Well that came out of nowhere.

The Charlotte Hornets were trudging through a six game west coast trip and losing most their games. Weary from the travels and looking forward to the trip home, it would’ve been totally understandable if the Hornets got their doors blown off in San Antonio. Instead they rode the emotion of Tony Parker’s return to arguably their best performance all season. They beat a surging Spurs team by 15 points, the first of three such victories by at least that margin.

Dell Curry often points out the first game back home after a long absence can almost function as an extension of the road trip. It’s easy for teams to rest on their laurels and not bring the energy to that first game back. We saw that to an extent with the Hornets sluggish first quarter against the Kings, but they recovered quickly. They raced past the visitors in the second quarter and never looked back from there.

Saturday’s game against Phoenix was similar, except there was no first quarter lull to push through. The Hornets took the lead 26 seconds into the game and maintained it for the final 47 minutes and 34 seconds of the contest.

All the positive momentum the Hornets built up during the win streak came to a crashing halt in Indianapolis, but that’s okay. It was the third game in four nights on the road against an Eastern Conference contender. That’s an acceptable loss.

The Highs

The Hornets showed what they’re capable of when they buckle down and focus on the defensive end of the court. There was a stretch during the road trip where the Hornets played as one of the league’s worst defenses, which is inexcusable for a veteran team. During the three win streak, the Hornets had the league’s fifth best defensive rating, which in turn contributed to their third ranked net rating. The defense lapsed a little bit against Indiana on Sunday, but hopefully that was a result of tired legs more than anything.

Miles Bridges appears to be pushing through the rookie wall. After a road trip disappearing act that would make David Copperfield blush, the Hornets rookie has found his groove. In his ten previous games before this latest spurt, Bridges averaged three points and three rebounds per game while shooting 22 percent from the field and 10 percent from three. In his four games last week, the 20-year-old averaged ten points and four rebounds per game while shooting 61 percent from the field and 33 percent from three.

Willy Hernangomez looked like a competent NBA defender for a lot of the week. His defense has kept his minutes down for the majority of this season, but he overcame that for a time last week. He also dominated on the boards, grabbing 29 rebounds across the games against the Suns and Kings.

Marvin Williams continues his hot shooting from the arc. Bismack Biyombo is gobbling all the rebounds. Nicolas Batum has upped his aggressiveness by a tick.

The lows

Pretty much all the negativity last week came in the Pacers game. The Hornets lost by 25, but that’s not entirely indicative of the game flow. The Hornets hung around for most of the game despite struggling to put the ball in the basket before falling off about halfway through the fourth quarter. The Pacers are very good. It happens.

The whole

Hopefully last week was the beginning of a strong second half of the season. The Hornets proved to themselves and to the fans what they’re capable of when they’re locked in. This week is light on the schedule – only two games. Those two games come against teams going in opposite directions. First is a Grizzlies team plummeting down the standings, and then comes a visit to the Bucks, who currently boast the league’s best record.

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