Brooklyn’s Michael Porter Jr. goes to the basket as Charlotte’s Miles Bridges defends during the second half of Monday’s game at Barclays Center. Sarah Stier Getty Images
In flipping the proverbial switch and turning things around from the losing ways that dominated most of November, the recipe for success seemed simple for the Charlotte Hornets.
There had been a common denominator, a noticeably prevalent change.
“Yeah, I would say one of the main things is, and it’s the same thing the guys have been talking about,” coach Charles Lee said, “it’s what we’ve been preaching since Day One of the season, and the offseason, is I think our overall just competitiveness. Our activity has been sustained from the beginning of the game to the end of the game.
“And I think these guys have leaned on each other even more in some of these adverse situations. So, I’ve loved what I’ve seen on both ends of the court. To me, it’s just about the activity, the effort, the competitiveness of the group and they’ve really kind of banded together.”
Ziaire Williams of the Brooklyn Nets dribbles against Kon Knueppel of the Charlotte Hornets during Monday’s first half at Barclays Center. Sarah Stier Getty Images
Well, so much for prosperity — and good health.
Minus two key contributors in Brandon Miller and Tre Mann, the Hornets went belly up in Monday night’s 116-103 loss to Brooklyn at Barclays Center, reverting to the reason they’d been struggling during their recent seven-game losing skid.
“Yeah, it was unacceptable,” said Kon Knueppel, who paced the Hornets with 18 points. “Really disappointing. Came out and we got stood up a little bit by them trapping LaMelo (Ball) at halfcourt and we didn’t play with pace and we didn’t get enough stops.
“Turnovers killed us again. It’s frustrating when we come out and don’t play the same way. I can live with losing games, winning games. But you’re playing a certain style, the style that we want to play, and to come out and not play how we play and score, I don’t know, 100 points... that’s unacceptable.”
Brooklyn basically had its way with the Hornets (6-15). Especially on offense. Far too often, the Nets found themselves wide open either on the perimeter or underneath the basket.
Getting completely outplayed by Brooklyn (4-16) is not a good look. Especially when the Nets hadn’t won at home all season. This, after all, was also the same team the Hornets clobbered by 19 points in the season opener in uptown on Oct. 22.
“We let the energy involvement affect us,” Collin Sexton said. “And we let certain plays that we just took off affect the whole game. And we can’t do that down the stretch. You can just tell, the way the momentum is going. We’ve got to make sure we just continue to stay together.
“No matter the ups and the downs, they’re going to happen. But we got to continue to fight.”
Even if it was a tad more difficult because Miller and Mann each sat out, a result of the Hornets’ health and performance staff electing to give them a break after three games in four nights, which swelled to four in six with their latest outing against the Nets.
Listed as questionable on Sunday night’s injury report, Mann is dealing with a left ankle impingement that’s apparently been nagging him a bit lately. Miller, who suited up in the Hornets’ previous four games and hadn’t missed any action since returning from a month-long hiatus nursing a left shoulder subluxation, went through the team’s morning shootaround in Manhattan — as did Mann.
However, once the Hornets arrived at the multi-billion dollar edifice at the corner of Flatbush and Atlantic avenues to square off against the Nets for the second time this season, the decision was made to have Miller and Mann take a seat. And it sounds like Mann’s situation bears monitoring.
“Yeah, I think he’s making some good progress,” Lee said. “His ankle impingement has been giving him some issues. So, he went through shootaround a little bit and like most of our guys, they want to go and I think that we deemed it important for him to kind of just take a couple days and try to get himself back together.
“And then unfortunately we got to the arena, and as Brandon got evaluated, trying to manage that three in four, he had a little bit of shoulder soreness and he really wants to go. But I think that from our evaluations, we’re (holding) him out as well.”
Charlotte Hornets star LaMelo Ball dribbles during Monday’s first half against the Brooklyn Nets at Barclays Center. Sarah Stier Getty Images
The Hornets took the decision out of the hands of Miller and Mann, understanding they preferred to be on the court against the Nets to help keep the good times going from two straight wins. Preventative maintenance is something the Hornets apparently want to stay on top of, which anyone who’s remotely followed Charlotte’s injury woes over the past few seasons knows is probably more of a necessity.
“You want competitors, you want guys that want to play through some little nicks and bruises and stuff,” Lee said. “But there are certain points where we have to keep the bigger picture in mind. We have to save them from themselves. And I think that our performance staff does a great job of having an idea of how we can maximize their availability throughout the whole season.
“So, I love their approach and I support their approach. And it’s usually in partnership with the players after you have to talk them off of not being able to play.”
When they do return, though, they’ll need to help the Hornets gain a sense of consistency. There have been too many peaks and valleys over the season’s initial six weeks, with the latter taking precedent frequently.
Mistakes and mental errors for this bunch are common and that can’t continue.
“We’ve got things that we got to clean up,” Sexton said. “We can’t expect to come in and play and teams are going to lay down for us. We are not that team. We’re the team that we’ve got to go out and fight at full 48. And we have to go take the wins. If you don’t take them, nobody’s going to give them to you.
“I feel like that’s what we’ve got to do to change our mindsets. We got to do it together, but also we got to do it with some type of urgency. We’re 6-15, so what are we going to do? We have to change the narrative. We can’t be like, ‘Oh, we won two in a row.’ We truly ain’t done (expletive). So, that’s how I look at it.”
That view is shared by the Hornets’ top rookie.
“Yeah, I mean we’re 6-15,” Knueppel said. “We can’t ... We’re not good enough to lay it, for a team to come in and (we say), ‘We’re just going to come in and beat somebody.’ We’re not good enough.
“We’ve got to be who we are. We’ve got to play hard. We’ve got to compete to win every game we can in this league, and we didn’t do that tonight. And that’s truly disappointing.”