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Charlotte Hornets vs Washington Wizards recap: final score and what we learned (Week of Oct 30–Nov 5, 2026)

NBA Audit · Week of Oct 30–Nov 5, 2026 · Game recap

The Washington Wizards beat the Charlotte Hornets 95-79, and the preview's central question got a fairly loud answer. We asked whether Charlotte's recent form was real or a record running ahead of the play. On this night, the play won, and by 16.

For Washington, the win is a bit of the traction we said it was looking for. For Charlotte, the offense that the preview flagged as the weak point stayed weak.

The result

The box score tells a lopsided story, and it isn't the one you'd expect from the shot counts. Charlotte put up 101 field goal attempts to Washington's 73. Charlotte made 30 and Washington made 28. Those makes are close. The percentages are not: Washington shot 38 percent and Charlotte shot 30.

The three-point line stretched it further. The Hornets went 12 of 56 from deep, 21 percent. Washington went 10 of 30, 33 percent. Charlotte hoisted a huge volume and got very little back for it.

Then there's the free throw line, where the game was probably won. Washington went 29 of 35 at 83 percent. Charlotte went 7 of 12 at 58 percent. Charlotte also committed 27 fouls to Washington's 17, and that imbalance in whistles lines up with the imbalance at the stripe.

Charlotte did plenty of other things well. It won the offensive glass with 18 offensive rebounds to Washington's 9, finished with 55 total rebounds to 53, and had 22 assists to 18. It also had 12 steals to Washington's 6. Those are the numbers of a team that worked hard and still lost, because the shots didn't fall and the free throws weren't there.

How our preview held up

The preview made no pick, so there's no call to grade. The read was that Washington had the cleaner scoring profile, that Charlotte's offense was carrying too much weight at 99 points per game, and that the Wizards held the clear edge in scoring rate. That held up well. Charlotte finished with 79, far below its season scoring average.

Where I'd give the preview a partial miss is on the defensive side. We called Charlotte's defense the strongest piece it brought, and we said it could keep the Hornets in range even with a quiet offense. Washington scored 95, well short of the 113.4 it averages coming in, so the defense did something. But the offense gave it nothing to work with.

The preview also pointed to Brandon Miller's shot-making as the swing factor for Charlotte. Charlotte shot 30 percent as a team, which suggests that concern was warranted, though I won't claim anything about individual performances beyond that.

What it means

Charlotte's three wins in its last five now look more fragile. A team that leans on its defense needs its offense to be merely adequate, and 30 percent shooting is nowhere near that. The Hornets need to find a way to turn their rebounding and ball movement into efficient looks, because the effort stats were fine and the results weren't.

For Washington, one game doesn't settle a season, but beating a team that took so many more shots by hitting its free throws and shooting a respectable percentage is a good sign. The Wizards have won two of their last five before this game, and this is the kind of win that can steady that.

Read our pre-game preview: Charlotte Hornets vs Washington Wizards preview: team news, form and key matchups (Oct 30)

Final score

Team stats

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Data attribution: Stats for informational analysis only. Verify figures against official league sources.