Hornets win over Hawks miraculously first of season by double digits

Perhaps this stat isn’t totally crazy, considering the Hornets have a league-worst -10.8 net rating, almost two full points worse than that of the 29th-ranked Detroit Pistons. But in game 54 of the 2023-24 regular season, the Charlotte Hornets recorded their first win of the season by double digits.

Perhaps just as crazy, their previous high for margin of victory this season was 9, a mark they had hit twice; in the previous two games, Monday against the Pacers and Saturday against the Grizzlies. Before this three-game winning streak, the Hornets' biggest win of the season was by 7 points.

Obviously, the Hornets only have 13 wins in the entire season, so it’s not like they have been racking up a bunch of close victories. But still, you’d think at some point every NBA would fall into a big win just based on shooting variance and positive energy and luck.

But that has not been the case one single time this season for the Hornets, as they didn’t have much energy or shooting for a vast majority of games. This has all changed since the trade deadline though, as the team has now won three straight games by 9, 9, and 23 points.

Defense leading the way

Over that span, the team has also held opponents to 106, 102, and 99 points, with the last two being against the Pacers and Hawks, two top 10 offensive teams that are averaging over 120 points a night.

It’s a small sample size but it’s a pretty remarkable turnaround for a team that looked utterly lifeless just a week ago. The other two bottom-feeding teams in the East, the Pistons and Wizards both got double-digit victories within their first handful of games. And both of those came against the Hornets.

Hopefully, this isn’t just the honeymoon phase with this new version of the Hornets. Nobody is expecting them to run the table, or boast one of the league’s best defenses the rest of the way. But I don’t think it’s too much to hope to see this level of effort, intensity, and execution, especially on defense.

And who knows, the Hornets are currently just 10 games back of the Hawks, who currently hold the 10 seed and final play-in spot in the East. Crazier things have happened.