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The Charlotte Hornets are bad and their head coach is not pleased with the effort.
In his second stint as head coach in Charlotte, Steve Clifford ripped his team’s defensive effort following a 141-134 overtime loss to the Detroit Pistons.
Head coach Steve Clifford of the Hornets talks to LaMelo Ball during the game against the Detroit Pistons on Dec. 14, 2022, at Spectrum Center in Charlotte, North Carolina. (Brock Williams-Smith/NBAE via Getty Images)
"Until we care about something besides how many points we score, we’re not going to win much," Clifford told reporters after the loss. "Can’t play like that. Our offense was good. That’s five out of the last seven games we’ve been pretty good on offense. We are playing no defense. Not one guy. There’s not a bright spot.
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"We don’t run back on defense, we don’t guard the ball, our pick and roll stuff… all stuff that was good. I think we were as high as 12th or 13th in defense about 10 games ago, and we’re right back to where we started, ground zero, where all we want to be is ‘Let’s try to outscore the other team.
"It doesn’t work in the NBA."
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Wednesday’s loss to the Pistons was the sixth in a row for Charlotte, dropping the Hornets to 7-21 on the season. It was the fourth consecutive game in which Charlotte allowed at least 119 points.
Sixers head coach Doc Rivers and Steve Clifford of the Charlotte Hornets speak at Wells Fargo Center on Dec. 11, 2022, in Philadelphia. (Tim Nwachukwu/Getty Images)
The Hornets allowed six Pistons players to score in double figures, dropping Charlotte to 25th in the NBA in defensive rating.
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"What I just told them, this is either you build a game that will actually work at the end of the year when you play the important games, or you don't," Clifford continued. "That's it. That's what the NBA is all about.
Hornets head coach Steve Clifford during the Washington Wizards game at Spectrum Center on Dec. 2, 2022, in Charlotte, North Carolina. (Jacob Kupferman/Getty Images)
"It’s not that we don't have the talent to do it. All we care about is scoring. That’s it. And if you’re going to try to play like that, you better have like five All-Stars. And we don’t have that kind of talent."
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Clifford is in his first year as head coach of the Hornets after spending the past three years in Orlando. He was also the head coach of Charlotte from 2013-18.
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