ATLANTA — It wasn’t Charlotte’s night once it got to the arena … or even on the way. With the team bus blocked by a stopped freight train on the tracks one must cross to access the player tunnel, several players had to walk the final block into Atlanta’s State Farm Arena before Wednesday’s game against the Hawks.
The Hornets were hit by a different freight train in the 9-10 portion of the Play-In Tournament for the second straight year, losing 132-103 to Atlanta on Wednesday. The Hawks scored on a mind-boggling 14 straight possessions in a 31-13 third-quarter run, turning a competitive game into a laugher.
The fact they lost again in this round makes it seem like the Hornets are a bit like that train — not really going anywhere. That part isn’t quite right, however. Charlotte jumped from 33 wins a season ago to 43 this year, improved its net rating by 2.4 points per game, and put LaMelo Ball in the All-Star Game. There were shortcomings and disappointments, and we’ll get to those in a second, but it’s easy to forget the positives in the wake of such a weird, disappointing ending.
Weird? Oh, it got weird all right, between the Hornets’ second-half no-show, Miles Bridges’ out-of-character ejection and mouthpiece chuck, and a postgame news conference from coach James Borrego that seemed heavily focused on defending his record. (Borrego’s contract was extended in August, but my sense is that when a coach spends this much time discussing his own performance, there might be a reason for that.)
Meanwhile, the biggest story of Charlotte’s offseason is likely to be somebody who wasn’t even there on Wednesday.
