What's the buzz with the Charlotte Hornets' defense?

It's December 14, and Charlotte Hornets head coach SteveClifford has already had enough.

Normally a willing interviewee and giving orator, Clifford setsthe stage early.

"You don't have to ask questions," he says, before laying downthe law for nearly two full minutes.

The heart of the message: The Hornets won't win games — andcertainly nothing of consequence — if they don't nail the littlethings. And they'll have no shot if they don't nail the big thing:Defense.

"We are playing no defense, not one guy. There's no brightspot," Clifford says.

"We don't run back on defense. We don't guard the ball. Ourpick-and-roll stuff — all stuff that was good. I think we were ashigh as 12th or 13th in defense about 10 games ago, and we're rightback where we started: Ground Zero, where all we want to be is,"Let's try to outscore the other team." It doesn't work that way."

Quotes don't really do it justice — you can watch the wholething here — but Clifford was right on all accounts. Well,mostly all accounts.

Through Dec. 14, the Hornets ranked 26th in half-court defenseper Cleaning The Glass. Opponents generated 1.083 points perpossession (PPP) on trips featuring a drive against the Hornets,the worst mark in the NBA. Only five teams allowed more points on aper-possession basis than the Hornets when defendingpick-and-rolls.

The lone bright spotwasthe transitiondefense, ranking fifth in PPP allowed (1.165) and second intransition frequency allowed (13.7% of possessions). Honestly, itmade sense for Clifford to be paranoid overseeing any slippage inthat area, considering how woeful everything else hadbeen.

Fast forward a few months, and we're singing a differenttune.