After 79 games, the Charlotte Hornets have nothing left.

Tonight’s 112-99 loss to Miami effectively ended their playoff push. Sitting 11^th in the Eastern Conference at 36-43, the Hornets could sweep their final three games (April 8 against Boston, April 10 at Milwaukee and April 11 at Atlanta) and still fail to make the postseason based on tiebreakers.

In his fifth season, coach Steve Clifford has taken the Hornets to the playoffs three times. He struggled to engage this year’s squad with buying into the team’s typical defense-first mindset and attributed their demise to simply being gassed.

“Tonight was six [games] in nine [days] for us,” Clifford said. “I don’t make excuses for our guys, but that was not lack of effort. We are exhausted. These games have been taxing. We have been playing every game like an elimination game. I think you could see right from the beginning, we just had no legs. Some nights you are disappointed because you think they can play harder. I don’t think that was the case at all. They were trying even in the huddle to get each other going. When you play 82 games, there are nights when you don’t have it.”

However, this late in the season, everybody is tired.

“The position that you are in when you are fighting for the playoffs, it does not really matter,” forward Marvin Williams said. “Everybody is tired. Miami came out here rested. They looked rested. They shot the ball extremely well [hitting 21 shots from beyond the arc]. Everybody is tired at this point. You cannot blame it on the back-to-back, or whatever it is. It is the same game for everybody.”

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