Charlotte Hornets ready for first postseason game since 2022. How they got here
If you’ve been waiting for this moment, you’re not alone. It’s been a full decade since the Spectrum Center hosted postseason NBA basketball — and Tuesday night, the Charlotte Hornets are finally back.
The ninth-seeded Hornets host the No. 10 Miami Heat at 7:30 p.m. in the NBA play-in tournament (streaming exclusively on Amazon Prime). It’s win or go home. And if you’re a Charlotte sports fan who’s stuck around through all the lean years, this one means something.
“I expect it to be lit,” coach Charles Lee said Monday.
He’s got good reason to think so.
Charlotte is a postseason city
Lee brought up a recent memory to paint the picture of what Tuesday could look like.
“My wife was actually able to go to the Panthers’ playoff game (which Carolina lost in a thriller). I remember her calling me because we were on the road somewhere, so I obviously wasn’t able to be there. And she’s like, ‘This is insane! People are going crazy! This town is ready for a winning team, playoff atmosphere!’ So that was exciting to hear. And so I expect a very similar environment here (Tuesday) night.”
That Panthers wild-card playoff game in January. Charlotte FC hosting two matches in the 2025 MLS playoffs, the last one in November. And now the Hornets. This big home game continues a recent tradition of Charlotte’s major sports teams hosting major postseason events.
Unfortunately for local fans, the Panthers and Charlotte FC combined to go 0-3 in the most recent postseason games. The Hornets will try to break that trend Tuesday night.
Remember ‘purple shirt guy’?
The last time Spectrum Center hosted postseason NBA basketball, a Hornets team led by Kemba Walker was up 3-2 on the Miami Heat in a first-round series. Game 6 was in Charlotte, and Walker was spectacular — 37 points.
But Dwyane Wade, who hadn’t made a 3-pointer in months, drilled two huge threes in the fourth quarter. He also had something of a staredown going with Hornets heckler Michael Deason, a season ticket holder in a courtside seat wearing a purple shirt — known ever after as “purple shirt guy.”
Deason didn’t lose the game for Charlotte — Wade won it. But there’s been much talk in the intervening years about “if only purple shirt guy hadn’t fired up D-Wade.”
Then came Game 7 in Miami, and Charlotte played one of the worst playoff games in its history, losing by 33 points. That was it. The last time the Hornets were in the postseason. Until now.
And wouldn’t you know it — it’s Miami again.
The turnaround that got Hornets here
Let’s be real about how unlikely this all is. The Hornets started the season 4-14, partially due to Brandon Miller’s shoulder injury in the second game. A lot of teams would have packed it in. Most do.
“You don’t see that in the NBA,” Coby White said. “If a team starts off that way, most of the time, you just throw it in. You try to get the draft pick, you try to make a trade, whatever it may be. But you got to also give credit to the front office, for ownership standing by this team and giving these guys an opportunity.”
Instead of folding, Charlotte stockpiled a 44-38 record — their most wins in a season since 2016. They led the NBA in offensive rating since Jan. 1 and finished with a top 10 net rating. They went from fifth in made 3-pointers before New Year’s to finishing No. 1 in shots made from beyond the arc and second overall in 3-point percentage.
“It means a lot,” LaMelo Ball said. “We stayed with it, trusted ourselves and knew what we really had.”
Kon Knueppel changed everything
A huge part of what they had was sitting right in front of them: rookie Kon Knueppel, the No. 4 overall pick out of Duke who went from a kindergartner who didn’t like sports to leading the NBA in 3-pointers made.
Knueppel finished the regular season with 273 made threes, just edging teammate Ball’s 272. They became just the second duo in NBA history to finish first and second in total 3-pointers made. Knueppel became the first rookie in NBA history to lead the league in that category.
“He’s a killer,” Lee said.
The Hornets won a total of 40 games in the two years before Knueppel arrived.
“Kon is the rookie of the year,” Lee said. “It’s a very talented class. But Kon has done a phenomenal job of helping an organization elevate as fast as we have.”
Even Michael Jordan, who used to be the Hornets’ majority owner and still has a small piece of the team, volunteered that he’d been shocked by Knueppel. “I had no idea he was that good,” Jordan said.
Miles Bridges has waited the longest
Nobody on this roster has more at stake than Miles Bridges. He’s the active leader on a dubious NBA list: players who have played the most regular-season games without a single playoff game. He ranks in the top 10 all-time — 501 regular-season games and zero playoff games, all in Charlotte.
“It’s No. 1 on my list to make it to the playoffs and play for something,” Bridges said Monday. “You know I’ve probably got the most games as a (current) player to not make the playoffs, so I definitely want to get off that list. And I feel like everybody on this team deserves to be in the playoffs. We work so hard.”
Postseason scenarios for Hornets
Here’s the deal. Charlotte has to complete a two-step process to reach the actual playoffs. Beat Miami on Tuesday, then travel to play the loser of the Orlando-Philadelphia play-in game on Friday. Win both and the reward is a best-of-7 series against No. 1 Detroit starting Sunday.
It won’t be easy. Miami won three of four against Charlotte in the regular season. But the Hornets are 5.5-point favorites and very healthy.
The last two times Charlotte made the play-in tournament — 2021 and 2022, both on the road — it ended badly. As Bridges put it: “We got out to two slow starts, and we got beat by over 20-plus.”
This time feels different.
“There’s no ceiling on this group,” Lee said. “When you have a group as talented as we are, as competitive as we are, there’s a lot that we can accomplish. But you’ve just got to take it one game, one day at a time.”
White, who has postseason experience from his time before Charlotte, can feel it too.
“Playing in those meaningful games and being at home, it’s special,” White said. “I got to play my fair share of playing at the crib, so it’s special. It’s going to be a great environment. I’m just excited.”
He continued: “Also shout out to our coaching staff for not giving up on the guys and continue to push them each and every day to get better, continue to push them to build great habits. It’s not just one person. It takes a unit, it takes a team. From the medical staff, the training staff, weight room staff, front office, players, coaching staff — everybody’s bought into one thing. And when you’ve got that, you start to see the better results.”
This report was produced with the assistance of a proprietary tool powered by artificial intelligence and using our own originally reported, written and published content. It was reviewed and edited by our journalists. To learn more about how The Charlotte Observer is using AI in our newsroom, see our policy here.
This story was originally published April 14, 2026 at 2:42 PM with the headline "Charlotte Hornets ready for first postseason game since 2022. How they got here."