CHARLOTTE, N.C. (CAROLINA SPORTS LIVE) — Last year, after losing for the fourth and final time to the Washington Wizards, Hornets forward Miles Bridges openly pondered, ‘If they’re the league’s worst team, what does that make us?’ Flash forward almost a season later, and now we’re beginning to get our answer.

The Hornets and Wizards have faced off three times this season, and each time the Hornets have come out victorious. Head Coach Charles Lee says it’s a sign of progress and credits a change in attitude toward how the team approaches its games.

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“I think the group is just trying to find ways to be better than last year. Try to find ways to be better than yesterday, and part of that is, just like, having the appropriate respect for our upcoming opponent. I think our guys have done that, no matter who we play,” Lee says.

Seeing is how they almost blew a big fourth-quarter lead, Lee and his players admit their effort wasn’t perfect. However, they’re proud of the way they held things together under pressure.

I think that the main difference between this year and last year were, I feel like whenever we go down, it would be kinda this thing were it would be this snowball effect. Where it just keep — bad things and bad things would just keep on happening,” Hornets forward Moussa Diabaté said. “I feel like this year… alot better in the sense like we gonna keep picking up, whether its a bad game or bad shooting night or playing bad on defense. We always find a way to pick it up and that’s what happened tonight.”

Charlotte has now won back-to-back games for the fifth time this season. They’ve never made it past that mark to three straight, but they have the opportunity on Monday when they return to action against the Philadelphia 76ers.

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The game is set to start at 7 p.m.

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