The Washington Wizards and Charlotte Hornets are going into Saturday afternoon’s meeting in North Carolina on different levels of momentum.
Now it’s just a matter of whether the Hornets can sustain the good times, as they haven’t won back-to-back games since Jan. 3 and 5.
“Our guys respond,” Charlotte coach Charles Lee said. “That’s the competitive makeup that they all have, the mindset that they have.”
Saturday’s game was moved up six hours to noon ET because of concerns regarding a wintry storm moving into the region. Both teams played Thursday night.
The Hornets should have plenty of confidence after winning 124-97 at Orlando, while the Wizards were falling 107-97 at home to Denver for their eighth consecutive loss.
The Hornets liked their response from a loss to Cleveland a night earlier when they scored only 87 points.
“Any good team, you can always rely I think on your competitiveness, togetherness, and your ability to communicate at a high level,” Lee said. “The fact that we are actually sustaining that throughout games, I love to see it and that’s why we’re growing.”
The game in Orlando was so good for the Hornets that eight players tallied double-digit point totals while they shot 54.4% from the field with 17 baskets from beyond the arc. Brandon Miller had a team-high 20 points.
“Communication goes a long way for us,” Miller said. “We won’t be the biggest team every night, but we can be the most physical team, we can be the team that talks the most on the court, and just the more prepared team.”
LaMelo Ball bounced back from a horrid shooting performance a night earlier vs. Cleveland by pouring in 16 points, shooting 4 of 8 from 3-point range. He didn’t make a triple on 10 attempts in the Cleveland game as he was held to two points.
Ball pumped in 38 points in an October meeting with the Wizards. He then cranked out a team-high 23 points when Charlotte won against the Wizards two days before Christmas at home.
Kyshawn George collected 20 points and 12 rebounds for Washington on Thursday, but the Wizards shot 38.1% from the floor. Yet during the losing streak, this marked just the second time that Washington failed to score at least 100 points.
Either George or Alex Sarr has been the Wizards’ leading scorer in the past seven games.
“Just him being more aggressive, more assertive in what he does,” Sarr said of George. “He facilitates a lot for us.”
Wizards coach Brian Keefe said he didn’t mind Bub Carrington attempting 13 shots from 3-point range Thursday.
Washington has played without injured Bilal Coulibaly for four straight games, though he’s listed as day-to-day.
CJ McCollum had a team-high 24 points earlier in the season vs. Charlotte, but he now plays for the Atlanta Hawks.
“Obviously, when some players leave it takes a little bit of time to re-adjust,” Sarr said.
Saturday’s game will be the third of four meetings between the teams. The Wizards will have a five-game homestand following this outing.
