Every game against an elite team reminds Hornets they’re miles away from competing
If the Charlotte Hornets are ever going to be a very good team, they must start by beating a very good team.
Any very good team.
That hasn’t happened yet in their first 33 games. Their “trophy” victories so far are over the Indiana Pacers and Brooklyn Nets — likely playoff teams, but nothing close to NBA elite.
On Sunday, after a strong first half, the Hornets were abused by the Boston Celtics 119-93. This is typical — they aren’t just losing to all the best teams, they get thoroughly outclassed. I did the math pre-game: The Hornets’ average point-differential against sub-.500 teams this season is roughly zero. Against teams with winning records, they’re approximately minus-15 points per game.
It’s no indignity to lose to the Los Angeles Lakers or Milwaukee Bucks. But the Hornets’ chronic inability to even stay in such games through the fourth quarter — to lose competitively — is a distinct pattern. It reflects a roster with a tiny margin for error, where just one flaw on a given night is disastrous.
Center of it all
On Sunday, that triggering flaw was rebounding. The Celtics outrebounded the Hornets by a preposterous margin of 57 to 27. When one team totals 16 second-chance points and the other team totals two, everything else must go perfectly for the team in rebounding deficit to stay close.
So when the Hornets’ shooting slipped from stellar in the first half (50 percent) to bad in the second half (32 percent), their chances shrank from shaky to flip-the-channel-to-a-Christmas-movie minuscule.
That Hornets centers Bismack Biyombo and Cody Zeller combined for four rebounds in 44 minutes seems absurd. Those two aren’t singularly responsible for rebounding, but it must be better than this.
“I’ve got to take some responsibility. It’s my job to rebound the ball,” said Biyombo, who took over as the starter in December primarily for his physicality.
“W have been doing better at matching people’s physicality. Tonight, in the offensive rebounding, they had a lot. I take a lot of responsibility (for that failing); it’s about how we set a tone.”
A setback
The saddest thing about Sunday is the Hornets had been playing tougher, on a fairly consistent level, the past half-dozen games. Coach James Borrego was demanding this and using playing time to enforce his point. Whether it was inserting rookie Cody Martin into the rotation or trimming some minutes from Miles Bridges when he let his defense slip, Borrego was making this imperative.
Which may suggest the problem is as much what these guys can do as what they have been willing to do. It’s no revelation the center position — and specifically the ability to protect the rim — was a flaw all last season that bled into this one.
Borrego has used Biyombo and Zeller pretty much interchangeably game-to-game of late; it’s more of a tag team intended to maximize their combined energy than a pecking order.
Ultimately, this might be a problem for the front office to fix. Through a draft pick or a trade or a signing, general manger Mitch Kupchap must beef up this big-man group.
Whether it’s quality or quantity — the correct answer is likely both — this just isn’t good enough. Every game against the Celtics, Bucks, Lakers and Clippers pounds home that point.
