As the Hornets were nearing State Farm Arena in Atlanta, a train stopped in front of the team bus, causing the players to be late and the game to be delayed 15 minutes. 

At one point, the Hornets players decided to walk the final stretch to the arena. Forward Montrezl Harrell captured a video of the players walking to the arena on his Instagram story. 

Charlotte coach James Borrego wasn’t too thrilled about the incident, and he thinks the train stopping was part of a plan to delay his team.  

“I’ve been coming to this arena for 20 years, I’ve never seen the train stop before the game,” Borrego said.  

The Hornets enter Wednesday night as the No. 10 seed in the Eastern Conference, while the Hawks are the No. 9 seed.  

Whichever team wins the first play-in game will continue onto the next play-in game, while the loser will be officially out of playoff contention.

“I’ve never seen that,” Hornets coach James Borrego said. “I’ve been coming to this arena for 20 years, and I’ve never seen a train stop before the game.”

He said the delay fired up the 10th-seeded Hornets, who were looking to earn their way into the playoffs for the first time since 2016.