Ahead of their meeting on Thursday night, the Charlotte Hornets and visiting New York Knicks are playing as well as any teams in the Eastern Conference. Still, both sides have ground to make up in the congested playoff picture.
Charlotte (38-34) has continued its remarkable run as the league’s biggest surprise, winning four straight and 22 of 28 since Jan. 22. Despite a dramatic season turnaround, the Hornets haven’t been able to escape play-in territory — currently in a three-way tie for the eighth-seed.
Adding to the buzz surrounding the perennial basement-dwellers, Charlotte is trying to snap the league’s longest postseason drought, last appearing in the playoffs in the 2015-16 season. This time last year, head coach Charles Lee’s team sat nearly 40 games under .500 — a distant memory for the upstart Hornets.
“I just think that every game last year was something that fueled us all,” Lee said. “When you go through a lot of adversity, a lot of losing, you try to figure out how to be a problem solver. I think our group has just done a great job of having the right mindset every day to keep getting better.”
Entering play Wednesday, Charlotte is deadlocked with the Orlando Magic and Miami Heat, while sitting a game behind the seventh-seeded Philadelphia 76ers.
Each of the Hornets’ four consecutive victories have come by double-digits, including a 134-90 romp over the Sacramento Kings on Tuesday. Charlotte tied its franchise record with 26 made 3-pointers, with six triples from midseason acquisition Coby White.
“We’ve got a bunch of guys who can knock it down,” White said. “That’s tough to guard when you’ve got four guys on the floor who can knock down a three.”
In 12 games since being shipped from Chicago, White is averaging 15.9 points per game with 40.3% 3-point shooting. Brandon Miller leads Charlotte with 20.3 ppg, while LaMelo Ball averages 19.7 and Rookie of the Year candidate Kon Knueppel adds 19.0.
New York (48-25) is sporting a seven-game winning streak and is a victory on Thursday away from matching a season-long streak. The Knicks’ two-week stretch has helped close the gap with the No. 2 seeded Boston Celtics, while staving off the No. 4 Cavaliers (New York holds a 2 1/2-game lead over Cleveland).
Just one year into the role, it hasn’t taken head coach Mike Brown long to understand what makes the Knicks go. Just about everything on the offensive end starts and ends with superstar guard Jalen Brunson.
“When it counts the most, when the pressure is the highest, (Brunson) makes the game easier for everyone else,” Brown said. “Sometimes that means go and score, sometimes that means draw two and move it to OG (Anunoby) for a wide-open three.”
Brunson’s 26.2 points and 6.6 assists per game have the Knicks on pace for their most victories since their 54-win season in the 2012-13 campaign. Fellow All-Star Karl-Anthony Towns (20.2 points, 12.0 rebounds per contest) has posted a double-double in each of his last five outings.
