The Hornets are no joke: How Charlotte is pushing for a playoff return with jaw-dropping stats

The Charlotte Hornets laid a 133-109 beating on the Indiana Pacers on Thursday night. On Tuesday they beat the Bulls 131-99. All told the Hornets have won 10 games this season by at least 20 points. Only four teams -- the Thunder, Knicks, Celtics and Rockets -- have done so more times. 

Consider that Charlotte has only won 29 games this year. Which is to say, one out of every three of its victories has been by at least 20 points. That is crazy. And it's reflected in an even crazier number: 16.9. That is the Hornets' average margin of victory this season, and per CBS Sports research, it ranks fourth all-time in the NBA.

As you can see, and as expected for teams blowing opponents out to this degree, all of these teams are/were elite units. The 2024-25 Thunder and that 1971 Bucks squad won the championship. The 2021-22 Celtics made the Finals. This year's Thunder have the best record in the league. 

The Hornets would seem to have no business in a group like this. But here they are. They might not win a lot of games (at least not until the last month), but when they do, they pretty regularly destroy teams. On Jan. 10, the Hornets blasted the Jazz by 55 points for the league's most lopsided single-game margin this season. 

Just shy of two weeks after that, the Hornets began what is their current run of 13 wins in their last 16 games. Over that span, they have -- without question -- been one of the best teams in the league. 

There are a couple ways to look at what's going on in Charlotte. One, we're making too big a deal over a 29-31 team that is clinging to the last Eastern Conference's last play-in spot. Or two, we're not making a big enough deal. I'm firmly in the latter camp. 

I've come to sort of despise the word "fun" as one of the suddenly preferred adjectives in NBA parlance, but in the case of these Hornets, I can't think of a better description. Everything about them is a blast. Play-by-play man Eric Collins is GEEKED from the opening tip. 

At first, Collins's WWE enthusiam at the halfway point of the first quarter was pretty tough for me to deal with. For a while I was actually muting Hornets games just to watch in peace. But I'm in full-fever now, and Collins only adds to the excitement. I've flipped on everything. Earlier in the season, I ranted on LaMelo's one-legged 3s. Now, I can't get enough of the guy. 

Ball has long been one of the most=skilled players in the world, but it always felt like he was more a showman than a winning player. Maybe that was wrong to slap that label on him. Maybe he's just never been able to stay healthy. Maybe he's just never had a team like this to pay off his pace and passing and overall mastery of a possession. He's only averaging 19 and 7 on a downright bad 40% shooting, but the "losing player" case is getting harder to make. Ball makes everything go. The Hornets decline by 14.5 points per 100 possessions when he sits, per Cleaning the Glass. 

Again, it sounds weird to be speaking of a 40% shooter and a 29-31 team like they're setting the NBA on fire, and sure, there's some relativity as it relates to praising the efforts of a much-maligned mixtape player and a franchise that hasn't been to the playoffs in a decade (and hasn't won a series since 2001), but there's really something happening here. 

Back on Jan. 5, the Hornets beat the Thunder, who were pretty much full strength and 30-6 at the time, by 27 points. In that game, the Hornets started Ball, Knueppel, Brandon Miller, Miles Bridges and Moussa Diabaté. That is the starting five the Hornets have continued with whenever possible (Miller missed basically the first month of the season; Bridges and Diabaté were each suspended four games for the fight with Detroit in early February), and over 257 minutes, this group has obliterated opponents by 29.5 points per 100 possessions with a 136.8 offensive rating. 

Those are both the best marks in the league among five-man lineups that have played at least 100 minutes together, per NBA.com. Offensively, no other lineup is close. Second-best is a small-sample Miami unit that registers more than 14 points per 100 possessions worse. Ball, Miller and Knueppel combined for 81 points and 17 3-pointers on Thursday. 

These three are a great story both collectively and individually. Ball was about to be written off. Miller was the No. 2 overall pick in 2023 when plenty of people laughed at Charlotte for not taking Scoot Henderson, who is nowhere near the player Miller, who's averaging just under 21 PPG this season, has been to this point. 

And then there is the rookie Knueppel, who at 20 years old might already be the best shooter in the league not named Stephen Curry. That might sounds like hyperbole, but it's not. On Thursday, he broke Keegan Murray's rookie record for 3-pointers in a season with this his 207th. 

All told, Knueppel is shooting better than 43% from 3 on nearly eight attempts per game. Only five players in history have maintained that percentage on that volume while appearing in at least 50 games: Curry (4x), Klay Thompson (2x), Ray Allen, Duncan Robinson and Zach LaVine. Knueppel, who is tracking to make nearly 300 3s this year (something also only five players have ever done), would be the sixth. 

Put this all together and you can see why the Hive is buzzing. These Hornets are no joke. If you're a casual NBA fan still thinking of this team as a doormat, it's high time you update your basketball browser and start praying the Bucks don't screw this up and jump the them for the last play-in spot. We need this team in the postseason. So everyone can see what all the fuss is about.