Evaluating Washington Wizards’ competition for the 8th seed
By Keith Cork
2. The Charlotte Hornets
Charlotte Hornets head coach James Borrego has gotten his young guys playing well. Over their last nine games, they’ve went 5-4 with a close loss to the San Antonio Spurs last night by one point with Tim Duncan serving in his first ever game as “head coach” due to Gregg Popovich missing this one for personal reasons.
They’ve finally unleashed Miles Bridges, who is an insane athlete and has been averaging 14.3 points per game since the break. Number 12 overall pick in this past season’s draft P.J. Washington has also been playing lights out recently, and they’ve been helped by the continuing development of Devonte’ Graham, who may be a no-brainer for the NBA’s most improved player award, and the offseason addition of Terry Rozier.
Malik Monk was starting to play well for the Charlotte Hornets too, but just earned himself a mysterious suspension for violating the league’s anti-drug policy. We’re still awaiting details about the ultimate terms of the suspension, but if it’s anywhere near John Collins‘ 25-game suspension from earlier in the year, that’s probably a wrap on his 2019-2020 season.
Bismack Biyombo and Cody Zeller provide a stabilizing veteran presence in the middle, and have helped the Hornets rank 12th in opponent points per game.
Their problem, to be frank, has been the ability to score the ball, as they rank dead last in the league with just 102 points per game. And Devonte’ Graham has logged a lot of minutes over the course of the season, averaging 35 per contest, good enough for 13th in the league. He had to miss the game last night and might miss a few more down the stretch as the Hornets eyes the future.
The Washington Wizards currently lead the season series against the Hornets at 2-1, but need to win their next tilt on April 11th in order to secure the tie breaker. The Hornets have the 10th hardest remaining strength of schedule.
Head-to-head games remaining: 1
Odds of making the playoffs: <0.1%
Current record: 21-39
Games back: 5.5