Recent results provided a negative impact for the Charlotte Hornets’ quest to get into the top-six of the Eastern Conference and avoid the play-in round.
The Hornets’ attempt to avoid a third straight loss comes up Tuesday night when they visit the Brooklyn Nets.
Charlotte (39-36) is attempting to avoid a three-game losing streak for the first time since Dec. 29-Jan. 2. Since losing by a combined 18 points to the Milwaukee Bucks and Golden State Warriors, the Hornets are 28-13 in their past 41 games.
During Charlotte’s turnaround from being 12 games under .500, it lost consecutive games three other times and, in two of those instances, teams vying for better draft lottery odds were the next opponent.
The first instance was Jan. 10 when the Hornets sank 24 3-pointers in a 150-95 rout over the Utah Jazz after losing their previous two games to Indiana and Toronto by a combined three points. The second instance occurred Feb. 22 when Charlotte hit 25 treys in a 129-112 win over the Washington Wizards following losses by a combined nine points to Cleveland and Houston.
Charlotte is 10th in the East, and though it shares the same record with Miami, it lost three of four meetings to the Heat. The Hornets also are a half-game behind eighth-place Orlando after following up Saturday’s 118-114 loss to the Philadelphia 76ers with a 114-99 setback to the Boston Celtics in the final game of a seven-game homestand.
“We don’t want to depend on teams,” Charlotte forward Miles Bridges said. “We want to create our own path to the playoffs. And in order to do that, we’ve got to start winning games again.”
The Hornets had not lost a game by at least 15 points in their turnaround since a 20-point loss to the Golden State Warriors on Jan. 17 and trailed by 14 by halftime Sunday. Charlotte shot 42.6% in the past two games after shooting at least 50% in each game of a five-game winning streak where the average margin of victory was 27.4 points.
LaMelo Ball scored 19 points Sunday but also shot 14 of 45 in the past two games, including 8 of 30 from 3-point range. Rookie Kon Knueppel shot 8 of 27 in the two losses and was 4 of 16 from 3-point range.
The Nets (18-57) earned a 116-103 home win over Charlotte on Dec. 1 as part of a 7-3 stretch. Brooklyn is 14-31 since the last meeting and 3-20 over its past 23 games after stopping a 10-game skid with Sunday’s 116-99 home win over the Sacramento Kings.
“They run a lot of similar things to us, so it was very simple in knowing what they’re about to do,” Brooklyn’s Noah Clowney said. “A lot of the calls were similar, so just being connected focused on needing what we need to do.”
Brooklyn is in full experimentation mode with its lineups and Nic Claxton (11.8 points per game) and Clowney (12.4 points per game) may start Tuesday, although neither played in the fourth quarter Sunday. The Nets gave extensive minutes to four rookies including Drake Powell, who scored 10 of his season-high tying 16 points in the fourth.
Ochai Agbaji led the Nets with 18 points, equaling his season high. It was the fifth straight game the Nets had a different leading scorer and Agbaji became the 18th player to be Brooklyn’s top scorer.
