Eight isn’t enough. Three takeaways after Hornets’ loss to Los Angeles Lakers
With the star point guard still recovering from a sprained ankle and the team’s highest-paid player sporting a walking boot, the Charlotte Hornets were in familiar territory.
Undermanned as usual.
“A lot of times in this league, it’s not just how many injuries but when they come,” coach Steve Clifford said. “Unfortunately for us, we are having more than our fair share of injuries and this is not the time to be shorthanded. But look, we played 41 good minutes the other night and were right there.
“We played about 21 and a half good minutes tonight. We can’t turn the ball over and you’ve got to defend whether the ball is going in or not, and that’s what we started doing in the second half.”
As a result, the Hornets dropped a 133-112 decision to the Los Angeles Lakers at Crypto.com Arena on Thursday night, two days after succumbing to the building’s other tenants, the LA Clippers. They were once again without three-fifths of their projected starting lineup given the absences of LaMelo Ball, Mark Williams and Gordon Hayward.
In racking up their ninth straight loss, the hole the Hornets (7-22) will have to climb out of to snap the NBA’s longest playoff drought is getting more cavernous by the day. Before the calendar even flips to 2024 next week, they are in serious danger of watching the season slip away.
They’re in the midst of a six-game road trip that’s off to a disastrous start, much like Charlotte’s overall 2023-24 campaign, and things don’t get any easier with stops in Phoenix, Denver and Sacramento remaining.
Here are three takeaways after the Hornets’ latest defeat:
‘D’ rotations must be fixed
Being shorthanded is one thing. But it’s no excuse for an issue that continues to haunt the Hornets on a nightly basis.
Getting burned repeatedly for defensive lapses shouldn’t still be a reoccurring problem, yet it is. And the lack of sustained pressure behind the 3-point line is maddening.
Constantly, the Hornets are scrambling to reach the open man, failing to rotate out quickly enough more often than not. And the Lakers feasted on the constant errors, making it increasingly difficult for Charlotte to keep pace offensively.
There’s no way living dangerously like that is a part of the game plan Clifford puts together and the lack of cohesion on that side of the ball is killing them. Until the leaks are fully fixed with a real solution — such as stopping dribble penetration on the perimeter and not getting beat so easily on fastbreaks — the results will be much of the same.
Brandon Miller has some snapback
There’s plenty to like about the addition of Brandon Miller. He’s a two-way threat who’s still picking up the game.
And by playing against the Lakers, he displayed another quality that’s getting harder to ignore: durability. Although he’s tweaked an ankle three times in his rookie campaign, including in Saturday night’s loss to Denver, Miller hasn’t missed more than one game on each occasion.
For a team that has to sometimes feel as if a walking boot is as much part of the uniform as a pair of shorts, Miller’s constant availability has to be a breath of fresh air. He’s shown versatility whether starting or coming off the bench, and whenever — if ever — the Hornets are whole this grinding experience should benefit him and the team, too.
Cody Martin working through it
The frustration was written all over Cody Martin’s face.
Martin, ever the prideful person, clanked 3 of 4 free throws during a sequence in the first half, showing just how much rust he has to knock off after not playing in a meaningful game for nearly a year. It’s to be expected, though, and the only way for Martin to polish things is to play through it.
This is essentially training camp and preseason intertwined for the 28-year-old and patience is necessary, even when it may not look pretty.
For Martin to potentially reach the form he displayed at the outset of the 2021-22 campaign when he led the NBA in 3-point percentage, reps in tight situations against some of the league’s elite are a must and the Hornets are going to have to live with any hiccups in the process.
He’s a key cog they will eventually need to utilize against some of the opponent’s top players, a role he excelled in prior to the lingering knee pain that finally subsided enough to allow him to get back on the court.
This story was originally published December 29, 2023 at 5:15 AM.
