The Charlotte Hornets eked out a squeaker over the Washington Wizards on Saturday, marking their third win in as many games over their division rival this season. Interestingly, for the first time since the 2021-22 season, they have secured a regular-season series against the Wizards.
Given how poorly the Hornets have performed in the past years, it’s understandable for them to lose most of their regular-season series versus other teams. However, Washington also ranked near the bottom of the standings since 2022. So, it can be disconcerting that they have had a losing record against it for nearly four years.
In the 2022-23 campaign, Charlotte went 1-3 against the Wizards, with its lone win being decided by just a single point. The following season, the teams’ series went 2-2, although Washington was well ahead in average point differential. Last season, the Hornets lost all four contests, providing Wizards fans with plenty of ammo in their trash-talking battles with the Hornets faithful.
A different Hornets squad
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The 2025-26 campaign has been a different story. The Hornets are clearly much better than they had been in previous years. Though they are just 12th in the Eastern Conference standings as of now, they appear stronger than their 18-28 record suggests. Considering that the Hornets have won eight of the nine games where they [featured a starting lineup](https://swarmandsting.com/commanding-win-thunder-shows-hornets-make-key-change-season) of LaMelo Ball, Brandon Miller, Kon Knueppel, Miles Bridges, and Moussa Diabate, it’s safe to say they would be higher in the standings had their core pieces remained healthy.
Interestingly, in all three Hornets-Wizards bout this season, all five suited up, although Ryan Kalkbrenner was still the starting center in the first matchup. So, Washington has had a taste of how potent Charlotte can be, and the difference in levels between the two clubs has become night and day.
The Wizards, though, managed to make life difficult for the home team on Saturday. After trailing 93-81 to start the fourth quarter, they were able to trim the lead to as low as two late in the period before eventually falling 119-115.
Fortunately for the Hive, the Hornets had enough juice in the end to escape with the victory and log their first win streak since beating the Chicago Bulls and Oklahoma City Thunder nearly three weeks ago. In some ways, they needed this kind of win, as most of their dubs had been blowouts. In fact, the last time they triumphed in a contest that went down to the wire was in late December when they defeated the Atlanta Hawks 133-126.
Charlotte’s fans should be thrilled that the team has finally begun to turn things around, vanquishing opponents it is supposed to subdue, such as the Wizards, and pulling off upsets against squads that are better in the standings.