How did Brandon Miller do in his Hornets debut? ‘He turned the game around for us.’

Brandon Miller’s first NBA game for the Charlotte Hornets was, quite literally, a winner.

Miller, the No. 2 overall draft pick in 2023, scored eight critical points in the fourth quarter of Charlotte’s 116-110 season-opening home victory Wednesday at the Spectrum Center against the Atlanta Hawks.

Miller’s fourth-quarter flurry helped the Hornets (1-0) ensure that they won a game before the Carolina Panthers (0-6). And it also was a promising sign of things to come. Miller served as the Hornets’ sixth man, subbing in first and ultimately playing 24 minutes, even though he picked up three quick first-half fouls.

“He turned the game around for us,” veteran guard Terry Rozier said of Miller, “and I told him that.”

Miller made his very first NBA shot, which was generously listed as a 30-foot jumper on the official play-by-play in the first quarter. But the three fouls hamstrung the rest of his first half, as he didn’t play much and didn’t shoot again.

It was in the fourth quarter that he dazzled. With Charlotte down 94-90, Miller made a tough 3-pointer. He followed that with a lefty layup off a nifty pass from Mark Williams and, a few seconds later, knocked down a 25-foot 3-pointer that gave Charlotte the lead for good at 101-99 with 4:19 to go.

In all, Miller scored those eight fourth-quarter points in just under two minutes.

“I would say I had a lot of fun doing that,” Miller said. “I think the crowd loved it.”

“I think you can see tonight where he is not like most guys his age,” Hornets coach Steve Clifford said after the game about Miller. “He gets in foul trouble in the first half, which some guys wouldn’t be able to come back (from). He had a couple calls that could’ve gone his way, but he didn’t get the calls. He made some huge, huge plays in the fourth quarter. If you watch him, he’s got great self-confidence and he competes so naturally.”

Was it perfect? Of course not. Miller got beaten on a couple of defensive rotations. And while all five Charlotte starters had a plus-minus of at least plus-5, Miller’s was minus-13.

Miller ended up with 13 points, three rebounds and two assists in 24 minutes. P.J. Washington (25 points) and Rozier (24 points, six assists) led the Hornets on a night in which point guard LaMelo Ball (15 points, 10 assists) started 0-for-9 shooting before getting hot late.

The night was a happy one — Miller’s parents were in the audience — as the rookie adjusts to his new environment. He has complained good-naturedly about how cold it is in Spectrum Center before the place fills up (there were 16,129 in attendance Wednesday, about 3,000 short of a sellout). The way to combat that is to wear more clothing, which Miller has figured out.

“It’s so cold in warmups,” Miller said. “I had on pants, long sleeves and a hoodie in my pre-workout.”

Many of the headlines generated by Miller have been negative in 2023. Earlier this month he was named as a defendant in a wrongful death suit filed by the mother of a woman who was killed in Alabama earlier this year.

The federal lawsuit also names ex-Alabama men’s basketball player Darius Miles and Miles’ friend Michael Davis as defendants. It was filed on behalf of DeCarla Heard, the mother of Jamea Harris, according to AL.com.

In January, Miller was at the scene of a shooting in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, that left Heard’s daughter dead. Police have said that the gun used to shoot and kill Harris was brought to the scene by Miller.

Miller wasn’t charged with a crime in connection with the shooting, but Miles and Davis are facing capital murder charges in the case. The Hornets traveled to Alabama to investigate the case before the NBA Draft and ultimately selected Miller with the No. 2 overall selection in June, right after San Antonio picked Victor Wembanyama at No. 1.

Miller and Wembanyama will be compared for years, much like Carolina Panthers quarterback Bryce Young (No. 1 in the 2023 NFL Draft) and Houston Texans QB C.J. Stroud (No. 2). On the first night for both rookies, at least, Miller came out ahead.

Wembanyama had 15 points, five rebounds, five turnovers and five fouls for San Antonio and played almost exactly the same amount of time as Miller did. But the Spurs lost, 126-119, to Dallas.