Given that the Hornets have a league-worst -10.8 net rating—nearly two full points poorer than the 29th-ranked Detroit Pistons—perhaps this metric isn’t entirely absurd. However, the Charlotte Hornets won their first game of the 2023–24 regular season by a double digit margin in game 54.
Possibly even more bizarre, they had previously achieved a 9-point margin of victory twice this season—in their previous two games, on Monday against the Pacers and on Saturday against the Grizzlies. The Hornets’ largest victory of the season was by seven points prior to this current three-game winning run.
It’s not like the Hornets have been winning a lot of close games; after all, they have only won 13 games this season. Even yet, you would assume that eventually every NBA team would succeed in a huge way based only on chance, good vibes, and shooting variance.
But the Hornets haven’t had much energy or shooting for the great majority of games this season, so that hasn’t happened a single time. However, since the trade deadline, the team has won three straight games by scores of nine, nine, and twenty-three points, thus everything has changed.
