The sellout crowd at Spectrum Center booed the Hornets off the floor at halftime Friday, and then louder as the Hawks pulled away to a 47-point win. Brandon Miller took a lot of the attention. He scored six points on 2-of-14 shooting, went 1-of-11 from three and finished a team-worst minus-37 in about 22 minutes, days after agreeing to the richest contract in franchise history. The shooting is a real story. But the boos weren’t really about Miller. They were about LaMelo Ball.
Brandon Miller Shooting Struggles: 24 Points on 9-of-35
Start with the numbers, because they’re ugly. Through two games, Miller has scored 24 points on 9-of-35 shooting, 4-of-25 from three, which is 16 percent. In the opener at Brooklyn, a 110-103 Charlotte win, he scored 17 early on 7-of-12 shooting, then went cold, finishing 7-of-21 with 18 points. Do the arithmetic and he went 0-of-9 the rest of the way. Add Friday, and since that hot start Miller is 2-of-23. He’s still shooting, with 21 attempts in the opener and 14 on Friday, which is what Hornets coach Charles Lee wants. Lee said he has confidence in the shots, and that Miller is “going to hit them at a higher clip.”
The Boos Weren’t for Miller
Here’s the context the box score misses. The sellout crowd of 19,524 booed a team that won 44 games last season and made the play-in, and The Associated Press tied the frustration to Charlotte’s first home game since trading Ball, a widely unpopular decision in the city. Miller just happens to be what the franchise offered instead. General manager Jeff Peterson said extension talks went down to the final hour. The Hornets agreed to pay Miller $209 million, and then, within days, the new face of the franchise shot 2-of-14 in front of a crowd that never wanted the old face to leave. My read: Miller isn’t being booed. He’s being handed the anger, and he’ll keep getting it until the wins come back.
Two Games Without His Supporting Cast
Before anyone panics, look at who wasn’t there. Kon Knueppel, last season’s Rookie of the Year runner-up, missed both games with a hamstring injury, along with starting point guard Coby White (calf) and Grant Williams (hamstring). That makes Miller the only scoring threat on the floor, and Atlanta’s defenders knew it. The Hornets shot 11-of-51 from three as a team and committed 25 turnovers, 14 of them in the first half. Last season Charlotte went 41-24 when Miller was available and 3-14 when he wasn’t, so the Hornets already know how much they depend on him. It’s a lot to ask of someone who had left shoulder surgery in May to address stability, and who missed 55 games in 2024-25 with a torn wrist ligament.
The Shots Will Fall. The Trust Is Harder
Miller shot a career-best 38.3 percent from three makes last year, and two games this season prove nothing. The shots will fall, probably soon. What won’t fix itself as easily is the mood in Charlotte, where a fan base that loved its All-Star point guard just watched the team pay big money to the player who was left behind. Saturday means a date with Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Heat. Miller doesn’t need a perfect night. He needs one the crowd can cheer.
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