Three things we learned about the Charlotte Hornets in their win vs. Portland

The introduction of the guy who typically receives the loudest cheers when public address announcer Patrick “Big Pat” Doughty bellows his name was finally preceded by the person who’s been the starting shooting guard since his arrival.

Terry Rozier, rocking the headband look, returned to the fold Sunday after missing the previous four games with a sprained right ankle. The Charlotte Hornets’ emotional leader was back, ready to step in and be yet another offensive weapon and playmaker. He swished his first shot of the night, too, sinking a trademark catch-and-shoot corner 3-pointer.

“Scary Terry” had been activated. And on Halloween of all nights.

Rozier’s presence sparked the Hornets, giving them a bit of an emotional boost. They rode a team-wide spirited second-half performance to pull out a 125-113 victory over Portland at Spectrum Center.

“We felt whole,” said coach James Borrego, who earned his 100th career win at the helm for the Hornets. “It felt good to have our whole group back together. This is the group we envisioned all summer that worked so hard. Terry is a huge part of what we are doing here. He’s in a lot of ways the heart and soul of this group. He’s one of them and his toughness, his leadership, his ability to make big shots, they’ve been missed.

“But it felt good. It felt good to have this group back together. We are whole again.”

At least while Rozier was out, the Hornets (5-2) showed they can still get it done. They won four of five games minus their leading scorer from a season ago until he could slide in the lineup again. But they just aren’t the same without Rozier and he was thrilled to be in the mix once more.

“It felt great,” said Rozier, who had 14 points and 5 assists in 33 minutes. “We came in together and said we are fully healthy. It’s always a great feeling when you have all your soldiers out there. So I’m just glad we pulled it out. We’ve got a quick turnaround. We’ve got another one (Monday) before we get on the road, so hopefully we can just keep this going.”

Besides Rozier looking good in his first outing back in more than a week — and LaMelo Ball bouncing back with a well-played 27-point showing — here are three things we learned in the Hornets’ second win in their last three games:

CONFIDENT KELLY OUBRE

With Rozier’s return, Kelly Oubre was slotted back into the role he was penciled in when the Hornets inked him as a free agent in the offseason. He was the first player summoned off the bench by Borrego, serving as the sixth man, and poured in a season-high 26 points.

Oubre was effective as the starting shooting guard while Rozier was sidelined, averaging 14.7 points and 4.8 rebounds. But his 3-point stroke stood out most. He canned 15 of 42 attempts behind the arc and didn’t cool off much against the Trail Blazers, knocking down a season-high six shots from 3-point range.

He’s putting any questions about his shot from deep to rest.

“I always felt like he was a mid-30, at least a mid-30 percentage from three guy,” Borrego said. “I think he got off to a slow start last year in Golden State and he picked it up. I think we saw what he could do toward the end of last season. I trust his shot. I believe in his shot and I’ve told him that the minute we signed him. I expect him to stay in that range. He’s going to get good looks in our system. I want him to step up, knock them down, keep looking for his threes. So I’m not surprised there, I think he’s even got more to get to and climb in the 3-point area.”

CAREER NIGHT FOR MILES BRIDGES

Miles Bridges earned Eastern Conference player of the week honors on the strength of posting multiple 30-point efforts, an indicator of how polished he’s become offensively.

But against Portland, Bridges proved he has other aspects of his game that have improved dramatically. Bridges recorded a career-high nine assists to go with 19 points and 5 rebounds, distributing the ball in an impressive fashion.

“I feel like it opened up the whole court,” said Ball, who added 9 rebounds and 7 assists. “It makes the game easier. We’ve got facilitators and scorers. We’ve got everything out there for real.”

Bridges’ playmaking skills got a rise out of Rozier.

“Not good enough -- he’s got to get 10 first,” Rozier joked. “He’s got to get one more. Nah, Miles always is talking about how he can pass. He had one behind-the-back to me in the corner he was bragging about after the game. So, I was just happy to see him get a lot of assists tonight. I know he’s going to keep building off of that.”

SCRAMBLE DRILL

Something was amiss with the Hornets’ first-half defense against Portland.

They didn’t guard the 3-point line effectively, leaving the Trail Blazers with multiple wide-open looks. Far too frequently, they got caught out of position during their rotations, causing them to chase the ball around the perimeter until it was thrown to a place they couldn’t get to in time. Of the 42 first-half shots the Trail Blazers hoisted, 26 came beyond the 3-pointer line and they made 42.3% of them.

“We were scrambling for 48 minutes with the way they play,” Borrego said. “And it’s not a mystery. You can be up in the pick-and-roll with (Damian) Lillard and (C.J.) McCollum or you can sit back. You’ve got to pick your poison, and we chose to be aggressive tonight and we were up the floor. That creates a lot of scrambling on the weak side. So we just stuck with it, basically played the same coverage the whole night. They still hit shots out of it, and we were scrambling and getting to shooters. But the way we played the pick and roll was going to force that tonight.”

Portland cooled off in the third quarter, misfiring on all but one of its initial 11 shots from 3-point land. The Hornets finally picked things up a notch on that side of the ball, perhaps understanding there was little chance for them to take down the Trail Blazers if they couldn’t crank up the intensity and muster any stops.

“We just were more aggressive,” PJ Washington said. “We were in a better position to help each other. In the pick and roll we were up tonight so they obviously had a lot of pocket passing and we just talked more in the second half and were just closing out and not giving up easy shots. And we rebounded the ball well so that got us out in transition and we scored too.”