Hornets' Mark Williams opens up about effort in near upset vs. Nikola Jokic, Nuggets

02/02/2025 09:04 AM

The Charlotte Hornets fell to the Denver Nuggets, 107-104, in nail-biting fashion. Down 104-100 with 55 seconds left in the fourth quarter, the Nuggets managed to go on a 7-0 run to close out the game. MVP candidate Nikola Jokic played a big part in the comeback effort, crashing the offensive glass for an and-1 play to bring the game within one, and the rest was history.

Mark Williams keeps it real about guarding Nikola Jokic

Jokic finished with 28 points, 13 rebounds, and 17 assists against the Hornets. Mark Williams, still fresh off his recent return in December, elaborated on how it was guarding the three-time MVP.

“It's a collective effort. Obviously, Coach challenged me. Moussa [Diabate] guarded him, Miles guarded him, doubling him,” Williams told reporters. “Obviously, he's a talented player, but we gave him a bunch of different looks and just did what we can with him. We tried to make life difficult.”

Williams had a good game himself, finishing with 20 points and 15 rebounds of his own, but Jokic’s dominance is hard to stop for anyone. Even with the double teams, quick last-minute flashes, and ball denials, he still found a way to dictate the pace of this game. Even so, Williams stepped up to the plate to have an impactful game for his team to be a part of a comeback effort. The Hornets were down by more than ten midway through the third quarter.

Hornets’ injury list continues to pile up

Vasa Micic went down with an ankle injury against Denver, adding yet another name to a long laundry list of players who will be out for the foreseeable future. Despite having a thinner rotation, the Hornets played with the available bodies they did have and made the game competitive.

Williams has a next-man-up mentality when it comes down to that topic.

“We're giving ourselves a chance every night,” Williams said. “Vasa [Micic] goes down, KJ [Simpson] steps up. The whole team stepped up – Miles [Bridges] making big plays down the stretch, holding them to 17 points in the fourth quarter. We're doing a lot of good things, it's just to get over that hump for us is going to be the next step. We are fighting. It's tough. It sucks to sound like a broken record, but all the guys in the locker room are fighting every single night, playing as hard as we can, and giving ourselves a chance to win.”

This Hornets roster has been bitten by a nasty injury bug. Once one guy comes back, it seems like another could be on their way out. Williams made his return Saturday after not playing on the front end of a back-to-back, but then Micic went down. Call it rotten luck or whatever you prefer, but it’s hard for any coach to win games without key guys available to them.

The Hornets are now on a four-game losing streak but have a chance to break it on Monday night against the Washington Wizards. Washington just snapped a 16-game losing streak against the Minnesota Timberwolves but sit at 7-41 on the season.

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