It’s official: No playoffs for the Hornets. What went wrong?
The Charlotte Hornets lost to the Atlanta Hawks 104-80 on Friday night. That loss, combined with a Boston Celtics win, officially ended any lingering playoff hopes for the Hornets.
Let’s be real, Hornets fans: We’ve seen this coming for a while now. The Hornets lost four of their first six games in April, and March wasn’t a whole lot better. That’s not exactly the track record of a playoff-bound team.
But still, the finality of Friday kind of stung (pun intended?).
But we were all so excited at the start of the season
The season started with such hope. The Hornets name returned to Charlotte. The buzz was back. The team formerly known as the Bobcats made the playoffs in the previous season. There was a big free agent coming to town in Lance Stephenson. Things were looking up.
What happened?
Then things didn’t go quite as planned. I know it seems like a long time ago, but think back to that first game in October. The Hornets were down by 24 points to the Milwaukee Bucks midway through the third quarter.
Then they came back, and Kemba Walker started doing Kemba Walker things. First, he hit a 3-pointer with 1.6 seconds left to force overtime. Then in overtime, he hit a pull-up 21-foot jumper with 5 seconds left to give the Hornets the win. Just listen to the crowd here:
Look on the bright side
That’s what I’m going to choose to remember from the 2014-15 season. Not the blown second-half leads, and not the way the Hornets played themselves out of a playoff spot late in the season.
I want to remember that first game, and the buzz (sorry, I can’t help it) around the city. Maybe there will be more of that in the future.
The Hornets’ season isn’t officially over. There’s a home game tonight against the Houston Rockets and a road game Wednesday against the Toronto Raptors.
But on Twitter on Friday night, it sure felt over
Hahahahahaha we out. #Hornets Failed season.
— Nick Robison (@RobisonNick) April 11, 2015
Officially eliminated #Hornets — Davis Williams (@DWJRM) April 11, 2015
Obama reenacts the second half of the Hornets’ season #GIFWarsCLT pic.twitter.com/4h3kQiVKIn
— Ryan Pitkin (@pitkin_ryan) April 10, 2015
I’ve chosen to rush home after work to mow the lawn instead of watch the Hornets. We’ve reached that point of the season. — Chris Kroeger (@Kroeger) April 10, 2015
#HornetsSeasonSummedUpInOneGif #hornets pic.twitter.com/ppkX3Y84AX
— Amy (@amookietookie) April 11, 2015
What a hugely disappointing season for the #Hornets after such high expectations. I’m not sure where they go from here. — Panthers545 (@Panthers545) April 11, 2015
Related contentCorey Inscoe covers sports for the Charlotte Observer’s community sections, but also really likes good music, good food and Charlotte beer.
This story was originally published April 12, 2015 at 6:26 AM with the headline "It’s official: No playoffs for the Hornets. What went wrong?."