There’s finally NBA buzz in Charlotte again. That’s because the Hornets, amid the league’s longest active playoff drought, have won eight games in a row for the first time since the 1998-99 season.
They extended that head-turning streak with a 109-99 road win over the Houston Rockets, despite Kevin Durant scoring at least 30 points for the fifth time in his past eight games.
In their first game since acquiring Coby White in a trade with the Chicago Bulls before the deadline, the Hornets (24-28) pulled away from the Rockets (31-19), causing the Western Conference’s fourth-place team to pull its starters for the back half of the fourth quarter in a game that wasn’t even as close as the 10-point differential suggests.
Continuing his standout rookie campaign, Kon Knueppel poured in a team-high 24 points on 8-of-13 shooting. LaMelo Ball made five 3s and wasn’t far behind with 20 points.
White didn’t play, and he’s not expected to until after the All-Star break due to a lingering calf injury, but the former UNC star is excited for this new chapter of his career.
“Every time I come back to Charlotte to play, I would just tell people it just felt different,” White, a Goldsboro, North Carolina, native told The Charlotte Observer on Thursday.
“I just felt the love every time I was in the building just being there, it was just weird. … Something triggers every time I was in there. So I’m excited I get to play there more.”
White was talking about the Spectrum Center. The guard averaged 22.5 points per game in his two outings there with the Bulls earlier this season.
It’s also where Hornets fans will anxiously await their up-and-coming squad on Feb. 9 when Charlotte hosts the Eastern Conference-leading Detroit Pistons.
That matchup will mark the first of four consecutive home contests for the Hornets.
But first they’ll head to Atlanta to play the Hawks on Saturday. With a win there, they’ll officially match that 1999 surge, which occurred during a strike-shortened season that saw the late Paul Silas take over as interim head coach after Dave Cowens resigned in the wake of a 4-11 start.
That Hornets team lost eight of its first nine games. Similarly, the 2025-26 Hornets recorded only three victories in their first 10 games and were a meager 4-14 by late November.
This time, a coaching change hasn’t precipitated the turnaround.
In his second year on the job, Charles Lee has overseen the midseason transformation.
The Hornets are getting production from an assortment of young players. In addition to the 20-year-old Knueppel and 24-year-old Ball, Brandon Miller is making a sizable impact. In his third season, Miller, 23, is leading the team in scoring. Plus, it helps that big man Moussa Diabaté, 24, has become a reliable rebounder for the group.
Miles Bridges is still doing his thing, too. The Hornets’ future is bright, and they’re suddenly 1.5 games back of the Hawks for ninth place in the East, prime play-in position.
Charlotte plays Atlanta twice in the next three games, starting on Saturday night.
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