Finally on national television, the Hornets didn’t show their best face

A small event in Charlotte this Wednesday from Hornets he received Cavaliers for their only coverage of the match on ESPN. Charles Lee also said his team was excited about the idea of ​​playing on national television.

“These are the times when everyone is talking about you,” underlines the tactician Charlotte. “This is a huge opportunity for our players and staff. They deserve it. This will become the norm as our team continues to improve and more and more people will want to see us on TV.”

However, the excitement quickly gave way to poor performance. After traveling west, the Hornets took too long to get going. Between the absent defense and lack of skill, Charlotte scored just 32 points in the first half and was already trailing by 24 lengths when they got to the locker room.

After the break, the Frelons had a burst of pride, returning to twelve points, but it was not enough to avoid defeat (87-94). Coming out of the bench, LaMelo Ball completely pierced. If the leader made his second shot of the night, he missed the next thirteen and finished with just two points on 1/15 shooting and a notably 0/10 3-pointer. To try to overcome this discomfort, Lonzo’s brother recorded seven assists.

A bug on the big screen that hides recent progress

“Despite his shooting percentage, he continued to struggle defensively,” shade Charles Lee. “He was really invested and he was shooting well offensively to try to find his rhythm. He was playing pick-and-rolls and trying to grab offensive rebounds. He was trying to impact the game in different ways.”

However, this misstep on national television shouldn’t hide Charlotte’s recent progress. During their five-game trip to the West, the Hornets won three matches including an authoritarian 55-point performance against the Jazz. They scored 135 points on the Lakers’ weak defense.

Charlotte takes advantage bad dynamics of Bucks and the Hawks to clear their backlog a little and get a little closer to the playing spots. However, there is still a long way to go as the twelfth-placed Hornets (16 wins-28 losses) are still four games behind the tenth-placed Hawks (21 wins-25 losses).

“When you play at national level, people say it’s cool to be on TV, but we have the opportunity to play at the highest level every night.” recalls Grant Williams. “It doesn’t matter if we’re on ESPN or not. These are moments we have to get used to as this team moves forward and grows.”