The Charlotte Hornets giving the New Orleans Pelicans their first win of the season is frustrating in itself. What can make it worse is that the Pelicans bout may have been the last winnable game for the Hornets in a long while.
Charlotte's next opponents include the Miami Heat, Los Angeles Lakers, Milwaukee Bucks (twice), Oklahoma City Thunder, Toronto Raptors (on the road), Indiana Pacers (last of a two-game road trip), LA Clippers, Atlanta Hawks (on the road again), and New York Knicks.
Of course, Buzz City is capable of upsetting any of those teams, although it has tended to shrink against more favored foes since last season. So, there's a possibility that it will be stuck at three wins for the next three weeks.
Would defeating New Orleans on Tuesday have made a difference for the Hornets? Probably, as they could have carried the momentum stemming from a two-consecutive win streak into their matchup with Miami at Kaseya Center. Instead, they have to reset from the loss they brought upon themselves.
Hornets have to take a long, hard look in the mirror
There's no one else to blame for the upsetting outcome because Charlotte should have brought home the dub. After starting strong in the first quarter, it let the Pelicans go on an 18-5 run, which coincided with Charles Lee's decision to put KJ Simpson on the court.
Then, it managed to hold onto the lead well into the fourth quarter but let the opponent finish the contest with an 11-0 run to suffer a 116-112 defeat. Intriguingly, the squad still had a 70.1 percent win probability with 25.6 seconds left on the game clock, but Kon Knueppel missed a 3-point dagger, and Jose Alvarado sank the go-ahead 3-pointer in the ensuing possession.
The Hornets fell into the trap again of executing plenty of isolation sets. Whether that was by design or not, they should have learned from how their offense stalled for a bit when they let some of their players keep on chucking shots in their rout of the Utah Jazz on Sunday. Instead, fans can only express their frustration about watching some veterans, such as Miles Bridges, play hero ball rather than push the pace and let the offense flow as it should, especially when they are holding the lead late in the contest.
Perhaps the return of LaMelo Ball can boost Charlotte's chances of stealing some wins in the following weeks. But with the way the offense has regressed in its previous games, except in the Jazz tiff, and with its defense continuing to be as porous as it is, it's tough to feel optimistic about the team's outlook, even with Ball potentially healthy enough to play.