The Charlotte Hornets kept their late-season surge rolling Sunday with a 122-108 win over the Minnesota Timberwolves, and head coach Charles Lee said the turning point came after halftime.
Lee pointed directly to the defensive reset. “Our defense, we stepped up our defense,” he said. “I thought the focus, the attention to detail, coverage, execution was really good.”
He also credited Miles Bridges for his work against Julius Randle and praised the Hornets’ ball movement. “Credit Miles because I thought he did a really good job on Randle throughout the night,” Lee said. “But then also credit him and Melo. I thought that they really helped us sustain our pace and the ball movement and the pass aheads, pass across, getting multiple actions.”
Charlotte used that pace to pull away in the third quarter after trailing at halftime. Lee said the Hornets’ confidence showed throughout the night, even after Minnesota had built momentum before the break.
That confidence has become a theme during Charlotte’s climb up the standings. The Hornets are now 43-36, have won four straight, and are 9-2 since mid-March while sitting just a half-game out of sixth place in the Eastern Conference.
Lee said the group is handling the physicality of the moment better as the race tightens. “A ton,” he said when asked how much the team will need to lean on its confidence in the final stretch. “The team is making a ton of growth, and one of the areas tonight playing this team, you got to be able to play through physicality and I thought we did it on both ends of the floor.”
He called the Hornets’ response “mature.” “I thought we handled it like a really mature group,” Lee said. “We used a little bit of motivation from that Swarm victory to keep us pushing forward.”
On the floor, LaMelo Ball scored 35 points and Miles Bridges added 25 points, eight rebounds and seven assists. Charlotte shot 48.9% from the field and hit 19 threes, with Coby White contributing 17 points off the bench.
