The Charlotte Hornets‘ Summer League win streak died the way streaks usually do in July — at the hands of the turnover column. Charlotte led the New Orleans Pelicans by 18 on Saturday at Thomas & Mack Center, then got outscored 30-15 in the fourth quarter and lost 95-91, the franchise’s first Summer League defeat in two years. The same Pelicans program had lost 12 straight Summer League games before the comeback.
Hunter Dickinson did the heaviest lifting for New Orleans, scoring 21 and hitting the late three-pointer that gave the Pelicans their first lead of the game. Kobe Bufkin added 19. Charlotte had chances to answer in the final minute and produced three missed threes, two of them airballs from Tidjane Salaun.
The number that decided it was 21 — Charlotte’s turnover total, two days after committing 19 in the opening win over Orlando. Liam McNeeley, who scored 28 in that opener, had six giveaways himself and cooled to 17 points on 4-of-10 shooting, 12 of them before halftime. Rookie guard Christian Anderson told reporters the late-game pressure exposed a focus problem: “They picked up the pressure a lot, trying to get back into the game and playing more physical,” he said, per Mike Lacett of Charlotte Hornets On SI.
Head coach Blaine Mueller called the loss “tough to swallow” and pointed at his own side of the film. “We feel like we really beat ourselves to a certain extent and obviously credit to them,” Mueller said, per Lacett. For a development staff, that reading is the useful one: the collapse wasn’t a talent gap, it was 40 combined turnovers across two games from a roster that is supposed to be learning to run an offense under pressure. The streak was a nice banner for the program; the ball security is the actual curriculum.
Charlotte, now 1-1 in Las Vegas, gets a quick test of the lesson Sunday at 5 p.m. ET against a Boston group that opened with an overtime win over Toronto.
For fantasy purposes, the six turnovers matter less than the two-game pattern: McNeeley is clearly Charlotte’s first offensive option in Vegas, and the usage is what carries into a redraft case for real rotation minutes this fall. Treat the 28-point night and the 17-point night as the same data point — a featured role. Dickinson’s 21 keeps him on deep-dynasty watch lists as an undrafted big auditioning for a New Orleans frontcourt that has openings behind the starters.
