The Charlotte Hornets suffered their third straight loss after losing to the Sacramento Kings 123-98. Things were tight for a little while in the first quarter. The Kings only held a five-point lead going into the second, which is where things started to get a little out of hand for Charlotte. Sacramento had four guys score 19 or more points, including Malik Monk off the bench in his return to Charlotte, who finished with 20 points. Meanwhile, for the Hornets, they've suffered their 27th loss of the season. There are a lot of key injuries to this team that are causing this team to not play up to their potential, but after the game, rookie Brandon Miller and Miles Bridges and messages for their team.
Brandon Miller is staying as positive as can be
“Just stay together as a team, don’t get too separated from each other,” Brandon Miller said. “I think our bond on and off the court definitely is going to get stronger by the day. Just need to go into the next game, like I said, with a different mentality and try to pull out a win.”
The Hornets' recent play is enough to drive any player, coach, hell even fans, insane. There is still a job, though, and as a rookie, Miller knows that. Losing could boil up a locker room, but there still seems to be optimism and energy that they could play better than they have been the past week or so. Part of the problem in Miller's eyes is also the lack of intensity.
“I think we just came out and just weren’t ready as far as energy. I think we need to have a short-term memory and go into the next game with a different mentality.”
Miles Bridges isn't happy about the Hornets' ‘lack of intensity' either
“I really don’t know,” Bridges said when asked how to raise the team's intensity level. “They were getting whatever they wanted. I feel like that was hurting our confidence. Once our offense went down, that’s when all of our energy went down. We’ve just got to play better and come out better with our intensity.”
The Kings were the more physical team from the tip and it showed on the glass. Sacramento won that battle 48-35 and controlled the tempo of the game with their physicality. Outside of the intensity department, Bridges thinks that the defense needs to step it up as well.
“Sometimes we’re great on defense and sometimes we’re terrible. We’ve just got to play the same every time and have a true identity. I feel like our identity changes every game, so we’ve got to just stick to our identity and have that be us.”
Charlotte is ranked 29th in defensive efficiency. They struggle to stop a lot of teams from all over the floor. Again, missing key guys like Mark Williams, Cody Martin, and others makes it harder to do all the little things that matter.
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