Injured, depleted and also without Miles Bridges, Charlotte Hornets fall in Toronto

Choosing to remain positive in light of the Charlotte Hornets’ latest roster crunch due to injuries and Miles Bridges’ sudden unavailability, Steve Clifford offered an upbeat perspective Monday night.

“We are super-undermanned here and we can win tonight,” the coach said before tipoff against the Toronto Raptors. “Same thing I told them: If we are going to play (best of) four out of seven against this team, would we win? Probably, definitely not. But you can win one game, these guys, they are all good players. Now we need certain guys to have big nights, but it’s always winnable in this league.”

The Hornets were missing three-fifths of their projected starting lineup and seven rotation players in all during their outing across the Canadian border. And for the better part of three quarters, Clifford’s makeshift bunch made Toronto sweat a bit.

But the Hornets didn’t have enough in the end, succumbing in the final minutes and dropping a 114-99 decision to the Raptors at Scotiabank Arena.

“I think our guys competed great,” Clifford said. “Their defense was really good in the fourth quarter and we struggled to get shots. And then they got some fastbreak points, which hurt us. But the second-chance points to me really in the fourth quarter were the biggest difference.”

Here’s what else Clifford had to say of note with the Hornets (7-18) now losers in five straight games:

On what to take from the defeat

“I just told them the effort’s good and we just have to learn from it — whatever it is,” Clifford said. “You don’t know until you watch the film. I could sit here and guess about stuff, but you don’t know until you watch the film. So, they know that. I always tell them, we don’t guess around here. We have things that we need to work on because we see it. And it starts when we watch the film when we get back to the hotel.”

On where the Hornets stand currently

“For us, we’ve played (25) games,” Clifford said. “We are not where I thought we would be. But it’s (25) games. We are two games out of 10th in the loss column and we’ve been ravaged by injuries. I’ve been in this league a long time and I’ve never been through anything … Well, we had one year in Houston when both Tracy (McGrady) and Yao (Ming) got hurt, which was brutal.

“But you’ve got to be concentrated on the right stuff. I like our guys. I like the way they are handling it. We’ve played hard, we’ve played with good energy. For me, I’m paid to help the team go forward and the only way you can do that in a situation like this is not overreact, watch the film closely and then try to pick out the things you can help with. And that’s it. That’s what you are supposed to do.”

On expectations

“This is my 10th year as a head coach,” Clifford said. “I’ve never had a team, I don’t believe, that before the season started was picked to go to the playoffs. Maybe once. So, of all the things I haven’t done, I’m good at coaching teams that are like OK, where getting a step was a really good year. Now as an assistant, fortunately I’ve been around great teams where you know.

“Like when (Toronto) won, you were going to be in the playoffs. That is a totally different dynamic. You are going to pace your team totally differently than you are a team like us this year even if we had them all. Because if we have everybody, it’s still going to be 82 games and we still weren’t picked to be very good. But you are playing 82 games where you need everybody’s best, that’s much different than where the Celtics are at, the Bucks are at or Philadelphia is at. And I think that you coach a team that has to play well to get into the top 10 much differently than you coach a team that’s in the top two or three.

“And so I have a lot of experiences and unfortunately I have had to deal with injuries, trading all your guys away, all that stuff and so sometimes it’s frustrating. But I do know this: ‘Your team can always get better. I know that. If they have the right attitude, you can always get better and you can have a positive year if you approach the thing the right way.”

On substitution patterns

“If you see how we sub since Melo (Ball) went out, for us this is six (games) in 10 days,” Clifford said. “Tonight is five in eight days and Terry (Rozier), Gordon (Hayward), Miles, Brandon (Miller), those guys are playing big minutes … A lot of times one of a coach’s biggest strengths is how they sub. And guys like Thibs (New York Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau) or (former longtime coach) Stan (Van Gundy) used to get hammered for playing big minutes.

“I’m not going to name names, but go look at the guys who play their guys big minutes. A lot of times, if you are not viewed as hard-charging, you can play guys 35 minutes and nobody says anything. And if you’re like Thibs, they crush you. But there’s coaches in this league that one of the best things they do, they play their guys. You want your best players on the floor. I’m sorry. That’s the way it is.”

On load management

“This whole load management, I’m not into that, either,” Clifford said. “That’s not the way we used to do it. I think the biggest problem is guys don’t really start their offseasons when they used to. I remember when I first got the job in Charlotte (in 2013), Michael (Jordan) told me, ‘You’re paid to play 82 games and you’re paid to practice every day.’ Back then we practiced, which we don’t do (as much now).

“Terry Rozier, he’ll come out in the third quarter and say, ‘I’m good. I don’t need another rest.’ And those are the guys you want. You want the guys that want to play.”