a Kelly Oubre long-distance make, pulling Charlotte within two at 100-98 with 42.8 seconds left.
The Hornets forced the missed shot it needed on the ensuing possession but Draymond Green would tip the ball out to Bran Wanamaker with 15.7 seconds left. LaMelo Ball and P.J. Washington swarmed the Warriors guard and, instead of fouling, forced a jump ball with 13.3 seconds left.
After a long deliberation as to who would jump for the Hornets, Ball did enough to win the tip before the ball bounced to Gordon Hayward who secured possession long enough for Washington to call a timeout.
Green, taking exception to the Hornets being awarded a timeout, argued with officials long enough to be assessed two technical fouls and ejected from the game. Rozier knocked down the two freebies to tie the game, setting up a final possession for Charlotte where the worst-case scenario would be an extra period.
But the final touch of Rozier’s masterpiece of a fourth quarter saw him glide into the corner after dribbling the ball off his leg and fire up a fadeaway jumper as time expired that found the bottom of the net, setting off a celebration that saw his teammates, namely Ball, mob him at midcourt.
“I made a couple (shots) in the fourth quarter and (the rim) just felt like an ocean and I just felt relaxed, felt confident in all my shots going in after that,” Rozier said. “I got to knock down two important free throws after the technical and the rest is history.
“He’s been fantastic,” Borrego added of Rozier. “His will throughout games and fourth quarters just to keep us alive and to actually throw in daggers to help us win games, it’s tremendous on his part. But he’s been fantastic. He gives us a tremendous amount of confidence and tonight he just willed us to another victory.”
The opening moments of the game set an ominous tone for the night. While the Hornets were playing their first game in six days, the Warriors saw Steph Curry scratched in the final moments before the game due to an illness. The result was a sloppy, disjointed contest for much of the night.
The Hornets led for most of the opening 18 minutes before a game of runs saw the lead fluctuate between six-point leads for both sides in the second half before the Warriors pushed their lead to 10 points with 4:44 left.
But the theme of the year for the Hornets remains resiliency and, as they’ve done so many times, Charlotte rallied late. Washington, Rozier and Hayward all hit 3-pointers to close the gap to two points setting up the frantic finish.
Rozier’s fourth-quarter heroics have become as much of a theme for the Hornets as their never-die attitude. No player in the league with a minimum of 10 games in clutch situations has a higher offensive rating than Rozier’s mark of 144.9. He ranks sixth in total points in the fourth quarter this year as well.
Pair Rozier’s late-game brilliance and Charlotte’s relentlessness and moments like Saturday happen.
“This team doesn’t panic,” Borrego said. “They stay the course, we stay together. We keep executing and we’ve been one of the better closing teams in the league. Again, it’s not how we drew it up tonight to close, but we found a way, and we executed.”
“I think this team, you can continue to use the word resilient. This team continues to fight and claw no matter the score. Whether we’re down big, we continue to fight. We never give in and it’s a resilient group. We’ve been there all year. Nobody’s given in and Terry’s a big part of that. You got to give Terry a ton of credit. He just does not give in. And it’s not just Terry, but he’s a big factor in us staying resilient. He deserves a ton of credit.”
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