Charlotte Hornets: The Tanking Commences for Now

The Charlotte Hornets kept Kemba Walker out of action in their first game out of the playoff race.

The Charlotte Hornets have found their way to a new adventure here in the last days of the season. For the whole year it had been a drive to make the playoffs. Now, that is no longer possible. Therefore the Hornets have had to reverse course to improve their draft position. The loss to the Milwaukee Bucks 89-79 show that trend is now fully underway.

The first thing to notice was who the Hornets did not play. They did not play All-Star Kemba Walker at all. This is already a clear signal that the Hornets were not trying to prevail in this contest. Instead Brian Roberts started and Briante Weber spent a good amount of time on court.

Nicolas Batum and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist were the only two players to stay on the court for more than thirty minutes. Everyone else was shuttled around in the rotation. Treveon Graham played sixteen minutes. Miles Plumlee played twenty-one. The result was an offensive effort that was barely recognizable.

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The lack of recognition also extended to the three point line. The Hornets simply did not shoot a lot of the three point shot, and they made even less. Graham led the team in made three pointers with a grand total of two. The little-used wing also scored six more points in the game. Clearly someone wanted to make a statement to a future franchise.

With the loss, the Hornets dropped down to eleventh in the Eastern Conference behind Detroit. There will be no dropping any further as the teams behind the Hornets now are five games away with only one to play. The Pistons once owned a tiebreaker over the Hornets, so it is possible that the team will not need to tank their final game of the season.

Next: The Playoff Push is Over

That game will be in Atlanta against the already playoff bound Hawks.

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