Hornets’ Charles Lee keeps quiet on multipe screening fouls: ‘I don’t want to get fined’

The Charlotte Hornets saw their 2025-26 campaign come to a brutal end with a 120-91 loss against the Orlando Magic, who will now play the No. 1 seed Detroit Pistons in their first-round series. The Hornets were ambushed right from the first quarter and went back from halftime with a 31-point deficit.

The Magic head coach and Paolo Banchero lauded their team’s defensive pressure and intensity, which led to a complete offensive collapse for Charlotte. At the same time, the Hornets head coach Charles Lee lamented the refereeing, per a post on X by Oh No He Didn’t.

Charles Lee on his team getting called for five offensive fouls on screens:

"I don't want to get into it because I don't want to get fined at all" pic.twitter.com/pwaO07l2PU

— Oh No He Didn't (@ohnohedidnt24) April 18, 2026

“I don’t want to get into it because I don’t want to get fined at all,” he said, when asked about his team getting called for five offensive fouls on screens.

Of course, the Hornets suffered due to their poor shooting all night. Orlando were determined to mount defensive pressure on their scorers both inside and near the arc, restricting LaMelo Ball to just two first-half points. Ball finished with 23 points, but 21 of those came in the third quarter.

Paolo Banchero, who finished the game as the top scorer across both units with 25 points, six assists and five rebounds, claimed that the Magic were intent on being physical and maintain pressure right from the get-go. That proved to be the difference between the two teams, with Orlando having lost the season series against Charlotte 2-1.

For the Hornets, a systematic offensive collapse meant that they had little to fight for after the first half. Kon Knueppel went 1-6 from beyond the arc, a stark departure from the utterly impressive 42.5% three-point efficiency he registered through the regular season. Knueppel finished the play-in with a 1-12 record from the three-point zone as he had made none of his six attempts against the Miami Heat as well.

Meanwhile, Brandon Miller and Miles Bridges were the only other Charlotte stars who scored in double digits. Conversely, all five of Orlando’s starting lineup finished in double digits.
The job of course, will only get tougher for the Magic as they await their first round series against Detroit.

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