The main draw of the Hornets-Warriors clash on Wednesday night was the battle between the two teams' respective point guards.
LaMelo Ball, emerging as a new face of the NBA with a stellar 20.1/6.1/6.1 stat line through eight games prior to Wednesday. Stephen Curry, the longtime (baby)face of the league who's on another MVP-type path in season No. 13. If that's not a fun battle to watch, I don't know what is.
But flying under the radar heading into the matchup was the fact that there was a revenge game at stake. For Hornets wing Kelly Oubre Jr., who didn't quite live up to expectation in his lone season with the Dubs, it would have been nice to show that he was thriving in another system.
Spoiler alert: he didn't. And, okay, maybe my headline was a bit harsh here. It could have gone worse — but it would have been difficult to do so.
After exploding for 26 points on Halloween against the Blazers, Oubre went cold against the Cavaliers on Monday night, hitting just one of eight shots from the field to go along with four rebounds, an assist, a steal and a block. But that was a good outing compared to what he did on Wednesday night at Chase Center: 13 minutes played, 0-4 from the field, a single rebound, a single assist and two turnovers. In the 13 minutes that he played, his +/- was a -12... yikes.
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Worst of all, the most humiliating part of his night didn't even show up in the stat sheet.
Prior to the game, Oubre acknowledged that he felt a little bit odd coming back to last year's home.
“It’s definitely weird being on the opposite side of the arena,” Oubre told The Charlotte Observer. “But at the end of the day, man, we are in the moment. So I’m really happy to be able to go against these guys and just get the jitters out for myself. It’s always weird when you go get comfortable somewhere and then you’re uprooted to another place where you have to become comfortable as well.”
However, it would be wrong to say that this performance was typical of Oubre's start with the Hornets. He's meshed well with his teammates — which he accurately described as "a young, energetic group" — and has played a key role in engineering a strong start to the 2021-22 season. After all, despite the loss to Golden State, early-season wins against teams like the Nets and Trail Blazers are no small feats, and the Hornets could be a legitimate playoff team as they continue to bond as a unit.
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