The catastrophic performances of the Pistons and the Wizards allow the Hornets to avoid the dunce cap in the Eastern Conference. But Steve Clifford's men are having a catastrophic season, saved a little recently with the four victories in a row in mid-February.
But with its series of four defeats in five matches, Charlotte is once again at its mediocre standards. There are still six weeks and 22 matches to play, so is it time to let go of the horses and open the bench, especially since the group is regularly weighed down by injuries?
Steve Clifford refutes this idea. Already because he does not have the right to announce that he is going to “tank” – that is to say, to lose voluntarily to favor a good place in the Draft – under penalty of sanctions, but above all because he believes that this is not the right choice for his group.
“Playing to win is important. We're going to play to win.” announcement clearly the coach. “Maybe we'll put players on the floor to see what they can do, but as soon as we start doing that, I can say it, weeks of defeats are coming. And we're not going to do that. I understand that people wonder why I don't play these players, but it kills the season. »
“ We can't give minutes to players who don't deserve them and then look at the players and say we have to play hard.”
Why is that ? Because this confuses and weakens his speech. “I say it because I experienced it”he says. “When we do that, we destroy what we have built in the locker room regarding the responsibilities of players in relation to playing time. We cannot give minutes to players who do not deserve it and then watch the players and saying you have to play hard, do the work etc. It gets complicated. It kills everything. »
For the eighth season in a row (current NBA record), the Hornets will not play in the playoffs and for Steve Clifford, if they want to find them again, then we must not accept losing matches before playing them, even at the end of exercise.
“We don’t take 20 matches at the end of the season to have fun and come back the following October 25 saying that now we want to win,” sums up the coach. “We build the right mentality or not. This is how things work. »
| Shots | Rebounds | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Players | MJ | Min | Shots | 3pts | L.F. | Off | Def | Early | Pd | Bp | Int | Ct | Party | Pts |
| Lamelo Ball | 22 | 32.3 | 43.3 | 35.5 | 86.5 | 1.3 | 3.8 | 5.1 | 8.0 | 3.8 | 1.8 | 0.2 | 3.6 | 23.9 |
| Terry Rozier | 30 | 35.5 | 45.9 | 35.8 | 84.5 | 0.6 | 3.3 | 3.9 | 6.6 | 2.2 | 1.1 | 0.4 | 1.7 | 23.2 |
| Miles Bridges | 48 | 37.3 | 46.0 | 36.8 | 84.4 | 1.0 | 6.4 | 7.4 | 3.3 | 2.1 | 1.1 | 0.5 | 1.9 | 21.3 |
| Brandon Miller | 53 | 31.8 | 43.8 | 37.4 | 83.6 | 0.8 | 3.2 | 4.0 | 2.3 | 1.8 | 0.9 | 0.5 | 2.6 | 16.5 |
| Gordon Hayward | 25 | 31.9 | 46.8 | 36.1 | 76.5 | 1.0 | 3.7 | 4.7 | 4.6 | 2.0 | 1.1 | 0.5 | 1.8 | 14.5 |
| Grant Williams | 8 | 28.2 | 46.8 | 37.8 | 80.0 | 1.1 | 3.8 | 4.9 | 1.9 | 1.5 | 0.4 | 0.4 | 2.4 | 13.9 |
| Pj Washington | 44 | 29.2 | 44.6 | 32.4 | 71.3 | 1.2 | 4.1 | 5.3 | 2.2 | 1.5 | 0.9 | 0.7 | 2.5 | 13.6 |
| Mark Williams | 19 | 26.8 | 64.9 | 0.0 | 71.9 | 4.0 | 5.7 | 9.7 | 1.2 | 0.9 | 0.8 | 1.1 | 2.6 | 12.7 |
| Tre Mann | 8 | 29.8 | 43.2 | 41.2 | 73.3 | 0.6 | 4.9 | 5.5 | 4.8 | 1.8 | 1.8 | 0.0 | 2.0 | 11.9 |
| Nick Richards | 50 | 26.0 | 68.6 | 0.0 | 73.0 | 2.7 | 5.4 | 8.1 | 0.8 | 1.1 | 0.4 | 1.3 | 2.7 | 9.8 |
| Seth Curry | 7 | 19.4 | 47.1 | 32.0 | 91.7 | 0.3 | 1.7 | 2.0 | 1.7 | 0.7 | 0.6 | 0.4 | 0.7 | 9.6 |
| Vasilije Micic | 8 | 20.7 | 40.3 | 24.0 | 75.0 | 0.4 | 1.3 | 1.6 | 5.8 | 1.6 | 0.3 | 0.0 | 1.5 | 7.8 |
| Cody Martin | 27 | 26.7 | 37.9 | 31.7 | 56.7 | 0.7 | 3.2 | 3.9 | 3.8 | 1.6 | 1.2 | 0.6 | 1.7 | 7.4 |
| Davis Bertans | 6 | 12.1 | 48.3 | 48.3 | 66.7 | 0.0 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 0.3 | 0.0 | 0.3 | 0.0 | 1.2 | 7.3 |
| Nick Smith, Jr. | 37 | 15.5 | 40.6 | 45.1 | 84.6 | 0.4 | 1.0 | 1.5 | 1.2 | 0.9 | 0.2 | 0.2 | 1.2 | 6.4 |
| Bryce McGowens | 46 | 16.0 | 45.2 | 35.3 | 77.8 | 0.3 | 1.6 | 1.9 | 0.9 | 0.5 | 0.4 | 0.1 | 1.4 | 5.4 |
| Theo Maledon | 13 | 15.4 | 28.8 | 16.7 | 91.7 | 0.3 | 1.5 | 1.8 | 2.2 | 1.2 | 0.5 | 0.0 | 1.4 | 4.2 |
| James Bouknight | 14 | 5.8 | 43.9 | 43.3 | 50.0 | 0.1 | 0.6 | 0.6 | 0.4 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.2 | 3.6 |
| Ish Smith | 43 | 17.2 | 41.8 | 50.0 | 75.0 | 0.3 | 1.5 | 1.8 | 3.4 | 1.1 | 0.4 | 0.1 | 1.1 | 3.2 |
| Jt Thor | 46 | 12.8 | 36.4 | 31.7 | 53.8 | 0.8 | 1.6 | 2.4 | 0.4 | 0.3 | 0.2 | 0.4 | 1.0 | 2.8 |
| Leaky Black | 22 | 9.9 | 43.6 | 46.7 | 64.3 | 0.4 | 1.4 | 1.7 | 0.8 | 0.2 | 0.2 | 0.3 | 0.7 | 2.3 |
| Amari Bailey | 3 | 4.9 | 28.6 | 0.0 | 50.0 | 0.7 | 0.0 | 0.7 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 1.7 |
| Nate Mensah | 25 | 12.3 | 42.9 | 0.0 | 75.0 | 1.2 | 1.4 | 2.6 | 0.4 | 0.6 | 0.2 | 0.6 | 2.6 | 1.3 |
| Frank Ntilikina | 5 | 8.6 | 11.1 | 12.5 | 100.0 | 0.2 | 1.0 | 1.2 | 0.8 | 0.2 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.8 | 1.0 |
| Bolden Brands | 1 | 4.8 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
