CHARLOTTE — A month into the 2023-24 NBA season, the Hornets looked like they were finally trending in the right direction.
Miles Bridges, playing for the first time since April 2022, picked up right where he left off with 21.2 points and 8.8 rebounds in his first five games back, giving Charlotte a needed shot in the arm after his 10-game suspension to start the season.
Rookie Brandon Miller has shown promise as the No. 2 overall pick in the draft, while second-year center Mark Williams has averaged a double-double.
And most encouragingly, Hornets point guard LaMelo Ball has appeared to have taken a step forward in his fourth season as one of seven players in the league averaging 25 points, five rebounds, five assists and a steal per game through the weekend. He entered Sunday’s game at Orlando averaging 33.8 points per game in his last five appearances.
Charlotte not only suffered a 130-117 loss to the Magic, but it also lost its 22-year-old star to another injury to his surgically repaired right ankle.
Ball underwent X-rays Sunday and was cleared of any structural damage to his ankle, but the team announced the next day he would miss multiple weeks. A clearer prognosis is expected in the coming days.
While the exact length of Ball’s absence is unknown, the impact it will have on the Hornets is certain. With PJ Washington and Terry Rozier returning from injury, Charlotte — despite being 5-10 on the season — finally had its full complement of players with its ringleader, Ball, playing the best basketball of his career.
Charlotte coach Steve Clifford said his team will have to carry on despite losing its franchise player.
“You can’t worry about who is not there because, at the end of the day, it’s a long season,” Clifford said. “We are just starting. The other part is you better know, though, why you are winning and why you are losing. For us, we’ve done some good things. Our lack of depth has been a major, major problem. People talk about bad starts — it’s actually not our starters. Because of so many injuries, we break the lineup quicker than most teams do, and it hasn’t been good for us.”
Clifford is optimistic about the impact of Bridges and Williams as both establish themselves as cornerstone pieces.
“Getting Miles back is obviously a big, big piece in every aspect of the game,” Clifford said. “Melo was starting to play better. Mark Williams is playing better and better, and there’s a lot to build on. I think our record is not where we hoped it would be, but again, you have to know why that happens. If you overreact, you are never going to make the best of situations going forward.”
While the Hornets have averaged 114.1 points per game (14th in the league), their 27th-ranked defense continues to be a problem. Now that Ball is out of the lineup, Charlotte will be even more hard-pressed to make stops on its end of the court.
Clifford hasn’t exactly tip-toed around the fact that he’s seen some of his players take plays off on defense — a liability that makes his Hornets a get-right game for opposing offenses.
“It’s a fact. You have to defend,” he said. “Or you might be able to have a good year and you get to the games that matter and you are going to have no shot. You are going to get your ass kicked. We have to be more committed to defending in the halfcourt. We have played (15) games, 14 of them more than good enough to win offensively regardless of who’s out there, and we can’t pick and choose when we are going to defend.”
The season is still young, but Charlotte has already fallen out of the top 10 in the Eastern Conference standings. After their 115-91 loss Tuesday in New York, the Hornets have upcoming games against Brooklyn, Minnesota and Miami. They will be tasked with stopping the bleeding and making strides forward without their All-Star point guard.
