The Charlotte Hornets fell to the Washington Wizards 124-121. The Hornets lost two straight games after coming off of a three game winning streak. They are also winless on the back end of back-to-backs this season, which is underwhelming to say the least.

Borrego seemed pretty disappointed when he found out about that stat from the media.

“It's unfortunate,” the Hornets coach said. “We haven't performed well in these situations. We had our opportunity tonight,  just didn't get it done. We move on, gotta go home and get right.”

Borrego also had more to say about his team's defense in the first quarter, more specifically, in the first five minutes of it.

“In the first five minutes of the game, they scored 19 points. It starts there. That group had to get off to better starts defensively. We put ourselves in a hole and dig out, but it's not a formula for success. We have to do better to start games.”

The Hornets shot themselves in the foot in the opening quarter essentially. After one quarter, they were down by 13, but they ended up heading into halftime with a double-digit lead. They controlled the game in the second quarter and pretty much most of third. Hell, they had three guys score over 20 points in this one with Miles Bridges, Gordon Hayward, and Terry Rozier. Those three took over the game, but in the fourth quarter, the game got away from them.

Borrego had this to say about his team's loss:

“I thought it turned in the fourth quarter. They went on an 11-0 run, not getting stops, not being back, and we couldn't find a bucket either. They played well and made shots. We had plenty of shots to win this game and we just didn't. Miles hits a three to put us up five and Kuz hit three 3's. Give them credit.”

Bridges, who played his second game since returning from health and safety protocols, finished with 23 points and 14 rebounds. Energy wise, he felt good, but mentioned “I just wish we don't lose two games back to back.”

He also commented on the slow starts that his team has been facing all season long, including in the matchup vs. the Wizards:

I think we need to come out more aggressive. We come out too passive. I think we're thinking too much. We just need to come out and play basketball.”

It has become an ugly trend for this young team. The Hornets get off to slow start, surge a comeback at some point, but sometimes it's too little too late. It's just not a good way to win games in this league and in order to be elite, they have to tighten up their play in the opening period and in late game situations. Mainly on the defensive end of course.

When Gordon Hayward chimed in on the loss, he had this to say:

“We weren't good to start tonight. Have to be better, but it's the NBA, so we get another chance relatively quickly. It's the NBA, so that's nice.”

That next chance comes on January 5th against the Detroit Pistons back at home. Hopefully they can piece something together to snap this two game losing skid.