Wednesday night produced one of the worst stretches of basketball and one of the most embarrassing losses of the season for the Charlotte Hornets. But after that loss to the Knicks, this team quickly turned around and reversed their fortunes with a shift in attitude to produce improbable wins on Friday and Saturday.
Against New York, Charlotte was keeping things close up until the end of the second quarter. That was when the Knicks closed the half strong, leaving the Hornets in a funk. That lack of rhythm carried over into the second half, and the home team was left playing some uninspired basketball for much of the final two frames of play.
After the game, Collin Sexton stated that it was time for the team to look themselves in the mirror and ask the questions of how they could each be better for the good of the group and impact winning. He noted that they've repeatedly stated what they know they need to do, and they needed to simply put it into action. "We can't keep talking about it," he said. "Actions speak louder than words."
It was up to him and the rest of the team to ensure those words ended up translating to action. And based on the results we saw against the Bulls on Friday and Raptors on Saturday, it would appear that's precisely what happened.
The Hornets quickly reversed their fortunes
Charlotte found themselves in a clutch game with Chicago on Friday, and they made the right plays down the stretch to come up with the victory. LaMelo Ball's activity and effort defensively played a big part in that happening. The game was the Hornets' first clutch victory all season, which was encouraging enough by itself.
But then came Saturday. The Hornets were suiting up for a game that basically everyone understood was likely to be a "scheduled loss." It was the second night of a back-to-back, and the Raptors were coming in as winners of their last nine games in a row. And yet, the actual result reminded us of why the games are played on the hardwood, and not on paper.
On a night where both Brandon Miller and LaMelo Ball were on minutes restrictions and not shooting the ball well, Miles Bridges stepped up and delivered possibly his best outing of the season. Kon Knueppel was fantastic yet again, making a wildly clutch shot to send the game to overtime.
It was the kind of win that showed what this Hornets team is truly made of. After the kind of disappointment they suffered against the Knicks, we were always going to learn a lot about them over the course of the next couple of games. It's safe to say that this group quickly turned embarrassment into momentum, and reminded everyone that they're far too talented to keep losing games.