Why Hornets’ loss to Boston Celtics stings in race to end NBA postseason drought
That thud emanating from Spectrum Center could be damaging.
With the Boston Celtics in town, undoubtedly still smarting from the beatdown the Charlotte Hornets put on them earlier this month, the stage was set for another meaningful game in uptown. The perfect opportunity was presented to the Hornets: finish off the season’s longest homestand strong and moving back up in the Eastern Conference standings would be on the radar.
They couldn’t do it.
In one of their worst outings in a while, the Hornets never truly threatened Boston and dropped a 114-99 decision, despite the Celtics missing one half of their All-Star tandem with Jaylen Brown sitting out.
The silver lining? Indiana and Toronto gave the Hornets an assist.
Technically, Charlotte (39-36) didn’t lose any ground in the standings and its chase to end the NBA’s longest current playoff drought. But it was still a squandered chance to tighten things up.
Indiana beating the Miami Heat and Toronto upending Orlando means the Hornets remain in 10th place in the conference. With seven games remaining, they trail the eighth-place Magic by a half game and are two games behind seventh-place Philadelphia.
“We don’t want to depend on teams,” Miles Bridges said. “We want to create our own path to the playoffs. And in order to do that, we’ve got to start winning games again.”
The trick to accomplishing a quick turnaround is to use the last two losses as teaching points, figuring out how to better close things out against good teams. The Hornets are 10-18 in games where the score is within five points with less than five minutes remaining.
Only Indiana, New Orleans and Brooklyn are worse in clutch time.
“These type of games make you stronger, they build your character,” coach Charles Lee said, “because you are playing another tough team coming off of a loss and no one’s going to feel sorry for you. And I don’t think our group did by any stretch of the imagination. Sometimes that’s what the postseason is like.
“If you’re fortunate enough to be in the playoffs, you’re playing a series and sometimes you might lose a game, and you’ve got to be able to recover and bounce back and learn from that. So, I think that this whole home stand was great for our group to feel what it’s like to go up against some of the top-notch talent. And I think that we showed we’re a pretty darn good team as well.”
Doing it for the next two weeks during the playoff push will be imperative.
“You’ve got to learn from everything,” Sion James said. “And you, most importantly, have to play to the standard every game. Whether you just won a game, just lost a game, or whether a win will help you in the standings. Whatever the case may be, you’ve just got to go play the standard either way.”
Here are some key takeaways from the Hornets’ second straight loss:
Rough start for LaMelo
LaMelo Ball’s slow start was enigmatic of the Hornets’ struggles.
Misfiring on his first six shots, including all five beyond the 3-point arc, Ball’s first field goal didn’t come until 2:28 remained in the first half, when he tossed in a floater in the lane.
That seemed to awaken the star guard somewhat, because he nailed a 3-pointer on the following possession and got to the free-throw line on the ensuing one after that en route to posting seven points on 2 of 9 shooting before a third foul forced him to the bench for the final 47 seconds of the half.
“He got some good looks in the first half, set some great screens, drew up some plays for him,” Lee said. “He was able to get some clean looks. I think just sometimes (a bit) indecisive and if he wanted to shoot or wanted to kind of dump off and pass.
“But once all of a sudden he saw one go in, I thought that he was able to kind of find a little bit of a rhythm. So, he got good looks all night. I thought his teammates helped put him in some good positions, and I think that we will all shoot the ball a little bit better next game.”
Ball netted a team-best 19 points mixed in with four rebounds and three assists.
“We prefer Melo to come out and hit every shot, but nobody’s perfect,” Bridges said. “Even when Melo’s not hitting his shots, he’s finding us, he’s doing other things on the court that makes him effective. So, it’s not really a big deal.
“But at the same time when Melo’s making shots, we’re better.”
Coby White plays, Grant Williams sits
When the injury report came out not long before tipoff, signaling who Charles Lee had available, one key name was missing while another was expected.
Grant Willliams sat out the tail end of the Hornets’ back-to-back, which was the team’s third game in four nights, keeping in tune with the plan for him following his return from tears in his right ACL and meniscus. But Coby White suited up and contributed 11 points and four rebounds in 20 minutes.
Since his arrival from Chicago just before the trade deadline, White hadn’t suited up in games on consecutive nights. In the two previous opportunities, he sat out on the front end of the back-to-back.
“We feel like he’s progressed really well since acquiring him in the trade,” Lee said. “I think he’s in a better spot now obviously than then, and so coming in this morning, pulled up really well.”
This story was originally published March 29, 2026 at 8:41 PM.
