More of the same. What Charlotte Hornets said about injury woes, overtime loss to Chicago

With the Charlotte Hornets’ injury conga line still in full motion, perhaps it’s time to look at things from another perspective.

At least the equipment guys are saving on detergent.

By now, it’s a given the Hornets will have nearly as many players wearing street clothes and expensive jewelry as they boast in full game attire. And there appears to be no end in sight.

Cody Martin got added to the list of walking wounded following Charlotte’s morning shootaround due to a groin injury, leaving the Hornets even more shorthanded than usual in their 119-112 overtime loss to the Chicago Bulls at Spectrum Center on Monday night. Another day, yet another injury for these Hornets.

“It’s tough, it’s tough,” Terry Rozier said. “I ain’t even going to act like it’s not. It sucks because we are all brothers, and we’ve got a great locker room and we haven’t been at our full strength all season. And then especially when you want to turn things around. We owe it to the city and fans, and it’s just unfortunate the situation we’ve been in.

“But nobody cares. We can bring it all up we want, but we’ve still got to play 48 minutes, we’ve still got to play (Sacramento) on Wednesday whether we’ve got all our guys or not. Nobody is going to take it easy on us just because we don’t have all our guys.”

Still, it’s reaching ludicrous levels and just more of the same for the team that trails only Memphis in games missed due to injury with 141 — which is 29 off the Grizzlies’ pace — and continues to await the return of LaMelo Ball, Mark Williams, PJ Washington, Gordon Hayward and others.

“It’s tough to see Mark not playing, Melo not playing,” Bridges said. “All the guys that’s out, I feel like people outside, they get the wrong impression like we are just soft, we are not playing. But no, those guys are doing a great job of rehabbing and they want to play. So, I don’t know. It’s just tough for us, you know?”

Here’s what else the Hornets (8-26) had to say after falling to the Bulls for the second time in four nights and finishing on the wrong side of the scoreboard for the 13th time in their past 14 outings:

On what happened down the stretch and overtime

“I ain’t going to lie — I put that loss on me,” Bridges said. “It was just a lot of unforced errors with me. I’ve got five turnovers, I’m missing defensive plays. I’m having the low man and they are getting easy dunks. I put that loss on me for sure. Just making mistakes and untimely errors at the wrong time of the game. I put that on me. So, we played hard, we played good. I just feel like I did a lot of stupid stuff at the wrong time.”

On Terry Rozier’s outing and facing double teams

“He kept us in the game,” coach Steve Clifford said. “He was great. Shot making, he was phenomenal. They double team him a lot all year, it’s just right now the guys we’re playing … I mean, usually we are pretty good against it. Yeah, right now, if we are playing (with) this team (lineup) the rest of the year they are going to double team him. It makes sense.”

“That’s pretty much every team we are playing,” Rozier said. “They are picking me up full (court) and trying to deny and all that, and trying to take me out the game. Going through last year, I learned a lot. Getting blitzed and being the main focus of the other team and that’s what I did this summer and tried to get better at it. How can I get my guys involved more and open up stuff for me. So that’s what I tried to do all summer, and I feel like I got a little bit better and obviously am trying to put some wins together.”

On wearing down late

“That’s part of all of this, yeah, for sure,” Clifford said. “These guys, I mean even Miles is playing 40 minutes every night. You can’t keep doing that all year. Right now, if we are going to win, though, we don’t have a choice.”

“Nah, the guys on the floor, we love playing basketball,” Bridges said. “We are not getting tired. We are just making these mistakes. Just try to limit those mistakes and not thinking too much, just playing. I feel like once we just play, we’ll be good. But myself included, I’m just thinking too much.”

On Brandon Miller’s struggles

“He’s really sick,” Clifford said. “He asked out of the game twice. A lot of guys probably wouldn’t have been playing. He was sick at the end of the road trip, wants to play, not 100 percent. Just not feeling good. I thought he tried hard. He’s team-oriented or he wouldn’t have played.”

On Nick Smith Jr.

“Hell of a talent, hell of a player,” Rozier said. “He’s worked so hard from Day One. A sponge, asks a lot of questions particularly of me from Day One in training camp. And so it’s no surprise. He’s just going to keep getting better. He’s been good all of his life, so he’s kind of used to it and he’s got that kind of mentality where nothing is given to him and he’s going to work for it. And I can tell that’s going to take him a long way in this league.”

“He can score,” Clifford said. “We need points right now. He’s a good competitor, not afraid to take a big shot and it’s a good learning experience for him.”

On Cody Martin being unavailable

“Well, we’ll see,” Clifford said. “Hopefully, it’s not many games and it’s a day-to-day kind of thing.”

“It’s just tough because we love having Cody on the floor,” Bridges said. “ He makes a big difference for us and he wants to play, too. So, he’s been rehabbing, doing good. So, I feel that he’ll be back. But it’s tough seeing him deal with injuries.”

On Mark Williams’ health

“Nah, we’ll see in a week,” Clifford said. “That’s where we are at.”