If you are looking for silver linings and a positive spin on the outcome of Wednesday night's contest, it is better to look elsewhere. The effort and result from the Charlotte Hornets' trip to Detroit is flat-out unacceptable and embarrassing on so many levels.
Let's get this out of the way first. The Pistons are not a good team. In fact, they may be one of the worst teams of all time. And yet, the Hornets somehow found a way to lose to a team that entered the matchup with just four wins on the season. This game was not decided by a buzzer beater or a bad bounce or two in the game's final seconds. Charlotte lost by seven points in a collapse that is almost expected at this point to a team that is playing flat-out awful basketball. Going scoreless over the game's final two minutes as the Pistons rattled off 10 straight points en route to victory is a pretty good summarization of how this season has played out so far. Even with their best player, the Hornets are simply not good enough as presently constructed.
Some may want to paint the final score at Little Caesar's Arena as a result of the Hornets trading Terry Rozier or not having Mark Williams available to them. This "reasoning" is incredibly desperate and grasping at straws for an excuse for that performance. Detroit is a group of players masquerading as a basketball team, and they are doing so without their own best player in Cade Cunningham, so any excuses for Rozier's departure or Williams' absence can be promptly thrown where they belong, the garbage can.
There have been plenty of people trying to stick up for what Charlotte has done, with some small amount of belief that what they have is going to lead to a winning product soon. As evidenced by the dreadful loss to the lowly Pistons, this is an organization that is much further away from not being a dumpster fire than most want to admit. Even in their current state, the Hornets should have waltzed into their matchup with the now 5-39 Detroit Pistons and came out with a comfortable win in hand. Instead, it is more pathetic basketball that continues to be played with no end in sight.