Buzz Bulletin Mid-Season Report: Hornets Have Hive Buzzing
A spectacular turnaround after a lackluster start to the season has the Hornets in playoff contention for the first time since the end of the 2021-22 season.
Despite tonight’s loss to Kevin Durant and the Houston Rockets, the Hornets’ performance is still giving Charlotte a reason to Bee-lieve again. Adrian Singerman has the story on the Return of the Buzz.
The Brutal Beginning
Despite winning two of their first three games this season, the Hornets’ early games gave the impression fans were in for another rough season.
On Thanksgiving eve, the Hornets were blown out by the New York Knicks on their own home court in Spectrum Arena. The 129-101 setback was their seventh straight loss, and their tenth straight defeat in the NBA Cup over the last three campaigns. Having once again been eliminated in the group stage of the Cup, and sitting in 12th place in the conference with a 4-14 record, Charlotte appeared to be headed for a third straight finish in the basement of the East after two consecutive bottom-three finishes from 2023 to 2025.
Struggling in large part due to early-season injuries to stars Brandon Miller and LaMelo Ball, it should have been hard to imagine the Hornets could turn things around so dramatically; but a return to health, the emergence of a lethal offense, an almost franchise record-tying nine game win streak, and the assembly of the best starting unit in pro basketball have made the fourth youngest team in the NBA the talk of the league the last several weeks and a legitimate contender for the postseason.
The Turnaround
Even before the Buzz’s recent win streak, their longest in over 25 years, there were signs that Charlotte was on to something special.
Following a one-point loss to the Bucks to start the 2026 calendar year, the Hornets bounced back with two consecutive road wins over the Bulls and the Oklahoma City Thunder. Their 124-97 domination of OKC was only the seventh time all season the defending champs had lost up to that point. Five days later, Charlotte blitzed the Utah Jazz in Salt Lake City 150-95. The 55-point win represented the second largest margin of victory in franchise history, second only to their 61-point drubbing of the Memphis Grizzlies in 2018. Convincing road wins over the Lakers (by 18 points) and the Nuggets (by 23) followed, making the subsequent win streak less surprising than satisfying for Hornets players and fans alike.
The Streak and the Starters
Impressive wins over quality opponents kept coming during the Hornets’ string of nine straight wins. Charlotte notched wins over playoff hopefuls Orlando, Philadelphia (by 37 points!) and Atlanta (twice), and knocked off surefire postseason participants San Antonio and Houston. On the outside of the playoff race looking in prior to the streak, Charlotte’s hot run of form has propelled them into the thick of the postseason conversation in 9th place in the Eastern Conference.
With 27 games left to be played in the regular season, only two and half games separate the Hornets from division rival Miami, and they find themselves a mere three games behind the division-leading Orlando Magic. As the only active NBA team never to have won a division title, finishing first in the Southeast division would be extra sweet for Charlotte and legitimate validation that they are a force to be reckoned with.
It’s impossible to overstate the impact of the most recent iteration of the Hornets’ starting lineup. The starting five of LaMelo Ball, Kon Knueppel, Brandon Miller, Miles Bridges, and Moussa Diabate has gone a league-best 16-2, with the best offensive rating of any starting lineup in the league to go along with a top five defensive rating.
Hornets’ head coach Charles Lee has fully embraced the three-point shot as the motor of Charlotte’s engine, and the results have been undeniable. The Hornets have made over 15 threes per game on 41.4 attempts, a 37.3% clip.
Ball, Knueppel, Miller, and Bridges have all provided serious scoring punch, with each member of the quartet averaging at least 18 points per game, led by Miller’s 20.6 points. Ball’s decision-making and triple-threat ability to shoot, drive, and distribute have taken a big step forward this season, and Knueppel’s emergence as a knock-down three-point shooter (43%) has provided crucial spacing in the Hornets’ offense, creating open shots for his teammates when he isn’t knocking down long-range bombs himself. On the interior, Diabate has come into his own as a rebounder and defender, creating extra possessions for the Buzz on offense and disrupting opponents’ possessions with his relentless activity on defense. Rookies Ryan Kalkbrenner and Sion James, along with P.J. Hall, Tre Mann, and Grant Williams, have all been reliable contributors and provided valuable minutes off the bench.
The Outlook
After serving another game of their pre-All Star suspensions tonight, Charlotte will play their next two games without starters Diabate and Bridges.
After losing to Houston tonight, and matchups against Cleveland and Washington on the way, winning two of the three games would be a great result. Regardless, the Hornets will soon have their full complement of players back and ready for action.
That includes the recently-acquired Coby White, a talented scorer who gives Charlotte another serious weapon for their high-octane offense to wield. Assuming everyone can stay healthy, that will leave the Hornets with 24 games to make a push towards the playoffs. If they can continue their current run of form into the latter stages of the season, there’s no reason to think they won’t be competing this postseason.
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