標籤: Charlottes

The Charlotte Hornets may not be quite there, but they have arrived as a winless team in the Eastern Conference. Since the beginning of the 2026 calendar year, the Hornets have posted the fifth-best record in the NBA at 27–12. Their strong performance this year continued on Tuesday, as they swept the Sacramento Kings and demolished them with a 134-90 victory.

Making the jump from bad to good isn’t as easy as the Hornets are making it out to be. But under the tutelage of head coach Charles Lee, they are doing just that. They have made a habit of winning and never let their foot off the gas pedal – which explains their historic average margin of victory this season.

After the game, Lee explained what makes Why the Hornets are so good and why they are so dominant whenever they are on victory lane.

“Every play is meaningful, every possession is meaningful,” Lee said via HornetsReddit.

🎙️ Charles Lee: “Every play is meaningful, every possession is meaningful.”

“To see that group compete at the end of the game and see the way they communicated… it shows, from up and down the roster, the level of commitment, everybody’s ‘care factor’ is really high.” pic.twitter.com/Dy8yijDNQE

– r/CharlotteHornets (@HornetsReddit) 25 March 2026

The Hornets enjoy embarrassing other teams, and this killer mentality of theirs bodes well for their chances of making the jump from good to great in the coming years.

The entire Hornets roster has been purchased

The Hornets have been one of the best teams in the NBA over the past few months, and it’s no coincidence. Lee’s team is playing for each other every single game, and the team is humming as a result.

Charlotte has one of the best starting five players in the association (LaMelo Ball, Kon Knueppel, Brandon Miller, Miles Bridges and Moussa Diabate), and their bench team consists of Ryan Kalkbrenner, Coby White, Zion James, Josh Green and Grant Williams, who are playing their roles in the team.

LaMelo Ball says chemistry has been at the heart of the Charlotte Hornets’ recent surge, as the team continues one of the most remarkable postseason turnarounds in the league.

Ball discussed the Hornets’ success in an interview shared by the NBA on X, formerly known as Twitter, emphasizing the group’s connections on and off the court.

“Guys, you know everybody’s cool, takes care of each other, so it’s all real love. And you feel like a real family, and if someone’s down we’ll pick them up. And that’s how we go.”

Charlotte’s play has improved after a difficult start to the season. The Hornets dropped to 16-28 after a 94-87 loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers on Jan. 21, but improved to 36-34 after a 130-111 win over the Orlando Magic on Thursday. The surge has lifted Charlotte to the 10th seed in the Eastern Conference standings.

Over the past 15 games, the Hornets have been one of the NBA’s most efficient teams on both ends of the floor. Charlotte ranked eighth in scoring with 117.2 points per game during that span, while leading the league in three-point shooting, making threes an average of 19 times at 40.4% accuracy.

Defensively, the Hornets have also made significant progress. The team has allowed just 106.4 points per game over that span, the fourth-best mark in the league, trailing only the Boston Celtics (102.1), New York Knicks (103.7) and Oklahoma City Thunder (105.6). Charlotte’s 10.8 net rating during that span ranks first in the NBA.

Buzzing energy at Hornets practice 🐝

Go behind the scenes with Coach Charles Lee and Kon Knueppel before Charlotte hosts Memphis tonight at 7:00 PM on NBA League Pass! pic.twitter.com/E4Mp7rZ2if

– NBA (@NBA) 21 March 2026

LaMelo Ball’s production fuels Hornets’ playoff boost

Ball has played a central role in the turnaround. The 24-year-old guard has averaged 19.5 points, 7.1 assists, 4.9 rebounds and 1.2 steals per game this season, while shooting 40.4% from the field, 36.4% from three-point range and a career-high 89.7% from the free-throw line. Appeared in 60 games, including 57 starts. He averages 27.6 minutes per contest.

With momentum building, Charlotte remains a long way from high playoff position. The Hornets are 2.5 games behind the sixth-seeded Orlando Magic (38-31) in the Eastern Conference standings.

Charlotte will look to extend its current two-game winning streak on Saturday night when it hosts the Memphis Grizzlies (24-45) at 7:00 pm ET as part of a seven-game homestand.

As the regular season enters its final stretch, Ball’s emphasis on chemistry continues to define a Hornets team that has rapidly re-established itself as a competitive force in the Eastern Conference.

The Charlotte Hornets have been one of the hottest teams in the league over the past few months, and it doesn’t look like they’ll be letting up any time soon. After a slow start to the season, they have found their rhythm on both sides of the ball and are now over .500 for the first time this year, with a chance to move up in the Eastern Conference standings.

Fans have begun to embrace the Hornets’ success, and this is shown by how packed the field is these days, something that Miles Bridges has not seen since his time with the team.

“I’m not used to it,” Bridges said, via Will Eudy. “It’s usually just a few games, like Warriors, Lakers, Knicks. But now, people are coming to games against Portland. Portland is a good team… but people don’t play those type of games. So I’m happy for the fans that they’ll get to experience that.”

I was just at the Hornets shootaround and I asked Miles Bridges about playing in front of noisy crowds every night:

“I’m not used to it. It’s usually just a few games, like the Warriors, Lakers, Knicks. But now, people are coming to games against Portland. Portland is a good… pic.twitter.com/0Gfd4c7o7B

– Will Eudy (@WillEudyNBA) 6 March 2026

The Hornets have played great in their last few games and join the 2017 Golden State Warriors field, tying their streak to six straight games. Winning by 15+ points.

Head coach Charles Lee’s team is playing its best basketball at the right time, and he cited staying healthy as one of the keys to their success during this period.

“It’s been good to have a healthy roster,” Lee said. “It’s definitely played a role in some of the changes we’ve made. But I think our guys have embraced the process even more. It started in the offseason. I thought everyone has increased their work habits, their work standards and their togetherness about how we can lift each other up. We’ve come out stronger through all of this.”

The Hornets are currently the ninth seed in the East, but they could make up some ground and continue to climb depending on what the teams above them do.

After the Charlotte Hornets extended their winning streak to six with a 118-89 win against the Boston Celtics, head coach Charles Lee may have reminded Philadelphia 76ers fans of his old “trust the process” slogan. Injuries have been a frequent hindrance for the Hornets, limiting their growth in the past. With a young team like Charlotte’s, some parallels can be drawn with the young, promising 76ers of nearly a decade ago.

Lee says health has limited the Hornets’ potential, which is now blossoming this season, amid a team’s playoff potential that has boosted its record over .500 to 32-31, he said, according to Roderick Boone of the Charlotte Observer.

“It’s been good to have a healthy roster,” Lee said. “It’s definitely played a role in some of the changes we’ve made. But I think our guys have embraced the process even more. It started in the offseason. I thought everyone has increased their work habits, their work standards and their togetherness about how we can lift each other up. We’ve come out stronger through all of this.”

For Hornets center Moussa Diabate, beating the Celtics, who are in second place in the Eastern Conference standings, is an impressive feat for a young team, but it is also a testament to how much the Hornets have improved.

“They [Celtics] is a great team, we also believe we are a great team,” Diabate said, per Boone. “At the end of the day, we’re not trying to focus too much on them. Obviously, we want to win the game, but if we focus on what we have to do it will win on its own. For us, that’s a great thing, it’s a good message to the league as well – understand that the Hornets are here.

Amid a six-game winning streak, Charles Lee and the Hornets have won seven of their last 10 games.

ESPN analyst warns about Hornets’ recent surge

One could argue that this is the most exciting time to be a Hornets fan since the 1990s, as head coach Charles Lee has led his team to a 32-31 record, which few expected ahead of the 2025-26 campaign. With only 19 games left in the regular season, the Hornets are moving at an ideal time, which could make them a tough first round opponent In the playoffs, as Alan Hahn reported on ESPN’s Get Up.

“There’s a dragon slayer hiding in plain sight. They’re in the play-ins right now. They’re seeded 9th. They’re finally at .500 for the first time, I think, since Grandmama and Muggy Boggs. We haven’t seen them play like this for a long time, but they’re that team with this offense, and a defense, by the way, that’s in the top 3 these 20 games,” Hahn said.

The Hornets’ well-balanced attack on both ends of the floor makes them a tough matchup for the top Eastern Conference teams.

“Not only are they playing great offense, they’re playing great defense,” Hahn said. “They’re the team that, if you’re a contender, if you’re a higher seed, No. 1, No. 2, or No. 3, and you have to face them in the first round, you don’t want to do that because they’re unknowns and they can play free as well.”

🗣️ @alanhahn: “A dragon slayer hiding in plain sight. They’re in the play-ins right now. They’re the 9th seed. I think, after Grandmama and Muggy Boggs, they’re finally at .500 for the first time. We haven’t seen them play like that in a long time, but they’re that team… pic.twitter.com/Gze5F5ANwA

– r/CharlotteHornets (@HornetsReddit) 5 March 2026

The Hornets will look to extend their winning streak to seven when they host the Heat on Friday.