Everything Charles Lee Said Following the Hornets' Loss to Miami

The Charlotte Hornets' six-game winning streak came to an end last night in Uptown as they fell to the Miami Heat for the third time this season, dropping them back down to .500 and three games behind Miami in the standings.

After the game, head coach Charles Lee met with the media for about five minutes or so to discuss the loss.

Initial thoughts

“I thought a high-level game there by both teams. Some really quality execution, competition, shotmaking, a real back-and-forth type game. I thought we did a lot of really good things on both ends of the floor. In the fourth quarter, how do we take a little bit better care of the ball and not get sped up? We scored versus the zone, but just them getting back to the zone created some of the chaos or some of the turnovers that put us in an unorganized state.”

What they learned in this loss

“The physicality and the intensity of the game. We talked a ton about how meaningful these games are, your last 20, 19 games. Everyone is just fighting for seeding and fighting to get better and really ramp up their intensity to prepare them for a hopeful or potential postseason action. The second thing that we learned is just how important it is to continue to execute at the end of the game. We’ve made a lot of progress, and we’ve just got to keep getting better in that area.”

Why Brandon Miller struggled in the second half

“I think some of it is that zone. In the first half, they played way more man-to-man. It felt like, in their zone, some of his looks and some of the places he is on the floor, and credit them for some of their slice-outs. Their bottom guys are really high in that zone and taking out the high quadrant, and a lot of times, he’s in that high quadrant, and you just got to make a quick decision — you either got to let it fly or drive it. He tried to make the right plays, but sometimes it doesn’t result in him actually getting field goal attempts. I thought he did a good job of trying to make other things happen throughout the night.”

The decision to have Grant Williams in the game to close it out

“I thought he was giving us a level of physicality defensively. Some of the stuff against (Bam) Adebayo, some of the communication, the ability to finish those possessions. I thought offensively, in the corners, he was either knocking it down or making that extra pass for us, and also on the offensive glass. He did a much better job of gaining his composure and responding.”

Pulse of the locker room after the loss

“Phenomenal. Even when I walked in, they were already talking about some of the things we can do better and how they felt about some of the (Tyler) Herro off-ball actions, and where we can improve there. An upbeat group. I mean, you just won, I think it was six games in a row. You lose a high-level game to a good team that was also on a roll, and I think that you just got to learn and grow and keep moving forward. They’re in a good spot.”