3 straight Charlotte Hornets losses have silver lining

Charlotte Hornets at Brooklyn Nets

It was the first game on the road without Ball and a rough outing. The Nets, still reeling from their own personnel changes, started off hot. Correction. Mikal Bridges, one of the pieces the Nets received in the Durant trade, started off hot. In fact, he made nine of his first nine field goal attempts. His 19 points helped give the Nets a 36-21 lead. The Nets got the lead up to 37 points at one point in the game.

To the Hornets’ credit, they kept fighting. While it felt like the game had been decided by halftime when the Suns had a 29-point lead, Steve Clifford’s guys stayed mentally engaged. They somehow got the lead down to 14 with four minutes remaining in the game. They weren’t exactly shooting for the win at the buzzer, but having a team with these few wins, this late in the season continue to claw back into a game is impressive.

Mark Williams got his fourth-straight double-double with a 10-point, 14-rebound performance. PJ Washington got most of the time as a backup center. Washington didn’t seem to be able to play small ball center at a high level because of the lack of rim protection. Conventional wisdom would indicate the backup center would be Nick Richards, but after getting in foul trouble in the first half, Richards didn’t play in the second half. Richards was a team-worst, -19 in his nine minutes of game time.