Game 21: A 105–100 loss to the Heat… featuring Unknown’s Brown Ryed Girl
Up big early, up one with two minutes to go, another road loss for the rapidly-falling Charlotte Hornets. Happy Holidays!
I don’t know where to start with this one. How about we throw it to our lovable and reliable Twitter friend @HornetsGIFs to give a visual to our emotions…
Yep, that’ll do it.
The emotions that Dougie, Stephanie, Jeremy and (maybe) Steve are imparting are beyond words, but I’ll try: depressed acceptance, hopeless blank stares, a “well, knew that was coming” sort of feeling that has permeated most Hornets games for the last five weeks, especially in every game’s final quarter.
Yes, Charlotte gave up a big lead to lose to Miami last night, 105–100.
This one started off differently: The Hornets jumped to a 16–1 lead! Miami failed to score a bucket in the first 6 minutes and 14 seconds of the game on Friday night, and a small shred of hope bubbled in my gut, the hope that said that with November behind us, maybe Charlotte could win on the road after all.
Nope. Halfway through the second quarter, Miami had battled back to within one, and the game was tight the rest of the way. Kemba didn’t play again, so the points were spread out with seven Hornets in double figures and Marvin Williams leading the way with 16.
But Miami found their points through NBA sophomore Josh Richardson (27 points on 11 of 14 shooting) and everyone’s favorite, Dion Waiters (19 points). That’s right folks: Josh Richardson and Dion Waiters beat us on Friday night, thanks to a 9–0 run in the final minutes as Charlotte choked away their first road win since October.
Therefore, my favorite play of the game honors go to Nic Batum:
Cody was decent in this one after Dwight got into foul trouble, and Marvin got player of the game honors. Coach Clifford can’t be thrilled with the 22 turnovers, especially the ones early on that let the Heat back into the game, but so it goes.
I haven’t been on the #FireClifford bandwagon… ever… but I’m starting to think there might be something there. When we’ve won this year, we’ve seen sparks of real talent, but the defense Clifford has been known for in the past just isn’t performing well consistently enough to overcome an offense not built around stellar shooting.
Jon DeLong from SB Nation’s Hornets blog “At The Hive” dove into this a bit this morning, and it’s a good read. The league-wide trend towards the three-ball may be killing Clifford’s teams, and it might show him the door if he can’t adapt to it quickly. Check it out.
Bah. Not a fun game. Not a fun month. Let’s hope Kemba can get healthy and we can turn it around fast. December has 15 games in the remaining 29 days, and if Charlotte can’t win at least half of those, I think Steve’s job might be in jeopardy. We’ll see.
As for the beer of the night, I finally made my long-awaited move over to the Unknown Brewing Company. I had their Over the Edge last week, and I wasn’t blown away… but it was a good-enough IPA, worthy of 6 Muggsys on my overall BCB rankings. I’ve heard so many good things about Unknown that I was a bit disappointed with their flagship brew, but maybe I had just started on the wrong foot?
Nope. I actually preferred the Over the Edge to Friday night’s selection, the Brown Ryed Girl. Admittedly, India Brown Ales don’t usually end up in our fridge, so maybe this is an indictment on the entire style, but it definitely didn’t “do it for me.”
Before we go on, here’s how they describe it: “Hoppy, roasted and smooth. This India Brown Ale will stay on your mind long after the last taste, like a song of the classic variety which may or may not have inspired this beer.”
Yeah, that doesn’t give much detail, but now all I can think of is the song, so I’m sorry, but here it is.
As for the beer, I get “hoppy, roasted and smooth,” because it is that. The smell is a bit bready? Is that an adjective for this sort of thing? Let’s find a few more -y adjectives before we give it a rating… watery, mahogany, ryey, and not-that-tasty.
Really, I’m surprised again by how little I enjoyed this one. It gets solid reviews on places like Beer Advocate and Untappd, but a watery rye bread is not an appetizing thing for me. (Now I’m imagining a soggy reuben, though that sounds significantly better than this was.)
I’m going to give the BRG a very low rating, just 3/10 Muggsys, but again, that might just be my indictment on the style of beer… or a holdover from my disappointment in another Hornets loss. All around a less-than-exciting entry into the Buzz City Brews catalog.
Woof. So the Hornets have lost five straight, and I’ve been disappointed in two straight Unknown beers. This is going well. A quarter of the way through the 2017/18 season, and I’m feeling like Jeremy Lamb looks.
We’ll get there, Buzz City. I’m still confident in the potential of Kemba-Nic-MKG-Marvin-Dwight and Malik/MCW-Dwayne-Jeremy-Frank-Cody… they just need something to change. Their next opponent is the Magic back in Charlotte at the Hive on Monday, a team that fell off a cliff in November with a nine-game losing streak after leading the East when we beat them in October.
So yeah, a big win against a struggling Orlando team on Monday, and we’re back in business. Plenty of time left in the 2017/18 season. Buzzz.
