The Charlotte Hornets get another crack at the Detroit Pistons tonight, and this time they’ll be trying to turn a recent loss into something better.
These teams already met once this season, with Detroit taking the first matchup 97-89 at home last week. Now Charlotte gets the rematch, and the Hornets will be looking to answer after that defeat.
Charlotte enters at 3-4 and is riding a three-game losing streak after opening the year strong. Detroit, meanwhile, comes in at 5-1 and has won two straight, making the Pistons a tough test again for the Hornets.
The injury report is short for Charlotte, but it still includes two forwards. Kon Knueppel and Grant Williams are both out with hamstring injuries.
Neither has played this season because of the issue, though Knueppel could be back soon. The second-year star has been missed, and Charlotte is waiting to get him on the floor.
If the Hornets want a different result, they’ll need more than just one big night from Brandon Miller. In the first meeting, Charlotte had only two players score in double figures. Miller carried the offense with 31 points, 12 rebounds, three assists, two steals and three made threes, but that wasn’t enough.
The Hornets will need more production around him, and Naz Reid is one player who has to be better. Reid finished with seven points on six shots in the loss to Detroit, and Charlotte needs a stronger showing from him in this one.
In Other News...
Hornets Just Put Tidjane Salan In A Tough Roster Spot
Tidjane Salans recent night offered a small reminder of why the Hornets remain intrigued by him. He logged 12 minutes and flashed a few promising moments, the kind of brief run that keeps a young player on the radar even when his role is still in flux.
The bigger issue is what Charlotte has already done with his contract. The Hornets have reportedly declined the fourth-year option on Salans deal, which changes the timeline on his future and puts the team in a more delicate spot with a player it may still want to keep around. Charlotte could look to bring him back on a friendlier deal, but with his contract situation shifting, he also becomes a name to watch as the February trade deadline approaches. [Read more 🡒]
Hornets Face A Bigger Problem Than Another Close Loss
Another close loss left Charlotte with the same familiar frustration, this time after the Hornets let a late lead slip away against Philadelphia. The result was disappointing enough on its own, but it also reinforced a bigger issue hanging over the team right now: the Hornets are still trying to clean up the kind of late-game mistakes that keep turning winnable nights into losses.
Moussa Diabat pointed to execution as the problem, and the timing makes the concern even sharper with Charlotte still waiting on injured contributors Coby White, Kon Knueppel and Grant Williams to come back. Those absences matter, and the hope inside the locker room is that the roster will look more complete soon, but the Hornets also know the current stretch is exposing how much sharper they need to be before that help arrives. [Read more 🡒]
Hornets Fans Still Cant Escape This Brutal Draft Night Debate
Draft-night regrets have a long shelf life in Charlotte, and two of the franchises most painful what-ifs keep coming back whenever the Hornets history gets revisited. The old Kobe Bryant deal has always been the headline-grabber, given what he became with the Lakers, but the conversation has only gotten louder as another former Hornets draft-night move has aged into something even harder to ignore.
An NBA analyst recently put a fresh twist on the debate by suggesting the 2018 decision involving Shai Gilgeous-Alexander may end up haunting Charlotte more than the Bryant trade ever did. Gilgeous-Alexander has since become one of the leagues defining stars, while Bryants legacy remains one of the biggest in basketball history, which is exactly why this argument still lands with Hornets fans: there is no easy way to separate the pain of what was lost from the reality of what those players became. [Read more 🡒]