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Still, Bridges remains unmoved by the chatter.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust focus on winning, focus on controlling what I can control,\u201d Bridges told The Charlotte Observer on Saturday. \u201cIf I get traded, if I don\u2019t get traded. \u2026 I would rather be here. But I know if I do get traded, I know Jeff Peterson (the Hornets\u2019 president of basketball operations) and those guys, they\u2019ll talk to me first. So, I don\u2019t try to worry about that. I just worry about the games.\u201d<\/p>\n
He\u2019ll probably get no argument from the Washington Wizards. In helping the Hornets grab a 119-115 victory at Spectrum Center in advance of the impending ice storm blanketing the region, Bridges came up with some key plays down the stretch in the waning minutes, including a nifty left-handed dunk flush over Washington center Alex Sarr, a key offensive rebound with just under 10.7 seconds remaining and a pair of crucial free throws to seal a game the Hornets led by as many as 18 points.<\/p>\n
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Charlotte Hornets\u2019 Collin Sexton heads up the court Saturday, Jan. 24, 2026, during the game against the Washington Wizards at Spectrum Center in Charlotte, North Carolina.<\/p>\n
(TRACY KIMBALL\/tkimball@charlotteobserver.com)<\/p>\n
Bridges recorded 20 points, four assists and three rebounds against the Wizards, and is averaging 18.7 points, 6.3 rebounds and 3.5 assists per game. His production is among the reasons the Milwaukee Bucks, Golden State Warriors and Phoenix Suns are reportedly among the teams expressing interest in acquiring the 27-year-old.<\/p>\n
Beyond this season, he has one more year remaining on his pact and is scheduled to pocket $22.8 million in 2026-27, meaning he has an economical deal that other teams around the league view as a commodity.<\/p>\n
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But Bridges\u2019 preference is to stick around with good buddy LaMelo Ball<\/a> and the rest of the Hornets\u2019 young core, featuring Brandon Miller and Kon Knueppel<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cYeah, I for sure want to be a part of it,\u201d Bridges said. \u201cI feel like everybody else wants everybody to stay together. But you\u2019ve just got to control what you can control, continue to stack games.\u201d<\/p>\n Do that and maybe the band will \u2014 mostly \u2014 still be together once 3 p.m. rolls around on Feb. 5 and the trade deadline passes while the Hornets are in Houston preparing to square off versus the Rockets.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s the goal,\u201d Miller said, \u201cto have everybody stay here. But unfortunately, it\u2019s the game. We only can control what we can control. So, I think just controlling the controllables would be great.\u201d<\/p>\n In the meantime, it\u2019s all about ignoring the external noise.<\/p>\n \u201cWe just stay together, stay in the locker room,\u201d Miller said. \u201cWe hear it, we see it all. Can\u2019t really let that faze us as men\/basketball players. So, just stay locked in with your brothers and just go from there.\u201d<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n Here are some other key takeaways from the Hornets\u2019 victory over Washington:<\/p>\n Brandon Miller is on a good run<\/p>\n The impressive streak for Miller continues.<\/p>\n In recording his second double-double of the season, Miller tossed in a team-best 21 points to go with 10 rebounds and seven assists, barely missing out on a triple double. It\u2019s the sixth straight game Miller has reached the 20-point plateau.<\/p>\n The third-year swingman also registered 12 points, seven rebounds and five assists through the game\u2019s opening two quarters, marking the first time in his career he posted at least 10 points along with five rebounds and five assists before halftime. He\u2019s in a pretty good rhythm.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n Charlotte Hornets head coach Charles Lee coaches his team from the sideline during the game against the Washington Wizards on Saturday, Jan. 24, 2026 at Spectrum Center in Charlotte, North Carolina.<\/p>\n \u201cJust my teammates trusting me,\u201d Miller said. \u201cI try to make the right plays 100% of the time of the game. Whether it\u2019s me shooting, whether it\u2019s me coming off the screen hitting another roller, or is just me guarding on the defensive side and just kind of bringing that energy for our transition offense.\u201d<\/p>\n Miller\u2019s recent stretch hasn\u2019t gone unnoticed by his coach.<\/p>\n Charles Lee is pleased with how Miller is efficient and effective on both ends of the floor, something he takes great pride in being a two-way player.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n \u201cI think that just his overall command when he has the ball in his hands, you feel comfortable,\u201d Lee said. \u201cI think that his pace has improved, his understanding of coverages and how to beat different coverages. His passing has gotten really good. I think he had a couple turnovers tonight, but I think he\u2019s seeing the right play. Sometimes it\u2019s right on time, sometimes it\u2019s a little bit late. But he sees it, he\u2019s able to make it because he\u2019s got such great size, too.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd then the threat of being able to score off the pick-and-roll or off an off-ball action, he\u2019s just getting a little bit more comfortable, a little bit more rhythm and again like just his overall pace and patience is really good.\u201d<\/p>\n Efficiency is growing<\/p>\n Don\u2019t look now, but the Hornets are in the midst of a solid span on both sides of the ball that has them among the NBA\u2019s upper crust in each category of late.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n Entering their matchup with the Wizards, the Hornets had the highest net rating in the NBA over the previous 10 games. During this stretch, the Hornets rank second in offensive rating at 121.4 and sixth in defensive rating at 109.5.<\/p>\n Additionally, they are among the top 5 in true shooting percentage (59.6%) and made 3-pointers per game (15.5). Factor in the five-man lineup featuring Miller, Bridges, Ball, Knueppel and Moussa Diabate boasting a differential of plus-29.1 \u2014 the highest point differential of any five-man lineup in the NBA per Cleaning The Glass \u2014 and the Hornets are rolling in the right direction.<\/p>\n \u201cJust physicality,\u201d Bridges said. \u201cWe\u2019re playing smarter on offense and on defense, we\u2019re just playing more physical and limiting teams to one possession.\u201d<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n Which is music to their ears. Slowly, they\u2019re gaining consistency.<\/p>\n \u201cI think we\u2019re playing confident, we\u2019re trusting each other, trusting the pass,\u201d Miller said. \u201cOur defense kind of leads us into our strips, which we can (then) play in transition. I think we just need to keep playing to our strengths, and we\u2019ll have games like this a lot more.\u201d<\/p>\n In other words, they believe they\u2019ve cracked the formula. Now, it\u2019s all about making sure they keep putting it to good use and not squander their discovery.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n \u201cI think our energy,\u201d Moussa Diabate said. \u201cI think that\u2019s the main thing \u2014 our energy, our pace offensively, I think helps a lot. Even though it\u2019s kind of weird, but I think our base offensive kind of helps us defensively, just keeping us going. I think that just matches. You play fast, you\u2019re going to play fast either way, and physical. So, that\u2019s just how I see that. Yeah, it really just comes up to being physical and playing fast.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2018I\u2019m usually taking my nap\u2019<\/p>\n An earlier start time than initially anticipated didn\u2019t cause too much of a disruption in the Hornets\u2019 usual game-day routine.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n Given the original tipoff time was slated for 6 p.m., the Hornets would not have had a morning shootaround anyway. Typically, most NBA teams only hold one when the game is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. or later.<\/p>\n So although the circumstances weren\u2019t ideal since the Hornets were coming off one full day of rest following outings on consecutive nights, things weren\u2019t overly disrupted. Not too much, anyway.<\/p>\n Charlotte Hornets\u2019 Moussa Diabate puts up the shot as Tre Johnson III defends during the game against the Washington Wizards on Saturday, Jan. 24, 2026 at Spectrum Center in Charlotte, North Carolina.<\/p>\n (Tracy Kimball\/tkimball@charlotteobserver.com)<\/p>\n \u201cNothing different,\u201d Lee said. \u201cI\u2019m glad that, as an organization, we value everyone\u2019s safety. The fact that even the Wizards could agree upon something like this \u2014 to play a little bit earlier and get ahead of the storm \u2014 for everyone\u2019s travels, it was the right thing to do.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n \u201cOur guys are able to have that same routine, that same mentality to get ready for a game. Three o\u2019clock, 5 o\u2019clock, 7 o\u2019clock \u2026 doesn\u2019t matter.\u201d<\/p>\n With the brunt of the storm expected to hit the region Sunday and linger into wee hours after midnight, it could also affect Monday\u2019s matchup against the Philadelphia 76ers. But everything is trending toward the game being played, as evidenced by the 76ers altering their plans and flying into Charlotte following Saturday\u2019s contest with the New York Knicks instead of Sunday afternoon.<\/p>\n At least the Hornets have an example to point to if the game time is changed again.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n \u201cI think it was just a little weird because of that \u2014 I think it was a lot different,\u201d Diabate said. \u201cBut you know, at the end of the day, it doesn\u2019t change anything. It was just you\u2019ve got to come out and still play and try to get a win. And that\u2019s what we did. But no, it definitely felt a little different, I\u2019ll say that for sure.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m usually taking my nap at that time.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Miles Bridges is used to the routine by now. Seemingly every year, as the calendar approaches February and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":431909,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[434],"tags":[61157,97946,49,48,11002,8217,1443,44391,11001,133505,8216,459,2901,1528,6002,6705,82,8027],"class_list":["post-431908","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-alex-sarr","tag-brandon-miller","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-charlotte-hornets","tag-golden-state-warriors","tag-houston","tag-kon-knueppel","tag-lamelo-ball","tag-miles-bridges","tag-milwaukee-bucks","tag-nba","tag-new-york-knicks","tag-philadelphia-76ers","tag-phoenix-suns","tag-rockets","tag-sports","tag-washington-wizards"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/431908","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=431908"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/431908\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/431909"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=431908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=431908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=431908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Charlotte](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/03bd73610f74f13e74c662ef493634a3.jpeg\"\/)
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