I thought Charlotte had this one Saturday night. That's probably why the 109-104 loss bothered me more after it was over than some of the other losses this season. The Hornets weren't trying to dig themselves out of a big hole late either. They were up seven with less than four minutes left and had the game right there.

When Grayson Allen hit his seventh three to make it 101-94, I figured that might be enough. Obviously it wasn't. Philadelphia scored 15 of the final 18 points, and by Sunday morning I was still wondering how Charlotte managed to lose it.

This One Bothers Me More Than the Washington Loss

I didn't have much to say about Friday night in Washington other than the Hornets couldn't shoot. They scored 79 points, shot 29.7% and lost. Sometimes you have nights like that, although I hope I don't have to watch another one anytime soon.

Saturday didn't feel anything like that game. Charlotte shot 50% and scored 37 in the first quarter. Allen was hitting everything, Brandon Miller looked better and late in the fourth I thought the Hornets had done enough to get back to .500.

That's probably why I was more irritated with this loss. Philadelphia was missing Joel Embiid and LeBron James, although Tyrese Maxey certainly gave Charlotte enough problems with 38 points. The Hornets still had a seven-point lead with 3:41 left. I would've taken that situation every time.

What happened from there was hard to watch. Charlotte went six possessions without scoring after Allen's three, turned it over twice and watched the lead disappear. By the time the Hornets finally scored again, I was already wondering how they had let the game get away.

At Least the Shots Started Falling Again

I didn't know what Charlotte's offense was going to look like after Friday. I wrote about how bad that shooting performance was because I couldn't remember seeing the Hornets miss that many shots in one night.

Then they came home and shot 50%.

Allen was obviously the big surprise. He scored 27 points on 9-of-12 shooting and made seven of his 10 threes. I already wrote about him after the game, so I'm not going to spend another whole story on it, but I'm paying a lot more attention to him now than I was when Charlotte made the Miles Bridges trade.

I liked what I saw from Miller too. He had 24 points, five rebounds and five assists after scoring 19 on 7-of-24 shooting Friday. He still needed 20 shots Saturday, but five of his 12 threes went in and this looked a lot more like the Miller I've been watching most of the season.

Moussa Diabate quietly had a good night too. He made all five of his shots, finished with 10 points and grabbed eight rebounds. With Allen doing what he did off the bench, Charlotte got 48 bench points.

There was plenty to like. That's part of why losing the game bothered me.

I'm Still Trying to Figure Out This Hornets Team

We're seven games into the season and I'm not sure what Charlotte is yet.

I've watched the Hornets score 79 points one night and come back the next night and shoot 50%. I've seen Miller look like one of the best players on the floor and I've seen him struggle to make anything. Charlotte has also played four clutch games already and split them.

Maybe that's just what this team is going to look like for a while.

They're 3-4 now, which isn't a disaster. I didn't expect everything to look finished seven games into the season anyway. There are enough things I like about this team that I don't look at 3-4 and think they're in trouble.

I do look at Saturday and think they should be 4-3.

That's the one I'll have a hard time getting past.