Hornets still not balling with LaMelo back. What Charlotte said after loss to Miami
As if there wasn’t already a stark difference between the two franchises that entered the NBA in 1988, the scene at the Kaseya Center on Sunday night further underscored just how far the Charlotte Hornets have to go to catch up.
Dwyane Wade, the three-time NBA champion who starred for the Miami Heat, was recognized in an elaborate ceremony celebrating his entry into the Hall of Fame on the first ballot. Team president Pat Riley even surprised Wade when he told him the organization plans to put an eight-foot statue of him outside the arena, bringing Wade tears.
Kind of like the Hornets’ fan base.
Except rabid followers of the purple and teal are shedding tears for a different reason: the Hornets just flat-out aren’t any good and who knows when that will change. Getting pasted 104-87 by the Heat was merely the latest loss in a season that’s truly threatening to be a wash nearly a month before the All-Star break. So, exactly what’s going on with these Hornets?
“A bunch of stuff is happening,” said PJ Washington, who returned after a three-game absence nursing a sprained ankle. “If I had the answers, I feel like things would be different. But for us, we’ve just got to buy into the process and keep trying to get better each and every day, and have a better attitude and play more together.”
In order to do that, the Hornets could use a slight nudge. And apparently, it’s forthcoming. Surely sometime over the next two days prior to their three-game road trip finale in New Orleans on Wednesday.
“I think we are going to talk it over at a player’s only (meeting) and I think we are going to figure it out,” Terry Rozier said, “because as bad as things are going, we are only five six games behind a (play-in tournament spot). We win the next three, things can turn for us. We’ve just got to believe that as a team and put that effort toward it.”
As one of the team’s veteran leaders, Rozier’s voice is well-respected. He insists he’s going to continue to do his best to raise awareness, explaining how there’s enough time remaining to turn their spiraling season around.
“Yeah, you move on to the next one,” Rozier said. “I think that’s what we’ve all been preaching. It’s tough. It’s tough. You hate losing all these games, you put all the work in and feel like we deserve to win. But that’s just the way the league is right now. It’s super tough to win. We’ve just got to do the little things and we will.”
Here’s what else the struggling Hornets (8-29) had to say after their losing streak swelled to five games by dropping their 16th game in their last 17 outings:
On failing to reach 100 or more points for the third time in four games
“Tonight, we just didn’t shoot the ball well,” coach Steve Clifford said. “I thought early on, we got a lot of good shots that we’ve been making. They didn’t go in. That’s going to happen.
“Right now, we are just so reliant on those three guys to score. We need Brandon (Miller), we need Gordon (Hayward). We’ve got to have more guys out there that can put pressure on the defense and score consistently.”
“I don’t know,” Rozier said. “I think we are just not hitting right now, but we will figure it out. And that’s the beauty of it.”
On the defensive issues
“We have to have a better buy-in,” Washington said. “It’s as simple as that. We are messing up on coverages, we are not doing the right thing on offense, so we’ve just got a lot to clean up. It’s as simple as that.”
“Defense is all effort, so we’ve got to come out more ready to play next game because we weren’t ready to play,” Rozier said. “The first half was terrible. If teams don’t feel us on the aggressive side, then it’s just not going to work out for us. You are playing against the best players in the world. So, we’ve got to be more physical.”
“What we haven’t done the last three games (is) we haven’t defended anywhere the level that we were, and that’s what we have to get back to,” Clifford said. … We were playing really well. That’s the trick in this league. It’s usually the way it goes. It’ll be a week of this, a week of that. (Saturday at practice), we did all offense and we will do more defense on Tuesday.”
On needing more from the Hornets’ current group reserves
“At the end of the day, they (LaMelo Ball, Miles Bridges and Rozier) are going to do what they do every night,” Washington said. “So, we’ve got to be consistent coming off the bench and we’ve got to be better. We haven’t been good all year, so we’ve just got to get better and just learn how to play together.”
“Frankly, they’ve done a good job,” Clifford said. “We just need better play from those guys. And it’s not easy. Frankly, we have a bunch of younger guys now who are playing minutes that are challenging for them. When (these injuries) happen, some of these guys, it’s a great opportunity. It’s also a responsibility. Playing when you are tired, playing against guys that are older than you, that’s a big part of this league. And for the most part they’ve been great.
“But these last couple of games, definitely we’ve got some guys out there that are tired. And they just didn’t have the necessary effort. … But we need the other guys too, so we can execute when they are on the floor. We are under talented most nights anyway. You can’t be not giving great effort.”
On Brandon Miller’s back injury keeping him out against the Heat
“I don’t think it’s serious, serious,” Clifford said. “I think it’s like more day-to-day. Hopefully, he’ll be able to practice on Tuesday and we’ll have a better idea then.”
This story was originally published January 14, 2024 at 10:19 PM.
