Charlotte Hornets ready for biggest game of year in regular season finale

The Hornets have had ample opportunity to seal their spot in the eighth seed in the last week. Disappointing losses followed frustrating defeats in each of the last four contests, culminating in a matchup with the Wizards on Sunday with the biggest stakes of the season.

The Charlotte, Washington and the Indiana Pacers each sport 33-38 records with one game to go. The former two teams square off against one another while the latter meets Toronto, both games taking place simultaneously. The stakes are simple for the Hornets: win and take the eighth seed, lose and potentially fall down to 10th.

The stakes of the contest came only after the Hornets let perhaps their best opportunity in the last week to seal the eighth seed slip through their hands on Saturday afternoon. After a huge second-half comeback, Charlotte had a chance – and an open look – to win the game in regulation against the Knicks. Devonte’ Graham’s game-winner sailed long, New York dominated the extra session and Charlotte now finds itself in a precarious situation.

“Obviously, we’re going to try to win a game tomorrow,” Hornets head coach James Borrego said. “The mentality is the same. ‘Let’s keep the eight seed and let’s go win a game tomorrow and build some momentum into the play-in game.’ If our guys battle like they did tonight (in the second half), I think we’ll have a good chance tomorrow night.

“The mentality is the same. If we won this game, we’re probably the eighth seed. If we win tomorrow we’re the eighth seed so the mentality is the same going into tomorrow night’s game.”

As injuries have piled up deeper into the season, the Hornets have stumbled more and more. Once 27-24 in early April after a win in Milwaukee, the Hornets have gone just 6-14 over their last 20 games and are limping into the postseason.

Miles Bridges, who missed 11 days due to health and safety protocols, returned on Saturday and seemed to provide the spark the Hornets needed with 30 points off the bench. But in failing to seize the opportunity, Charlotte now heads into Sunday with a chance to finish as low as tenth in the Eastern Conference, a thought that once seemed far-fetched when the team was battling for a top-four spot.

“The whole season really prepares you,” Graham said. “We know what’s at stake. We got to come out and play like it. You don’t want to drop to that tenth seed. We got a big win tomorrow and get our minds right, rest and come out and play like it.”

The difference in finishing with the eighth seed and the ninth or tenth seeds is an enormous one. By finishing eighth, the Hornets would have two chances to win one game to earn itself a spot in the playoffs, including a game against a seventh-seeded Boston side that will be without Jaylen Brown the rest of the season.

Lose on Sunday and the Hornets are looking at finishing ninth or tenth, depending on the Pacers’ result, and needing to win two games to make the postseason.

“It’s the biggest game of the year,” Bridges said. “The only thing that’s on our mind is winning. Nothing else.”

The last week has served as a crash course in postseason intensity for the Hornets, a lesson they’ve failed at repeatedly. The Hornets allowed an undermanned Pelicans team to come from behind to win in Charlotte on Sunday, then saw a Graham-led rally in the fourth quarter against Denver fall short.

After being blitzed by the Clippers in the second half Thursday, the Hornets walked into Madison Square Garden and found themselves down 18 points in the first half. While they would come back and even take the lead, the Knicks would force overtime and then outscore the visitors 14-5 to win going away.

But Charlotte is learning, sometimes the hard way, what it’ll take to win in the postseason, a lesson few players on this team have learned in their brief NBA careers.

“This is fantastic for a young group, just to keep growing and developing,” Borrego said. “To be in this type of environment will be great and tomorrow’s going to be special again. The last game of the regular season as we head into the play-in game should be another playoff-type intensity and atmosphere and I welcome that and I know our group does too.”

That final game will come against a Wizards side on the opposite end of the spectrum as Charlotte. After just 17 wins in their first 49 games, Washington has gone 16-6 in their last 22 games to clinch a play-in spot and, potentially, a top-eight seed.

The Hornets know the stakes, they know the opponent and they know the intensity that’s about to come with it all on Sunday afternoon. Now, there’s just one thing left to do.

“We got to win it,” Graham said. “That’s it. Simple.”