Charles Lee Sends Strong Message as Hornets’ Losing Streak Reaches 6 Games

Brandon Miller became the fifth Charlotte Hornets player unavailable Friday night when he left in the second quarter with right groin soreness. Charlotte lost 119-80 to the Boston Celtics at Spectrum Center and fell to 3-7.

The Hornets were already without Kon Knueppel, Grant Williams, Moussa Diabaté, and Dennis Schröder. Diabaté and Schröder were each missing their first game of the season, and Williams has not played this season.

Hornets coach Charles Lee said some of Charlotte's early mistakes Friday weren't characteristic of how it typically plays.

"Like we said coming into the year, it was going to be by committee, and we had to commit to everything that was going to go on and embrace every day of our journey," Lee said. "And this is part of it. And right now, you're in a little bit of a storm, and we got to band together even more. We got to continue to work at an even higher rate. But in these moments, you grow even stronger. You learn about yourself, the resilience of this group, and how hard they want to work."

"I know that we'll be able to kind of get through this thing, but we definitely got to make sure that we are staying together and focused on just the daily approach," Lee continued. "We don't get to choose the circumstances that go on right now, but we do choose our actions and our response to what's going on right now."

Charlotte's last win came Oct. 26 against the Washington Wizards, and it opened the season 3-1.

The streak includes a 97-89 loss to Detroit on Oct. 28, a 95-79 loss at Washington on Oct. 30, a 124-91 loss to the Pistons on Nov. 2, and a 114-104 loss at Brooklyn two nights later. The Washington and Boston games were both NBA Cup group-play games, and Charlotte is 0-2 in Cup play.

Boston led 40-20 after the first quarter and 70-39 at halftime. The Celtics went 24-of-44 from 3-point range, and the Hornets went 11-of-50.

Lee said the Hornets will evaluate Miller over the weekend and expect to know more Monday.

Charlotte added three veterans in two July trades. On July 10, the Hornets acquired Naz Reid from Minnesota in the deal that sent LaMelo Ball and Josh Green to the Timberwolves. Three days later, they finalized a trade that brought Grayson Allen and Royce O'Neale from Phoenix for Miles Bridges.

Reid led Charlotte with 14 points Friday on 6-of-17 shooting. O'Neale had 7 points, 4 rebounds, and 2 steals. Allen went 0-of-5 in 21:35.

A lot of the Hornets got to the NBA through some kind of adversity, in Lee's view.

"I don't. They talk amongst each other, so their exact words, I'm not gonna put words in their mouth," Lee explained. "But I just think as a group, they know a lot of us have gotten here through some type of adversity, and so we know how to get through it. And the work doesn't stop. It doesn't change."

Rookies Hannes Steinbach and Christian Anderson Jr. came back up from the Greensboro Swarm on Friday, a day after the Hornets assigned them there. Steinbach led Charlotte with 27:13 and had 11 rebounds. Anderson had 4 points and 5 assists, 3 of them in the fourth quarter.

Charlotte played Boston even in the fourth, 23-23. O'Neale played 10:26 of it, and Anderson played 10:38.

The group on the floor at the end picked up full court and got deflections. O'Neale and Liam McNeeley each had a steal in the final 48 seconds, and both led to fast-break dunks.

"One possession at a time. There's a lot of game left," Lee said. "We said that our standard, no matter what the final score was, we wanted to make sure that there was still a mark of competitiveness and physicality that was going to be given, playing the right way offensively. And I thought the group continued to do that. To see the level at which they continued to play, that group at the end, I thought, really fought and competed and picked up full court and got some deflections and made some things happen."

"And then the communication, to see Royce O'Neale out there at the end of the game, to see Naz talking to Christian, we got to keep at it, and we'll fall back on our habits," Lee continued. "And I think that this group has been really consistent with how they work. So at some point, I know we're on the verge of a breakthrough."

Tidjane Salaün had 8 of his 13 points in the fourth quarter, and McNeeley had 7 of his 8.

Charlotte hosts the Cleveland Cavaliers at 7 p.m. ET on Monday and plays at Phoenix on Thursday.