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It wasn't long ago that the Charlotte Hornets looked like a lock to at least make the play-in tournament while also boasting a chance to secure a top-six seed in the Eastern Conference. The Hornets sat at 28-22 after a thrilling win over the Los Angeles Lakers on Jan. 28 and appeared to be riding high.
Things have since completely fallen apart for Charlotte.
The Hornets are 2-10 in their last 12 games and 0-7 in overtime affairs after their OT loss to the lowly Detroit Pistons on Sunday night. Continued defensive meltdowns and stretches of cold shooting have doomed this team, and the current 30-32 record has them tied with the 10th-place Atlanta Hawks and just two games ahead of the 11th-place Washington Wizards. Charlotte is now in danger of missing the play-in tournament altogether if things don't turn around soon.
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Simply put, the Hornets can't afford to drop more games to teams like the Pistons, who have one of the worst records in the NBA. Detroit continues to play hard and shouldn't be taken lightly, but Charlotte is clearly a better team and fighting for the postseason. Even if the Hornets won this game, it would have been a letdown after beating the Pistons 141-119 just a few weeks ago and carrying a 15-game winning streak against them into Sunday's matchup. It was a totally inexcusable loss.
With the season winding down, the Hornets must be fully in win-now mode, but things won't be getting any easier. 11 of their last 20 games are against teams slated to make the postseason. This includes two games against the Brooklyn Nets, who are just above them at the eighth spot.
The main problem for this Hornets team has been its defensive intensity, as evidenced by giving up 127 points to Detroit. Montrezl Harrell ripped into his team during a timeout to try to rally the troops, to no avail. They gave up 22 offensive rebounds, which led to a lot of second chance opportunities. Harrell was brought in for his veteran leadership, so it's great he's being vocal, but his young guns didn't respond. They got outhustled and outworked and have been now for all the losses in this skid. Something needs to change quickly for this team to get things turned around.
Getting stops in key situations is the first step to a turnaround. Not necessarily just in clutch time, but to stop the bleeding of big runs that other teams go on. During this rough patch, the Hornets haven't been able to stop the momentum when other teams start making a big push. To make matters worse, they haven't shot the ball all that well overall whenever opponents get into a groove. From there, the deficits begin to grow and the Hornets look dejected as soon as things hit the fan.
In all reality, this is still a young and talented team. It's possible for this team to make a run, but the time is ticking and not having Gordon Hayward is a big problem. If this slide continues, Charlotte could easily find itself on the outside looking in when it comes to the postseason. That would be extremely disappointing given where the Hornets stood just a month ago.
We'll see what the Charlotte Hornets are made of the rest of this season. It's time to step things up now.
