It’s not ideal, but Charlotte Hornets have a shot to get out of NBA play-in purgatory
The uneasy limbo of the NBA play-in tournament is very similar to the NCAA’s “First Four” concept for its college basketball tournaments.
You’re in, but you’re not really in.
You’ve opened the first door to the postseason, but there’s still a screen door with a troublesome latch that you must unlock before you actually get inside the house. And before a lot of people even start paying attention to the real tournament, you could be eliminated.
That’s where the Charlotte Hornets find themselves now — stuck in play-in purgatory, despite a 43-39 season that ended Sunday with a 124-108 win over Washington and constituted their first winning campaign since 2016.
There’s no doubt the Hornets enter this play-in tournament with far more momentum than they did a year ago, when they were also the Eastern Conference’s No. 10 seed but went 33-39 and lost their last five regular-season games. That was a two-week death spiral interrupted briefly by one embarrassing and regrettable night in the NBA play-in tournament.
This, at least, is a team with some hope.
But there’s a fair amount of doubt whether the late momentum will matter that much. The Hornets have the most difficult path to the real playoffs of the four play-in teams. They first must win at Atlanta on Wednesday at 7 p.m. (ESPN) — no easy task, given the teams split their regular-season series 2-2.
And if the Hornets win in Atlanta, they will have to go on the road again, on Friday night, to play the loser of the Brooklyn-Cleveland play-in game on Tuesday.
And even if the Hornets got that done — going 2-0 on the road in two separate play-in games against two very motivated teams — their reward would be a best-of-7 series against No. 1 playoff seed Miami that would start Sunday on the road.
In other words, the odds are stacked high against the Hornets. But they remain in a better place than they were a season ago, when they limped into the play-in series with five straight losses and were promptly eviscerated, 144-117, by Indiana.
It is also worth noting that Charlotte was 21-20 on the road and 22-19 at home this year. In other words, they were about the same wherever they played.
LaMelo Ball said Sunday night a road or home game in the play-in doesn’t matter to him.
“I’m cool with both, for real,” Ball said of playing Wednesday’s game in Charlotte or Atlanta. “I ain’t from either place. I feel like I’ve been on the road my whole life. As long as it ain’t overseas — if it’s in the States, it feels like a home game.”
Atlanta’s most dynamic player is guard Trae Young, with a shooting range similar to Steph Curry. “Can’t let him breathe,” Hornets guard Terry Rozier said of Charlotte’s game plan guarding Young. “Be physical. Can’t give him no life. Can’t give him no confidence.”
The Hornets got no help Sunday from their closest competitors. They needed either Brooklyn, Cleveland or Atlanta to lose to have a chance to move up from the No. 10 seed.
But all three teams won, leaving Charlotte with the dubious fortune of sporting the best record (43-39) to end up 10th in an NBA conference since the old Seattle SuperSonics went 44-38 in 2000-01 in the Western Conference and also finished 10th.
The Hornets had trouble for a while Sunday against the short-handed Wizards, who were without just about all of their recognizable players due to injury or simply “Let’s sit them out because it’s better if we lose anyway” syndrome.
Yet Charlotte only led by two points at halftime before a crowd of 18,465 that included Dawn Staley, who not only just coached South Carolina’s women’s basketball team to another national title but who also had taken in the Charlotte FC win one mile away at Bank of America Stadium earlier in the afternoon.
Then Isaiah Thomas scored 14 points in seven dazzling minutes in the third quarter, Rozier went 7-for-7 from the field in the fourth and Charlotte won going away. Ball ended up with 24 points, 10 rebounds and nine assists in less than 29 minutes, continuing his own hot streak.
“Today was very reflective of our season in general,” Hornets head coach James Borrego said. “You go through highs and lows and you figure it out together and that’s what we did this season…. There were highs and lows and we got better throughout the season, just like we did tonight.”
To survive this week, the Hornets will need many things: Ball at his very best, Rozier at his most clutch, a defense that is relentless. And a bit of luck must be sprinkled in there, too. The Hornets have a shot, at least. It’s not ideal.
But at least it’s a shot.
