Charlotte Hornets: Rewind of the Oddly Successful 2015-16 Season
Why Wasn’t it Sustained?
After a season of proving the doubters wrong, the Hornets finally found themselves in the playoffs. Charlotte won 48 games in the regular season, slotting them in the sixth seed in the Eastern Conference playoff picture.
The third-seeded Miami Heat was their opponent, a team that had knocked them out in the first round in 2014. However, this was a much less intimidating Miami team after LeBron James declared that he was coming home two summers prior.
This series was arguably the most entertaining of any first-round matchup that postseason. After going up 3-2 in Miami, the Hornets dropped the following game in North Carolina. Then, on a sunny, spring Sunday afternoon in Florida, the Heat held Charlotte to 73 points in game seven, taking the contest by over 30 points.
Following a regular season that had opponents fearing Clifford’s offensive schemes, the question must be posed; what happened?
The Hornets had major struggles on the offensive end of the court all series. The Heat’s potent perimeter defense only allowed Charlotte to break 100 points in one game. After ranking in the top 10 in efficiency from behind the arc in the regular season, Clifford’s squad went 40-130 from downtown in the playoffs.
This was due to a combination of Miami’s stout defensive core, and the IQ and adaptability of Erik Spoelstra and his players. This was a Heat team that was simply not scared of the Hornets in a must-win game. Many of Miami’s players had been in big moments countless times before, some still held over from the LeBron teams that appeared in four straight Finals.
Most importantly, when any team is faced with a lineup consisting of Hassan Whiteside, Dwayne Wade, Josh Richardson, Goran Dragic, and Justice Winslow, it will simply be difficult to score.
These are all players who possess supreme athleticism and have flirted with All-Defensive team selections before. When push came to shove, the Hornets’ Cinderella season met its end in the form of one of its worst matchups imaginable.