Until the Charlotte Hornets can prove otherwise, a 6-letter word keeps defining them
The Charlotte Hornets have six games left in the regular season. They also have a six-letter word that keeps defining them and that they must surmount.
Almost.
These Hornets have the ambivalent look of an “almost” team at the moment. They are 39-37 after their 113-109 home loss to Denver on Monday, a game that almost went their way.
They were ninth in the Eastern Conference standings entering Tuesday night’s games, which would almost put them in the real playoffs but instead makes them appear destined for another year of play-in roulette.
And they are almost good enough to win a playoff series if they get to the real thing.
Of Charlotte’s final six games, four are on the road, starting Wednesday night at New York. Then comes two difficult road games at Philadelphia and Miami, followed by a winnable final trio of Orlando, at Chicago and a home season finale vs. Washington on April 10.
All of it matters for the Hornets, who don’t have talent or time to waste. A 4-2 mark over the final six might get them to the No. 8 spot, which would be important because it gives you two chances to win a play-in game and advance. At 9 or 10, your odds are worse because you must win two consecutive games to make it.
A playoff berth would be of symbolic significance to Charlotte, which hasn’t made the real postseason since 2016. The franchise has been in a sorry state of mediocrity for most of the six years since then, but the emergence of LaMelo Ball and Miles Bridges this season has given the franchise some of the juice it had in that first decade after inception (1988-98). The Hornets are a fairly hot ticket — not early 1990s hot, but sizzling compared to those lost Charlotte Bobcat seasons.
Listening to the crowd from my seat for the Denver game made me think it was a Saturday night. This couldn’t be a Monday crowd, could it?
But it was. The turnout of 17,614 wasn’t quite a sellout but was an impressive number for a team that hasn’t had a winning record since it went 48-34 in 2015-16 with a cast of entirely different players and a different coaching staff, too.
This Charlotte team is 7-2 over its last nine games. But I still don’t trust these Hornets not to break their fans’ hearts. They are too up and down. In February, they won two games. Not two games in a week; two games in a month.
Gordon Hayward would help now and would have helped then. But the time he’s been out due to his latest injury (sprained ligaments in an ankle) just keeps getting elongated.
March has been better, and if the Hornets can make the postseason, there are some advantages. Hayward might be back for the playoffs, in a limited role at least. Charlotte is terrible on the second night of back-to-backs this season — 1-13 after the loss Monday — but there are no back-to-back nights in the playoffs. And Ball and Bridges would both be highly motivated in their first-ever NBA playoff appearances.
Still, Charlotte just doesn’t rebound well enough, and that is a postseason killer. Reigning NBA MVP Nikola Jokic burned the Hornets for 26 points, 19 rebounds and 11 assists Monday. Montrezl Harrell might have helped more inside, but he was ejected. (It was a controversial call, yes, but Harrell also put himself in a position where the official had to make a decision.)
“When we rebound,” Hornets head coach James Borrego said, “we can beat anyone.”
Sometimes rebounding comes down to want-to, and the Hornets don’t always have enough of that.
“There were a number where we have to be more physical and just go get them,” Borrego said after his team got outrebounded 51-40 by Denver at home Monday.
Charlotte played New York only a week ago, losing by 15 at home to a Knicks team that didn’t have Julius Randle. Then came two straight impressive Charlotte wins vs. Utah and Brooklyn. Then the Denver loss.
That’s the Hornets for you, up and down and up and down. Pick a side on whether you love them or hate them, and either way, your point will be totally validated on every game night. Those six games are coming. But so is that six-letter word. And until the Hornets prove themselves to be better than an “almost,” this city won’t totally believe.
This story was originally published March 29, 2022 at 8:15 AM.
