Charlotte Hornets: Can the Hornets bounce back from deflating west coast trip?
It hasn’t been pretty since the Charlotte Hornets left for their first west coast road trip of the season. Charlotte is currently 0-3 on the trip with a matchup against the Los Angeles Lakers looming on the evening of which I’m writing this piece. They have now lost four straight games and many fans are starting to press the panic button.
Before this stretch of games consisting of the Golden State Warriors, Sacramento Kings, LA Clippers, Los Angeles Lakers, and Memphis Grizzlies started. If you would have told me Charlotte won two of those games, I would have called it a decent trip. Three wins and I would have said we handled our business. If they lost every single game? The Hornets might be frauds.
Can the Charlotte Hornets bounce back from an 0-3 start on their west coast trip?
After dropping the first three games to the Warriors, Kings, and Clippers, and in the way that they happened, we might be leaning toward fraud level. Each game Charlotte has faced an anomaly of a performance; Jordan Poole, Gary Payton II, the entire Kings roster, a 22-0 Clippers run, the Hornets really couldn’t catch a break.
However, they can only blame themselves.
Fingers can be pointed every which way. The Hornets defensive scheme isn’t working and the personnel doesn’t help the cause. It has to be time for James Borrego and co. to try something new. Unfortunately for Borrego, no one on the roster can solve those problems, it’s an impossible task.
An external move has to be made if the Hornets want to be considered true playoff contenders otherwise teams will just continue to run right through them.
You can’t even blame the bench. They’ve been the unit keeping us in games all season long. Cody Martin, Kelly Oubre Jr., and Ish Smith have been more reliable than starters not named LaMelo Ball and Miles Bridges. The 22-0 run by the Clippers last night came when the starters were on the court, not anybody else.
Last night Ball said this.
After Hornets concede 22-0 fourth quarter run in loss to Clippers, LaMelo Ball: “I feel like I’ve got to be in there longer for the fourth quarter, you feel me? I feel like I came in a little late in the game.” pic.twitter.com/1F1pbnilZR
— Ben Golliver (@BenGolliver) November 8, 2021
While most would agree (including Borrego) that Ball has to be on the court more, he keeps getting into foul trouble plus the bench unit was playing well at that stage of the game. That run happened when he and the rest of the starters were inserted back into the game. They just have to be better.
The west coast trip isn’t over. A big game against the Lakers and a tough Grizzlies team stand in their way before the Hornets can head home. They should be angry with themselves and want to finish this stretch out on a positive note. Let’s see if they can turn it around.
Next. Charlotte Hornets: How drafting well has produced winning. dark
If I were Borrego, this is where I would truly start shaking up my lineups. James Bouknight, get ready to show us what you can do. If it doesn’t work, so be it, at least we tried. The lack of scoring production from Rozier and Gordon Hayward (to a lesser extent) has been rough and we need to find more points off the bench if we’re not going to be able to defend literally anybody. Bouknight is a reasonable answer to that question.