It was a lot more competitive than the game against Phoenix, but it should have been. In the end, the Charlotte Hornets lost to the Washington Wizards last night 124-121 with Terry Rozier hitting a late 3 that only mattered to the gamblers.
The same problems showed up last night that have shown up all season long.
Let’s start with the most obvious. If the Hornets don’t reach a playoff spot this season, it will be solely because of their defense.
It may very well be the worst in the league and it was on full display in the first quarter of this game. Poor effort in transition, guys standing upright allowing Washington to drive right by them, gambling on perimeter passes that leave them outnumbered on that possession.
Here are a few, well, more than a few stats on where they rank defensively in the league.
Charlotte is 28th in defensive rating, 24th in Opponent FG%, and 25th in Opponent FG’s attempted.
The most maddening stat of all may be their lack of transition defense which Zach Lowe pointed to in a recent ESPN article. They rank 27th in fast break points allowed, and they’re even worse if you discard garbage time.
Lowe said quote, “It’s hard to crack to the top six with perhaps the league’s worst defense. Charlotte could erase three or four points every game by not being horrible in transition”.
The other at least more common thread this season has been their lost clutch superpower that had been in place the last 2 years.
Charlotte ranks just 14th in Clutch winning percentage, which is almost literally average, but hurts when you’ve been so prone to bad starts.
There’s still plenty to like about this season with players developing and hopefully Charlotte can get back their cohesion that existed before all the problems with Covid protocols, but their effort has to increase on the defensive end if they want to make a top 6 spot.
