ATLANTA — The doors hadn’t even popped open on the Charlotte Hornets’ charter buses yet Sunday afternoon and it was evident this wasn’t going to be a fun evening in the very place their season burned into a pile of ashes back in April. Missing three key players will do that, particularly when two-thirds of those absences represent the starting backcourt and feature their All-Star point guard and the team’s leading scorer. But Steve Clifford wasn’t about to tie a white pillowcase to a stick and start waiving it around in the moments leading up to tipoff against Atlanta at State Farm Arena. “It’…