What the Hornets said as injuries and losses pile up, including Tuesday against Miami

Motivational speeches weren’t necessary for Steve Clifford.

Considering the Charlotte Hornets’ injury situation, it was relatively easy for Clifford to get everyone in a game day mentality leading into Tuesday night’s 111-105 loss to Miami at Spectrum Center, a game in East Group B of the NBA’s in-season tournament.

“I didn’t have to say much,” the head coach said. “They looked around and said, ’Oh, s___ there’s only 10 of us.’ You know what I mean? ‘He hasn’t played me yet, but I think I’m going to get in there.’ So, yeah, I didn’t have to say much.”

Brandon Miller and Gordon Hayward joined the Hornets’ list of walking wounded and sat out against the Heat. Charlotte was already minus Terry Rozier (left groin strain), Cody Martin (left knee soreness), the suspended Miles Bridges — who’s eligible to return against Milwaukee on Friday — and Frank Ntilikina (fractured left tibia).

At one point, the Hornets (3-7) had a lineup on the floor consisting of Théo Maledon, rookies Nick Smith Jr. and Leaky Black, PJ Washington and Mark Williams. It was slim pickings since they were down six key rotation players.

It wasn’t the most ideal of scenarios for Charlotte, which fell to 1-1 in East Group B.

“I love the way you word it, Rod, — you’ve got six of your top nine out and no it’s not ideal,” Clifford said. “I would totally agree with you. No, it’s hard, It’s a good opportunity for the younger guys. ... When you have this many guys out, this is not the team (Miami) you want to play frankly because they are going to be prepared and they are going to play their way no matter who they play.”

Still, there’s no denying the Hornets’ were severely undermanned — again. It’s become a common theme.

“Whatever five are on the court, we just try to hoop and get the win,” Ball said. “That’s pretty much all it is. If we’re short, there’s not really anything you can do.”

Complaining isn’t going to work. But the talent disparity eventually wears the Hornets down.

“Injuries are the biggest part of this,” Clifford said. “When there’s only five guys on the floor, whoever has the best player on the floor has the decided advantage. That’s it. That’s the way basketball works. Well, if you lose three of your best five guys, it makes it hard.”

Here’s what else the Hornets had to say about their current state:

On the educational experience vs. Miami

“It’s tough,” Washington said. “At the end of the day when we’re missing guys, we can’t really afford to make mistakes. Obviously we made too many tonight. We turned the ball over too many times. It’s unacceptable in this league and we can’t win like that.”

Clifford said: “You have to be able to learn from these games. That’s what the best teams do. That’s what they’ll do and that’s what we have to do so that we continue to get better. The bottom line is … we gave ourselves a chance to win ...that was a winnable game right there.

“Especially against them, you can’t give possessions away where guys don’t know what the sets are, guys don’t know what the coverages are. It doesn’t matter how old they are. If they are going to be out there, they’ve got to know what’s going on.”

On the health of Brandon Miller and Gordon Hayward

Just over 24 hours prior to tipoff, Brandon Miller and Gordon Hayward were both listed as probable. But they were downgraded to questionable late Tuesday morning before being declared out with more than 90 minutes left until the game began.

Miller sprained his ankle in the first quarter of Sunday’s loss in New York and Hayward’s issue apparently had been lingering for a while. But Clifford didn’t sound overly concerned about their ailments.

“We don’t play until Friday now, so hopefully (they’ll be ready then),” Clifford said. “Brandon did some light, light shooting this morning. You could tell he wasn’t able to go through walk-through. The thing with Gordon, this has been going on for two or three games where he’s played his way through it and then it got a little bit worse in New York.

“His is a hamstring, so that could be four to six weeks, so you can’t mess with that. We need him. We need them both. They’re pretty good defenders and so hopefully we’ll have them by Friday. I don’t think either one is a serious injury.”

On Miles Bridges’ return on Friday

“He’s going to be great,” Washington said. “I just can’t wait for ya’ll to see him. I know he’s excited to play and we are excited to play with him. So, I’m just happy for him to be back on the floor and I can’t wait for him to come out there and help us, because we need it for sure.”

Ball said: “He’s definitely another contributor who’s good on offense and defense. We’re glad to have him back, for sure.”

On Nick Smith Jr’s play and being on the floor for critical minutes

“He competed hard,” Clifford said of Smith. “He played better than the other guys played, so I left him in there and I thought he did fine. I’ll watch the film. The first half, I know was hard for him. They do different things and he’s not used to that. So, the first half was more of a struggle and the second half he did better.”

Washington said: “He came in and brought some energy, helped us cut it to five and made a big shot. He had a ton of energy on defense. I’m proud of him and I can’t wait to keep seeing him out there on the floor.”

On not using injuries as an excuse to slack on fundamentals

“You can’t absolve yourself from the fact that running back on defense has nothing to do with talent,” Clifford said. “Blocking out is physicality. You don’t have to be that talented to block out all the time. And defending without fouling just speaks to discipline. So, that stuff to me is more on me. To be honest with you, what is frustrating is that when I’ve coached, I’ve never had a team picked to go to the playoffs and we’ve always been top five in transition defense, defensive rebounding and not fouling.

“That’s how you can take a team that’s picked ninth and get to seventh. And we’ll get there. But as a coach you can’t sit back and say, ‘Gee, Terry’s out, he’s out, this guy’s out … Still they are not running back on defense, we are not blocking out. So, that, to me, is very much a coaching thing.”

He later added: “Here’s what happens: people want to show up and see this well-oiled machine, right? OK, but they don’t want everything that comes into it. Sometimes I get this about guys who played well and you don’t say they play well. Numbers in this league can be very misleading. Sorry. And I’m not going to say guys played well when they don’t. You are either going to coach them in a way that wins or you or not.

“Marvin Williams tells me all the time, ‘You don’t coach them like you used to coach us.’ And it is a different time, but our locker room is ready to be more bottom line. We’ve got to stop doing the, ‘It’s OK because this guy was out.’ At the end, you have a record and at home right now we are 1-4. And we have a home stretch right here, but the teams are really, really good. And we can’t make those mistakes.”