On Sunday night, the Charlotte Hornets faced a good litmus test of where they stand among the good teams in the association, as they faced the Boston Celtics. In the end, the Hornets fell short, 114-99, even though the Celtics were missing both Derrick White and Jaylen Brown.

An underrated subplot in this game is the fact that Hornets head coach Charles Lee is facing his former team. He was a member of Mazzulla's coaching staff in the 2024 title-winning Celtics squad, so he knows Boston's best players at such a personal level — White included.

Before White was officially ruled out for their Sunday night contest due to right knee contusion, Lee joked around with the media when he was asked how tough it was to prepare for a clash against a player of White's two-way caliber.

“Not tough at all. He's not that good,” Lee said in a deadpan manner, via Hornets Reddit on X (formerly Twitter).

Lee of all people would know just how elite White is; he may not be the most prolific scorer, but he does everything else a winning team needs on the basketball court at such a high level. Coaches have sung White's praises for so long, and the Hornets head coach, if asked to give a sincere answer, would certainly give the Celtics guard the highest commendations he could give.

Hornets hit snag in playoff push

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The Hornets have been one of the best teams in the NBA since the calendar flipped to 2026, but they remain in 10th place in the East standings. As things stand, they will have to win two play-in games just to make it to the eighth seed. Considering how competitive the play-in picture is, that is not an appealing situation to be in at all.

Losing two games back-to-back is not the end of the world, although the Hornets are now three games back of the sixth seed with four teams ahead of them.