Three Takeaways From the Hornets Loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers

After a tough loss to Kevin Durant and the Houston Rockets on Thursday night, the Charlotte Hornets were back in action at the Spectrum Center just one night later to take on the red-hot Cleveland Cavaliers.

Cleveland had a different look to it from the last time the Hornets saw them, with former NBA MVP and future Hall of Famer James Harden in place of Darius Garland. The Cavs dealt Garland at the trade deadline, bringing in the NBA's 9th all-time scorer to potentially win their first title since LeBron James and Kyrie Irving took down the 73-9 Golden State Warriors in 2016.

The Hornets would be without four impactful players on Friday, though, leaving them severley depleted after winning ten of their last twelve games: Moussa Diabate, Grant Williams, Miles Bridges, and Coby White all would miss Friday night's contest.

The Hornets ended up falling 118-113.

Coby White is needed

The Hornets' bench was unable to produce on Friday night, recording just 24 points for the team in their loss. While Tidjane Salaün led the way with 9 points, the Hornets had trouble with their guard play when LaMelo Ball hit the bench.

With no Coby White yet, the Hornets lack an explosive scorer off the bench that, up until the trade deadline, was filled by Collin Sexton. Coby's return will greatly improve the Hornets as a whole going forward; health is just needed.

The suspensions of Bridges, Diabate hurt

After a fight against the Detroit Pistons, Moussa Diabate and Miles Bridges were suspended four games each for their role in the altercation. They would miss Grant Williams as well on Friday, meaning that a Hornets team who was already thin at center would have Ryan Kalkbrenner, PJ Hall, Tidjane Salaün, and Xavier Tillman Sr. as their only front court depth.

As for Miles Bridges, the team misses his scoring greatly, as the last two nights there have been stretches where the Hornets typically rely on Miles to get buckets, but instead needed a bench unit consisting primarily of Tidjane, Josh Green, Pat Connaughton, Hall, and Tre Mann to get those buckets.

Despite the loss, the Hornets should be proud of themselves

The Hornets' loss on Friday was the first time that the team had lost back-to-back losses in 44 days, their longest stretch without back-to-back losses since they went 64 days without back-to-back losses in the 2015-16 season.

After winning less than 20 games last season, the Hornets have been impressive this season, just 3.5 games back of the eighth seeded Miami Heat.

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