Charlotte Is Slowly, But Surely Starting To Play Some of Their Best Basketball of the Season. Now the Key Is Learning How To Maintain It.
The Hornets have the ability to be so much fun, but so far this season it has only show up a couple games at a time and then Charlotte will revert back to some of their old ways. Something that has to be incredibly frustrating to Hornet fans who can clearly see their team's potential.
What made the performance stand out against the Wizards wasn’t just the result, but the clarity with which the Hornets played. The offense had flow and patience. They protected the ball after having a couple of games against Detroit and Cleveland where turnovers were a major issue.
LaMelo Ball had another terrific night with 23 points and 9 assists. In the four games since his return from injury he's put up 28, 8, 23, and 23 point nights. The real question is whether or not he can maintain his health and whether or not this is all going to be used to increase his trade value or if he will be a key piece to the Hornets' future. A lot of questions there.
The trend continued of the Hornets gaining a player back while another was on the bench in street clothes. Collin Sexton made his return to play after missing about the last three weeks. This is all as trade rumors have been swirling around him the last couple of days.
The Hornets were however without both Ryan Kalkbrenner and Mason Plumlee as the five spot is running a bit thin at the moment. Moussa Diabate filled in and over the last two games he's done a terrific job cleaning the glass with 18 boards against Washington and 14 against Cleveland.
Charlotte has now managed to win half of their past dozen games, and in most of those, they show how much pop they can have offensively and that they have a ton of options to go to for that offensive fire power.
The main key for them moving forward is putting together more winning streaks and building some consistency. Not doing it for a game or two, then having a few stinkers. These are all the things that just how much progress the Hornets have made this season will be based on when it's all said and done.
The Hornets won't play again until the day after Christmas when they go down to Orlando for a match up with the Magic.