There weren’t any t-shirts on the backs of seats at the Spectrum Center this weekend. No confetti fell after the Charlotte Hornets won back-to-back games against a pair of Eastern Conference rivals. There were no elevated on-court stakes for Friday’s NBA Cup game after both Charlotte and Chicago were eliminated from the competition earlier in the week.
From a 30,000 foot perspective, the Hornets won a pair of run-of-the-mill regular season games that improved their season-long record from 4-14 to 6-14. Ho hum.
Zoom in from cruising altitude, and those two wins tell a story of much more importance.
Following Wednesday’s 129-101 loss to the Knicks, the Hornets’ season was on the brink of collapse. Heads on the court were hung, frustration seethed through the bench, and the post game media availability was awash with an overwhelming feeling of frustration from head coach Charles Lee and his players.
They all knew that their season had reached a tipping point.
‘I think everyone can enjoy their thanksgiving a little bit, think about the words that we say every day, and try to find a way to actually have some action to follow up those words because we talk, we talk about the right things, we are preparing ourselves in the right way, but now the action has to follow,’ said Lee following the loss.
The team’s vocal leader, Miles Bridges, echoed Lee’s sentiment. ‘The season’s not over, but…yeah I mean, the guys on this team don’t like losing. We’ve got to do something to change it.’
Change it they did.
It started on Friday night against the Bulls. Long gone was the lifeless, moribund unit that got devastated by the Knicks on both ends of the floor. After their worst performance of the season, the Hornets turned in a 48 minute shift against Chicago that resembled the offense that drew oohs and ahhs in the preseason.
Charlotte’s egalitarian approach to the game returned as each of the five starters approached the game with the intention of turning down good shots for great ones, spreading the ball equally amongst themselves and the bench mob on the way to a hyper-efficient outing that the Bulls couldn’t contain.
The starting five racked up 20 assists alone, and the Hornets snapped their season-long losing streak in style as the ran away from the Bulls, and the good feelings were back in the Hive.
It wasn’t long before adversity struck again.
On Saturday night, less than 24 hours after celebrating their first win in weeks, the Hornets were punched in the mouth by one of the NBA’s most physical teams.
The well-rested Toronto Raptors sprinted out to a 15-2 lead in the game’s first three minutes and subsequently held Charlotte at a stiff arm for the next 39, holding a 100-88 lead midway through the fourth quarter. LaMelo Ball (6/16 from the field) and Brandon Miller (1/13) couldn’t find pay dirt against the Raptors’ handsy defense, forcing Charles Lee to lean of the Hornets’ depth to lead the comeback.
The game flipped on its head with six minutes to go in the fourth quarter.
Lineups comprised of Collin Sexton, Sion James, Kon Knueppel, Miles Bridges, Liam McNeeley, and Moussa Diabate dug in on the defensive end of the floor and began to make life difficult for the Raptors. Charlotte flipped a switch defensively that they hadn’t accessed all season as they suffocated Brandon Ingram, Scottie Barnes, Immanuel Quickley, and the rest of Toronto’s offensive attack.
Active hands, well-timed stunts, physical digs when Toronto tried to drive, knock aways, and relentless activity on the glass left both teams bruised and battered, and they allowed Charlotte to claw their way back into the game before Kon Knueppel and Miles Bridges drug them over the finish line in the closing seconds of regulation and overtime.
KLUTCH KON
📹 @FDSN_Hornets | @Lowes pic.twitter.com/7HtCG5st4P
— Charlotte Hornets (@hornets) November 30, 2025
Charlotte outscored Toronto 30-11 in the last 10 minutes of game time, digging deep for every bucket and every stop they could muster with heavy legs on the second night of a back-to-back.
The pair of wins over Chicago and Toronto were emphatic answers to the questions that swirled through the Spectrum Center after the horrific outing against the Knicks.
Credit to Charles Lee for pushing the right buttons and motivating a team that looked lost on Wednesday night. His ability to rally the troops with their backs against the wall shouldn’t go unnoticed.
Credit to Jeff Peterson for stocking Lee’s cupboards with depth. Contributions from the bottom of the roster complimented those from the leading men and coalesced into back-to-back wins over potential playoff teams when the franchise desparately needed them.
Credit to those players for answering the bell and giving their fans something to believe in. They played their two best games of the season when they absolutely had to, and that fortitude could be a harbinger of things to come.
Things don’t get any easier for the Hornets from here. After a game against the hapless Brooklyn Nets on Monday, rematches with New York and Toronto, on the road, before a home date against the Nuggets are on deck.
Instead of limping into a tough stretch on the schedule, the Hornets are buzzing. The next step is making sure these two performances become the norm, not the exception, and it’s going to take some more franchise-wide efforts to make that the case.
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