Adding to avalanche of defeats. Three takeaways after Hornets’ loss to Denver Nuggets

With the never-ending game of musical injury chairs in full motion once again, this time courtesy of Terry Rozier’s illness, Steve Clifford relied on his decades of experience Monday night.

It’s probably the best method for the Charlotte Hornets coach to keep his sanity.

“That’s one thing as I’ve gotten older, is I’ve gotten better,” Clifford said. “You have to have a feel for your team, and you have to know you are not going to coach a team that is 17-12 the same way you coach a team that’s 5-23. You can’t, you know?

“And you can still be firm, you can be demanding. But I do think NBA players, they do know what’s right and they know what’s wrong. And how you deal with them, message with them is everything. This is a brutal trip, even if you have everybody.”

But the Hornets don’t and that was very evident after halftime, when the Denver Nuggets mashed their foot on the gas pedal and left Charlotte’s makeshift rotation in the mountain dust. Things unraveled quickly in the third quarter of the Hornets’ 111-93 defeat to the Nuggets at Ball Arena, ensuring the visitors would begin 2024 in the same fashion 2023 ended — adding another number in the wrong column.

Victimized by having to mix and match yet again with starters LaMelo Ball, Mark Williams and Gordon Hayward out along with Rozier, the Hornets can’t shake this endless loop.

“Yeah, it’s tough,” Miles Bridges said. “We’ve got a next man up mentality. Everybody that’s been coming in has been doing a good job of filling their shoes. Terry is averaging 24 (points), Melo was averaging 26, Mark’s averaging a double-double. So, it’s tough to fill those holes, but we’ve been trying. We are just going to finish this road trip right, get back to the crib and hopefully play well in front of our fans.”

At this rate, it’ll be an upset if the Hornets don’t add another name to the overflowing injury list first before wrapping up their 11-day excursion that has dates remaining against Sacramento and Chicago.

“It’s definitely some adversity,” Brandon Miller said. “We’ve just got to stay together throughout the whole season. Just play as hard as we can and go in front of tough crowds like this and pull out wins, try to start our win streak and start your new year’s off right.”

Here are three takeaways after the Hornets (7-24) dropped their 11th straight game:

Third quarters of doom

Even if they’re shorthanded, the Hornets have to do a better job of not unraveling in the third quarter. They’ve had issues more than once and they got outmanned to the point where Denver sat its starters, save for Michael Porter Jr., for the entire fourth quarter.

Surrendering 40 points in any quarter won’t lead to much success. Certainly not in the immediate aftermath of their coach giving explicit instructions on what he wants to see in the final two quarters. The onus to turn it around is on all of them.

“It’s just playing as hard as we can and I think effort,” Miller said. “Make all the little plays to give us the edge that we need for games like this. We are not at home, so we don’t have the home crowd. So, we have to buy in together, stick together and just play as a team.”

That’s also how Bridges views things.

“Just coming out ready to play,” Bridges said. “Just coming out ready to play in the third, not being complacent with being tied at half or being up at half. We’ve just got to go out and come out with the same energy.”

Clifford isn’t panicking.

“I mean, it was just these two games (against Denver),” Clifford said. “Our third quarters have been fine. We just do not have a lot of room for error. We had more turnovers tonight, we had four pretty quick there in the first three and a half minutes and that turned into eight points. We have to play really well to compete against a team like this.

“The only thing I told the team was our effort was good, but we have to defend like we did in the first half regardless of if the ball is going in the basket or not.”

Terry Rozier not feeling so merry

Perhaps no one on the Hornets hates being sidelined more than Rozier and his absence is an indicator of just how ill he was. It’s been a struggle for him ever since the team touched down in Los Angeles on Christmas night before taking on the LA Clippers in the trip’s opener and his availability for the matchup in Sacramento on Tuesday is also in question.

Things are a little rough for Rozier.

“He’s really sick,” Clifford said. “He couldn’t practice (Sunday). I saw him briefly and he doesn’t look good at all. He was going to try to go through walkthrough (Monday) morning, and shootaround. So, he felt he couldn’t make that. So, I think he’s in hopes of (Tuesday) night, but I’m not even sure if that’s reasonable either.”

Knowing Rozier is ill puts his season-best 42-point effort against Phoenix — which included a season-high-tying eight 3-pointers and eight assists — in full perspective. The 29-year-old entered January ranked eighth in the league in fourth quarter scoring at 8.2 points per game.

“He’s been unbelievable,” Clifford said. “He’s really played great basketball on a constant basis. I think to start this trip with the Clippers, he came over to the bench and said to (director of healthcare and sports performance) Joe Sharpe early in the game, ‘Like, I feel terrible.’

“And he played that game. He played that game and he played the back-to-back. He hasn’t felt good for a while and yet he competed and played well in those games, too.”

Ish Smith receives his flowers

In starting his second game of the season and already appearing in his 25th outing, Ish Smith has been more than an emergency insurance signing. With all the Hornets’ injuries, the veteran is someone Clifford can count on in a pinch.

And if there was any shred of doubt just how much Smith meant to the Nuggets in his lone season with the franchise, the two-plus minutes he got showered with love before tipoff eliminated it. Surrounded by just about every Nugget in uniform, Smith received his championship ring for contributing to Denver’s 2022-23 run to the NBA title.

Few moments get to the unflappable Concord native. But that one did.

“That is what it is all about for me,” Smith said. “I don’t play tennis, it’s a team sport. So last year what we did was a team thing. So, that is why some of those videos of me catching it, I was just calling those guys up. We did that together. Everybody sacrificed themselves, everybody had their own story, came together and we won the ultimate goal.

“So, it was a truly, truly fun ride and taught me a lot. How to buy in, sacrifice and put your pride aside and we did all that. It was pretty special.”

Smith’s current teammates enjoyed watching him get his moment in the spotlight.

“It’s good for Ish,” Bridges said. “He’s the ultimate. Everybody loves Ish and he deserves it. Seeing how they honored him today, that just shows the type of teammate he is. I’m happy for him.”

Smith, who’s probably going to call it a career after this season, has a big fan in Clifford.

“He’s great,” Clifford said. “We had him when I was an assistant in Orlando when he was younger, trying to make a name for himself and really had a remarkable career. His last year in college he averaged under five points a game and came into the NBA, played 14 years, had some big roles on NBA teams. But just a great professional, great person, great to have on your team.”