Borrego Says It's Not Time to Panic: 'It's Basketball, No One is Dying'

Charlotte Hornets head coach James Borrego remains positive despite the five-game slide.

After the Charlotte Hornets beat the Los Angeles Lakers on national a week and a half ago, they moved to 28-22 on the season, tying a season-best six games over .500. Since? Well, things have went downhill as the Hornets have lost five straight games with four of those games coming at home. 

Once again, Charlotte had problems early on with its offense and found themselves down as many as 23 to the Raptors on Monday night before making it a one possession game late in the third quarter. The defense went to sleep in the fourth which allowed Toronto to win comfortably. A lot of that was likely due to fatigue as the Hornets were already down James Bouknight, Cody Martin, and Jalen McDaniels and then, Gordon Hayward exited the game early in the first quarter with a sprained ankle. 

Tuesday afternoon, head coach James Borrego met with the media and talked about what they worked on this morning and how he plans to play more guys in the coming days. 

"Just did a little bit of cleanup. Guys played heavy minutes last night, so quick cleanup. Young guys got a lot of work in. It was a good day, good spirits. Last night was a little funky and I kind of went for it last night and played that group. Moving forward, I'd like to add nine, ten guys. It's stretching it for me right now, but I think it's the right thing to do. We have the bodies to do it. It's a great opportunity for someone to step up. We saw this last year. Miles became Miles last year because of this opportunity."

The severity of Hayward's injury is still unknown as he undergoes further testing. Borrego said he should know more by Wednesday on what his timetable will be. Whether Hayward is out for a long period of time or if he misses just a couple of games, the one thing this team can't do is panic. Borrego was adamant about this in his postgame presser on Monday night as he referred to still being in the race despite the losing streak. 

“You stay with it, you don’t panic, you stay the course, and we roll with it. We have all been here before. It is basketball, no one is dying. We are okay, everyone is alright. That group believes that it will turn and we just have to trust it. This is not impossible. You just have to believe and stick together. That is how you get through an NBA season, the highs, and lows. You don’t point fingers, you stay the course and keep believing and trusting everyone. That is the mentality. This is not an X’s and O’s mentality. It is staying the course and I think we were a little fragile to start the game and I’m not sure why, but we found ourselves in the second quarter and we have to play with more of that edge, that mentality and play off of our defense, until the 3-ball comes back to us.”

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