{"id":531858,"date":"2026-01-12T15:00:13","date_gmt":"2026-01-12T15:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/531858\/"},"modified":"2026-01-12T15:00:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-12T15:00:13","slug":"grant-williams-inspires-hope-that-hornets-can-snap-15-game-skid-vs-clippers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/531858\/","title":{"rendered":"Grant Williams inspires hope that Hornets can snap 15-game skid vs. Clippers"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Charlotte Hornets have lost their last 15 games against the LA Clippers, and it\u2019s unclear whether the coaches and players know about it entering their matchup with their tormentor on Monday. But a confident statement from Grant Williams following their imposing win over the Utah Jazz on Saturday should inspire optimism that the losing streak is coming to an end.<\/p>\n

Williams made his return to the court after a 14-month absence and provided exactly what the Hornets need from him in their 150-95 victory in Utah. After the contest, he shared how he thinks they can extend<\/a> their winning streak, saying, \u201cIt starts with the communication we had on defense \u2014 tighten up that side of the ball fully, especially against a talented team like the LA Clippers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Charlotte\u2019s offense went supernova on Saturday<\/a> on the heels of its efficient scoring (52.5 percent field-goal percentage), lights-out scoring from long distance (24 3-pointers), ability to clean up its misses (41 second-chance points off 21 offensive rebounds), and unselfishness (35 assists). <\/p>\n

Equally impressive, though, was its defense, holding the Jazz to below 100 points for the first time in more than two months.<\/p>\n

Maintaining the defensive intensity<\/p>\n

The Clippers will be a much more difficult opponent. Aside from Utah missing some of its leading scorers on Saturday, it doesn\u2019t have anyone like Kawhi Leonard and James Harden. Williams unsurprisingly mentioned those two as the guys the Hornets have to be wary of on Monday.<\/p>\n

What Charlotte has going for it is that it should be healthy enough to upset the Clippers and snap the unwanted skid. However, the squad could be without starting power forward Miles Bridges, who has been listed as probable to play due to a sore right knee. Meanwhile, Collin Sexton is questionable to suit up, as he is nursing a sore left hamstring.<\/p>\n

Even so, the Hornets should be able to keep up with LA, especially if LaMelo Ball, Brandon Miller, and Kon Knueppel can continue shining in their starring roles<\/a>. Of course, Williams\u2019 presence is expected to give them a lift because of his versatility on both ends of the floor as well as his physicality and leadership.<\/p>\n

Charlotte has a bigger reason for desiring to defeat the Clippers than beating them for the first time since the 2017-18 campaign. The organization is looking to build more momentum after a lackluster 4-14 start to the season. It has gone 10-11 since then, although it is in danger of falling further in the standings as its visit to LA is only the second leg of a five-game Western Conference road trip. <\/p>\n

But if the Hornets can continue to tighten it up on defense while maintaining their offensive production, they should be able to pull off upsets not just against the Clippers, but also against their other opponents in the coming week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Charlotte Hornets have lost their last 15 games against the LA Clippers, and it\u2019s unclear whether the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":531859,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3777],"tags":[7,684,473,3878,685,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-531858","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-charlotte-hornets","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-charlotte","10":"tag-charlotte-hornets","11":"tag-charlottehornets","12":"tag-hornets","13":"tag-nba"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115882729386950172","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531858","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=531858"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531858\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/531859"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=531858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=531858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=531858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}