Time for Hornets to win some video games, watch the NBA scoreboard

The Charlotte Hornets found the wrong kind of déjà vu Sunday, losing a home game to the Boston Celtics that never really felt close.

Boston won, 114-99, sending the Hornets to their second defeat in a row over a lost weekend. It was just the sort of game the Hornets of last season and many seasons before that lost routinely — a movie we’ve all seen before. Charlotte was down by double digits almost the entire game, shot 12-for-43 from 3-point range and never looked like a team that was going to beat the Celtics, even though Boston was playing without Jaylen Brown.

And yet Charlotte (39-36) didn’t lose that much ground in the NBA playoff/play-in seeding race. Because Miami and Orlando also lost Sunday, Charlotte enters the final two weeks of the regular season at No. 10 in the Eastern Conference, but only a half-game out of eighth.

In other words, the Hornets and their fans are at the point where they are scoreboard-watching, which is something Charlotte really hasn’t gotten to do for a while. It matters what other teams in the NBA are doing , and it will be that way until April 12, when the regular season ends. Charlotte is trying to break the NBA’s longest playoff drought — they haven’t made the actual postseason since 2016.

“Yeah, we’re going to look at them for sure,” said Charlotte’s Miles Bridges, talking about out-of-town scores. “But it’s just — we don’t want to depend on (other) teams. We want to create our own path to the playoffs. In order to do that, we’ve got to start winning games again.”

Charlotte began the seven-game homestand with a sterling 5-0 record. The Hornets then lost the final two of the homestand to Philadelphia and Boston, two perennial playoff teams.

Charlotte never had much of a chance against Boston Sunday, as Jayson Tatum (32 points, 5 rebounds, 8 assists) and Payton Pritchard (28-6-6) were the best players on the court. But the Hornets probably should have beaten the 76ers Saturday. They were up 15 at one point, then frittered it away in a nasty fourth quarter where 14 of their final 15 shots were 3-point attempts while at the other end they kept giving up layups and free throws and fumbled a key rebound out of bounds.

“We played a helluva game yesterday,” Hornets coach Charles Lee said Sunday, referring to Charlotte’s 118-114 loss to Philadelphia. “Obviously, no excuses… But today helped us get better — the ability to bounce back and play another really good team when… your cup is not fully full.”

Yes, Sunday was a half-empty cup, not a half-full one. Charlotte’s LaMelo Ball started 0-for-5 with three turnovers and didn’t score until under three minutes remained in the second quarter. Brandon Miller and Kon Knueppel both shot 5-for-13. All five of Charlotte’s starters had a plus-minus of minus-12 or worse.

It was one of those days, and not in a good way. Boston (50-24) looked every inch a potential NBA champion before a sellout crowd of 19,642 in the Spectrum Center, about half of whom appeared to be cheering for the Celtics. With the victory, the Celtics clinched at least a 50-win season for the fifth straight year.

Two of the biggest roars of the game came at halftime, incidentally. The first was the “fastest baby” contest, one of my all-time favorite halftime events (also on that list: Red Panda and, for football games, Frisbee dogs and mascot football). The second came when UConn stunned Duke on that last-second 3-point shot to upset the Blue Devils in the Elite Eight. The game wasn’t on the scoreboard, but so many people were watching on their phones and on smaller TVs scattered around the arena that the place erupted.

Anyway…. the Hornets now know they won’t finish worse than 10th in the East, and 10th gets you into the NBA play-in tournament. They’re guaranteed of that.

Tenth isn’t where you want to be, though. To make the real playoffs at No. 10, you have to win two games in a row against two similarly desperate teams, both on the road. You want to be at No. 7 or No. 8 (when you get two chances to win one game and make the real playoffs) or at least No. 9 (you have to win two games in a row there, but at least the first one is at home).

What’s next for the Hornets?

A real chance to get well. On Tuesday, they play at Brooklyn, an awful team that is 39 games under .500. They’ve got seven games left between now and the end of the regular season — 5-2 might well get them to the No. 8 spot. Time to play better, and to keep checking the scoreboard. The next two weeks are going to be fun.

This story was initially printed March 30, 2026 at 5:00 AM.