Just how good are the Charlotte Hornets? Their wins lately offer some insight
If you’ve followed closely during these last 12 months and understand how even-keeled he is, you know LaMelo Ball doesn’t overemphasize anything.
Quite the opposite in fact. And Monday night was no different.
“I feel like we’ve always got high confidence,” Ball said. “Honestly, we are just happy to get the win.”
Fair enough and not the least bit surprising. Ball could be bubbling over with glee inside his lanky 6-foot-7 frame and you wouldn’t be able to detect it. Certainly not with ease.
But there is little doubt he enjoyed himself in the Charlotte Hornets’ 109-103 victory over Washington on Monday night. He held his 3-point form following one shot from a step in front of the Wizards’ logo on the Capital One Arena floor, posing while backpedaling down court defensively. He could even laugh off the most improbable of feats, seeing alley-oop partner Miles Bridges unable to convert on their usual crowd-pleasing conversions, this coming with 33.6 seconds remaining and the Hornets’ leading by just two after nearly coughing up a 15-point fourth-quarter edge.
The Hornets all had reason to be in a good mood. Again.
Upending Washington for the second time in six days — building commanding double-digit advantages in each — on the tail end of their spirited win over Golden State offered one more glimpse of just how good the Hornets (11-8) can be. And with the most recent triumph coming on the road with the Wizards looking for that sweet revenge after their 10-point loss in Charlotte, the significance shouldn’t be downplayed. While it’s far from worthy of a parade down Tryon Street, it does represent something.
“This is only their second loss here,” said Terry Rozier, who was as responsible as anyone for the Hornets’ sixth win in their last seven games thanks to tossing in a season-best 32 points. “We were one of the teams to come in and do that. Hopefully, we can continue the way we are playing which is sticking together and playing hard. So it feels good. But now it’s next game mentality and just try to keep it up.”
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What sticks out most about the Hornets’ effort in D.C. was how they reserved a trend of sorts that bit them in Atlanta on Saturday night, putting a halt to their longest win streak since 2018. In almost every major statistical team categories against the Wizards, they were on the wrong end.
Points in the paint. Offensive rebounds. Fastbreak points. Second-chance points. Total rebounds. Free throws attempted. Free throws made.
That’s a valuable lesson for a young team still building. Even if they don’t play their best game, it proved they can hang with some of the league’s upper crust. Which should only help moving forward, right Terry?
“Come on, Rod,” Rozier said. “S---, you know a win’s better than an ‘L’ any day. We’ll take it. It’s always lessons through ‘Ws’ and ‘Ls’ but we are trying to stay in the win column. So no matter who we play, we’ve got a game plan and we just need to stick to it.”
He means sharing the ball. Playing with a little purpose defensively. Talking to each other. Taking responsibility and accountability. All the small things that add up to something huge.
The trick is not to get amnesia, referring back to games like these against the Wizards (11-6), Warriors (15-2) and even dating to their first season-defining victory in Brooklyn (13-5) a mere five days into this season. Remembering these intricate details of their winning formula is going to be critical to their long-term success in a season with blossoming expectations.
Almost a quarter of the way through the season, the Hornets entered Tuesday in fifth place in the Eastern Conference, tied in the win column with No. 3 Miami and No. 4 Washington — two teams Charlotte is trending toward battling for playoff positioning against come April. Taking the first two of four games against the Wizards, a divisional opponent, could go a long way toward jockeying for postseason positioning.
“Well, it’s just great growth for our young guys especially,” coach James Borrego said. “For us to close out on the road like this against a very good team is growth for us. We’ve lost this game here in the past, even going back to the end of last season. We’ve grown up and I think tonight was a sign that we’ve grown up. For Terry to control the game, Melo to control the game, nobody was rattled, there was great poise out there. Just a great growth step for our team.”
This story was originally published November 23, 2021 at 6:00 AM with the headline "Just how good are the Charlotte Hornets? Their wins lately offer some insight."
