Miller's return spoiled by another Hornets injury, Harden's 55 points

Roderick Boone, The Charlotte Observer on Nov 22, 2025

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CHARLOTTE, N.C. — No one could have blamed Charles Lee if he kept rubbing his eyes Saturday afternoon, assuring what was transpiring was real and not a figment of his imagination.

When the Charlotte Hornets coach peered out onto the Spectrum Center court for a matinee with the LA Clippers, not long after pregame introductions concluded, he actually had his starting lineup intact for the first time in four weeks, thanks to Brandon Miller’s return from a left shoulder subluxation.

But these, of course, are the Hornets, so nothing truly comes easy. And the good times never seem to last very long. Ever.

So even on a day when things should have been rosy and cheery, it was instead more of the same. Rookie center Ryan Kalkbrenner, who’s had a promising start to his career, along with reserve guard Pat Connaughton, exited the Hornets’ 131-116 loss and ignited more thoughts of how the franchise just can’t catch a break against the dreaded injury bug.

James Harden scored a franchise record 55 points on 16-of-26 shooting, including 10-of-16 shooting from 3-point range, to lead the Clippers (5-11).

But at least Miller is off the injury list. He canned 8 of 18 attempts and posted 21 points and three assists, not showing a lot of signs of rust despite missing the previous 13 games.

Expect to see Miller worked in slowly over the coming games. Beginning with Sunday’s tilt in Atlanta against the Hawks, which is the tail end of a back-to-back, the Hornets (4-12) are in the midst of a stretch where they’ll play four games over the next seven days. That also includes three games in four days and matchups on consecutive nights.

Increasing his on-court time will be a process.

Collaboratively, with input from the performance staff, the Hornets have a step-by-step ramp-up process to ensure players are not rushed back or immediately overexerted. It’s an important part of their return-to-play program.

“Your first game back, I’m not going to try to push him to the brink as much as I probably would want to, but we want to be smart about it,” Lee said. “I think that we want to be intentional with how we ramp him back up. So hopefully we can keep him in a good controlled space, and then we’ll just kind of just go forward day after day.

“How’s he responding? What’s the plan? For him, it’s a little bit different, obviously, coming back from not a lower leg extremity injury.”

Just having Miller in the mix once more provided the Hornets (4-12) with an immediate emotional lift. His fire was evident from the get-go, when he posted all eight of the Hornets’ initial eight points and flexed on a couple of occasions — like after an emphatic right-handed Statue of Liberty dunk for the game’s opening bucket.

“We’re all excited for Brandon to be back in the lineup for a lot of different reasons,” Lee said. “I think for myself, I’m really happy with how he handled himself during this process. … His whole process as he went through his rehab and his return-to play-program, he came in every day locked in and excited for an opportunity to keep trying to get better. He saw the progress he was making, which was really good.

“I’m happy for him to be back out there after kind of having to go through that journey again. I think it ultimately just made him stronger and better.”

Here are some other key takeaways from the Hornets’ fourth straight loss:

Good bye, CP III

Quite a bit of news broke before tipoff, when North Carolina native Chris Paul announced via social media that this would be his final visit to his home state as an NBA player.

After 20 seasons, the Wake Forest product is calling it a career and is retiring upon the completion of the 2025-26 season. Paul signed a one-year deal for the veteran’s minimum of $3.6 million in the offseason.

No Kon man

Kon Knueppel is quietly continuing his solid span.

The rookie paced the Hornets with a team-best 26 points, marking the third straight game he’s been Charlotte’s top scorer. He’s in the midst of an impressive run over the past week-plus alone, during which he registered a career-best 32 points in his hometown of Milwaukee on Nov. 14.

Overall, Knueppel has totaled double figures in scoring in all but three of his appearances and has led the Hornets in that column five times already.