Weary from thousands of miles of travel and red-eye flights, the Hornets faltered. They wavered from their constant connection to the .500 line. They lost three consecutive games, and they did so in brutal fashion.

First, the Hornets visited the Clippers and the Trail Blazers, two teams of similar standing and stature. They lost both of those games by huge margins and gave up 255 total points in the process. Both opponents shot over 50% from the field while the Hornets connected on exactly 40% of their shots in those two games.

A game against a vulnerable Kings team offered respite, but the Hornets would have none of it. The Kings didn’t shoot as well from the field as the Clippers and Blazers did, but the Hornets still couldn’t muster up enough offense to win. They scored under 100 points for the second time in as many games.

For the week, the Hornets averaged 100.7 points per game, second worst in the league and were outscored by 19 points per game, the most in the league.

The highs

Jeremy Lamb is back from injury and appears no worse for the wear. Hamstring injuries are always tricky and difficult to come back from, but thankfully Lamb’s absence was brief. In his return to action against the Clippers, he scored eight points in the game’s first six minutes. He’s averaged nearly 15 points per game since coming back, right in line with his season average.

Malik Monk showed more flashes of the player he’s capable of being. He went nuclear down the stretch against the Clippers, scoring 19 points in the fourth quarter alone. The game was out of reach at that point, but we’ll take what we can get at this point. He’s also showing more consistent effort on the defensive end of the court and more poise on offense, though he still has a lot more room to grow in those areas.

The lows

We could put the entire play-by-play of all three games into this section if we really wanted to. The Hornets did very little right last week. The offense was bad. The defense was bad. The effort was bad. Everything was bad. It feels unfair to call out any one particular individual when everyone on the team contributed to the week’s poor results.

The whole

Thankfully the Hornets are about to return home, where they are a completely different team. Cody Zeller will be back at some point; hopefully the Hornets can keep their head above water until then. Despite the dreadful week, the Hornets still hold onto a playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. That’s a win.