What Steve Clifford Said Following the Hornets' Loss to the Nets

Charlotte Hornets head coach Steve Clifford met with the media to discuss tonight's loss.

On the team’s slow start…

“Transition. (Ben) Simmons with the passes over the top. This’ll be a game that you should win most nights in terms of efficiency after a bad offensive first quarter. We were low turnover, but we didn’t get to the free-throw line and we didn’t shoot the 3 well. …The first quarter, our shot selection hurt our transition defense. We took some quick 3s without putting any pressure on the defense, and they got it and were gone. I think it was definitely the defense, but a lot of that I think was our shot selection early on.”

On the team’s physicality…

“They had 64 points in the paint and they out-rebounded us, so not very good. Once we got down, we played hard, we fought hard, and then it’s just one-on-one defense. We got crushed on the ball. That’s what they are – they’ve got a lot of good one-on-one players. We made far too many mistakes with our help, particularly in the third quarter, which led to wide-open shots.”

On LaMelo Ball…

“Mark Williams is the same. They’ve only been cleared for four and a half, five weeks. They’re behind these other guys. The only way to do it is to let them play through it, which obviously we need them both. That’s what we’re going to do. They both did whatever they could to get ready, but if you don’t play at this level, especially with shorter training camps and they weren’t able to do anything with contact until right before training camp, so they’re behind, that’s all.” 

You can follow us for future coverage by liking us on Facebook & following us on X:

Facebook - All Hornets

X - @All_Hornets and Schuyler Callihan at @Callihan_.