Gordon Hayward pours in 41 as Hornets rout Spurs
Gordon Hayward #20 of the Charlotte Hornets celebrates with teammates after a basket in the second half at AT&T Center on December 15 2021 in San Antonio, Texas. Ronald Cortes/Getty Images/AFP
Gordon Hayward scored a season-high 41 points for the visiting Charlotte Hornets, who built a 21-point lead in the first quarter and romped to a 131-115 win over the San Antonio Spurs on Wednesday.
The Hornets never trailed, enduring a San Antonio surge in the second quarter before taking a 16-point advantage to the half. The Spurs never got closer than 10 points after halftime, and Charlotte led by as many as 30 points while waltzing to the finish.
Hayward shot 15 of 19 from the floor, 5 of 6 from beyond the arc and finished three points shy of his career high. Cody Martin added 21 points for the Hornets, with Miles Bridges hitting for 19, Jalen McDaniels contributing 15 points, Terry Rozier scoring 13, and P.J. Washington tallying 12 points in the win.
Gordon Hayward goes off for 41 PTS in just 3 quarters of play as the @hornets win in San Antonio! pic.twitter.com/hl0SPbuiVJ
— NBA (@NBA) December 16, 2021
The Hornets have won two of their past three games and are 1-1 to open a six-game road trip.
Bryn Forbes paced the Spurs with 25 points. Keldon Johnson racked up 21, Derrick White scored 18, and Doug McDermott, Dejounte Murray and Devin Vassell hit for 10 points apiece. San Antonio finished a 2-3 homestand.
The Hornets flew out of the gate, going up 44-23 before setting for a 46-31 advantage after 12 minutes of play. Charlotte scored 30 of its points on 3-pointers in the period.
Charlotte’s advantage was whittled down to eight after the Spurs opened the second quarter on a 13-6 run. However, most of San Antonio’s work to climb back in the game was answered by the Hornets over the final six minutes before the break. Charlotte ran off a 15-3 run of its own to take a 71-51 edge with 1:54 to play in the half.
The Hornets led 73-57 at the break behind 20 points from Hayward, 13 each from Bridges and Martin and 10 by McDaniels off the bench. Charlotte outshot the Spurs 60.4 percent to 46.7 percent in the half and canned 13 shots from beyond the arc to just five by San Antonio.
Forbes paced the Spurs with 13 points for the Spurs in the first half.
For the game, Charlotte outshot San Antonio 59.3 percent to 43.3 percent.
