Wait a minute: Is this how it feels to have a winning NBA team in town?
It’s been so long I had honestly forgotten. But the Charlotte Hornets are in the midst of their longest win streak in almost 10 years. Suddenly it looks a lot prettier around here, and I’m not just talking about the snow.
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The Hornets edged San Antonio, 111-106, at home on Saturday for their sixth — sixth! — straight victory. Sometimes over the past decade, it’s taken them two months to win six games.
Now they’ve won six games in just nine days. They are finally playing with all of their key players healthy and LaMelo Ball is looking a lot more like a veteran than a young player whose primary goal is to make it onto SportsCenter.
Charlotte Hornets guard LaMelo Ball passes to a teammate as he is double-teamed by San Antonio Spurs guards Stephon Castle, left, and De’Aaron Fox during action at Spectrum Center on Saturday. The Hornets defeated the Spurs 111-106.
(JEFF SINER/jsiner@charlotteobserver.com)
Saturday’s game was on Amazon Prime, so a lot more people than usual saw it. Steve Nash — one of the best point guards in basketball history — was on the Amazon halftime show and called what Ball was doing “a mature performance.”
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“That’s a team that looks like it can play playoff basketball,” Nash said of the Hornets. “You’ve got to give LaMelo credit. He’s really trimmed the fat from a lot of his game.”
Charlotte held 7-foot-4 San Antonio center Victor Wembanyama mostly in check, made the clutch plays at the end and sent the crowd that braved the snowstorm home happily. And San Antonio is no slouch. The Spurs are the No. 2 team in the Western Conference standings.
Charlotte Hornets forward/center Moussa Diabate, right, lines up next to San Antonio Spurs center Victor Wembanyama on Saturday. Despite the obvious height difference, Diabate outrebounded Wembanyama, 10-8.
(JEFF SINER/jsiner@charlotteobserver.com)
Wemby was out-rebounded 10 to 8 by Charlotte’s Moussa Diabate, who is six inches shorter. When Wemby was on the court, surrounded at all times by multiple Hornets, his plus-minus rating was minus-14 (Diabate’s was plus-19).
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We shouldn’t get too far ahead of ourselves on the Hornets, even though Charles Barkley already has. Barkley proclaimed on Wednesday, upping his previous prediction that the Hornets would make the NBA play-in field: “The Hornets are going to be in the playoffs.”
We’re not there yet. Charlotte is only 22-28 overall and still just 11th in the 15-team Eastern Conference, even after running off six straight. That’s because calendar year 2025 was what almost every year has been for the Hornets of the past 10. In a word: Lousy.
Charlotte Hornets forward Miles Bridges grabs a rebound Saturday in the win over San Antonio.
(JEFF SINER/jsiner@charlotteobserver.com)
But in January, with Ball dishing, Brandon Miller rolling, Miles Bridges dunking, Diabate rebounding and rookie Kon Knueppel providing some of everything, the Hornets have looked formidable. They’ve already won more games than all of last season, and there are 32 games to go.
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Charlotte only outscored San Antonio in one out of four quarters Saturday in a noon game (the tipoff was moved up three hours because of the snowstorm). But the Hornets held off a furious San Antonio comeback at the end. Bridges had some big baskets late and Miller, who has now made 38 straight free throws, hit two with 10.6 seconds left to seal it.
Charlotte Hornets guard Brandon Miller had a game-high 26 points Saturday. It was his 10th straight game scoring 20 or more.
(JEFF SINER/jsiner@charlotteobserver.com)
“What impresses me most is our ability to respond,” Hornets coach Charles Lee said afterward. “The ability to match their physicality, and at times exceed it.”
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The Hornets’ six-game streak is their longest since Charlotte won seven straight between March 1, 2016, and March 12, 2016, back in Kemba Walker’s prime. The Hornets will go for seven straight Monday night at home vs. New Orleans, a poor team that is 24 games under .500.
Charlotte Hornets forward/center Moussa Diabate flashes the moose horns as he exits the floor following the team’s 111-106 victory over the San Antonio Spurs at Spectrum Center in Charlotte, North Carolina, on Saturday.
(JEFF SINER/jsiner@charlotteobserver.com)
‘I would say, honestly, that we are coming,” said Hornets guard Collin Sexton, who had 21 points off the bench Saturday and made all five of his three-point attempts. “… It’s not going to happen overnight. It’s not going to be something that drastically changes. You have to take baby steps. I feel like tonight was one of those games that we just dug deep and just continued to fight. When they threw up their best shot, we threw ours right back.”
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If Charlotte fulfills Barkley’s prediction and does make the playoffs (and not just the play-in field), we need to mark the moment. That will mean that Charlotte’s three pro sports teams playing at the highest level of competition — the Carolina Panthers, Charlotte FC and Hornets — will all have made the playoffs in a seven-month span.
That would be pretty extraordinary. But right now, the Hornets look capable of doing just that.