Hornets’ Terry Rozier drawing a crowd. Someone (P.J. Washington, maybe?) must respond

Sunday’s game started with Terry Rozier hitting an absurdly wide-open 3-pointer.

He should savor that opportunity. It might be the last open shot he sees for several weeks.

The Charlotte Hornets’ 116-86 loss to the Boston Celtics was both a season-low in points and their widest margin of defeat. The underlying cause was obvious: Gordon Hayward, LaMelo Ball and Malik Monk are all out with injuries and will be for weeks to come.

That makes Rozier by far Charlotte’s best offensive weapon. The Celtics, Rozier’s former team, certainly treated him that way, sending defensive help at him constantly Sunday.

Why not? Rozier scored 22 points and no other Hornet topped 11. For now, the Hornets look as offensively limited as any NBA team.

After the Hornets were throttled Thursday by the Brooklyn Nets, coach James Borrego said you can’t win NBA games by scoring 89 points. So imagine how perplexing it must have felt to watch his team score three points less than that Sunday.

Rozier is having a career season in scoring (20.3 ppg.) and shooting (47% from the field and 41% from 3-point range). Teams are going to take liberties to over-guard him with so many other Charlotte scoring options in street clothes.

“This is our group and Terry’s just got to make the right play,” Borrego said post-game Sunday. “He’s going to see double-teams and triple-teams. It’s going to be tough on him.

“Other guys have got to step up.”

Who that is becomes the question. Point guard Devonte Graham was efficient Sunday with 11 points on 4-of-8 shooting, plus six assists. But when Charlotte’s two starting forwards —- P.J. Washington and Miles Bridges — combine for 13 points on 4-of-15 shooting, it invites an opponent to chase Rozier all over the floor with multiple bodies.

Rozier is really good; arguably the Hornets’ most valuable player this season. But he’s not James Harden or Giannis Antetokounmpo, capable of 30 points with three or four defenders shaded toward him.

Washington has been particularly disappointing of late. Over his last six games, he’s averaging 6.2 points and shooting 15-of-52 from the field (29%).

Scoring isn’t all the Hornets need from Washington. He’s playing both center and power forward and was in foul trouble for much of the first half Sunday. But in a situation like this, with so many scorers out, a guy who totaled 42 points a month ago against the Sacramento Kings ought to find the bottom of the basket more than he has of late.

Sunday’s loss dropped the Hornets out of fourth in the Eastern Conference. This could be rocky the next several weeks. Three other thoughts about what comes next:

Biggest problem: Stress on the bench

It’s understandable that Borrego responded to Hayward’s sprained foot (he’s out at least four weeks) by moving Miles Bridges into the starting lineup. But here’s the problem: With Monk out and Bridges re-assigned, there is no one to carry scoring on the second unit.

Cody and Caleb Martin and Jalen McDaniels are NBA players. But the gap between them and lottery picks Bridges and Monk is wide, and there’s no chance of that changing this season.

Borrego said pre-game he needs to avoid making the starters play marathon minutes. That will be hard to make good on until at least one of the injured guys is back.

The schedule softens, but is that enough?

If the Hornets can split these next two road games — at Oklahoma City Wednesday and at Milwaukee Friday — the schedule turns distinctly in their favor the rest of the way. Fourteen of the remaining 21 games are at Spectrum Center and at least five games are against lottery-bound opponents (Cleveland, Detroit and New Orleans).

Is that enough to get them by until health returns? Monk should be back the soonest, but that’s a minimum of two weeks. Hayward will be reevaluated in a month. Ball’s broken wrist should be reevaluated in another month or so, as well.

Chasing sixth place and tiebreakers

Under the play-in format, there is a big difference between finishing sixth and seventh in an NBA conference. Sixth means direct entry to a best-of-7 playoff series, while seventh drops you into a play-in qualifier.

As tight as the standings figure to be, the Hornets’ tiebreaker situations could be key. Through head-to-head results, the Hornets have already clinched tiebreakers over Miami, Atlanta and Indiana. If they win one of the remaining two against New York, they have that tiebreaker. They would have to sweep the remaining two games against the Celtics for that tiebreaker.

As narrow a margin as this team has — and as banged-up as they’ll be the next month — one of those tiebreakers could make a huge difference.