Charlotte Hornets Report: Week of February 20th 2020

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All-Star Break is over and all that remain are 28 regular season games. Although no Hornets were voted into the ASG, they were pretty active. Miles Bridges won the Rising Stars MVP and PJ Washington and Devonte’ Graham also competed in the game. Graham was in the 3-Point contest the next night, but didn’t make it out of the first round. Dwayne Bacon was sent down to the G-League affiliate Greensboro Swarm yesterday and scored 51 points in the last night. The Hornets are still only 5.5 games out of the 8 seed, but on the same note, they’re only 4 games from the last place spot in the East. The margins are slim and they must decide what the next few weeks are going to be like. In the next 4 games, the Hornets will have split games home and away and here is what the upcoming week will look like. 

NEXT 4 GAMES

-       @ Chicago Bulls (19-36): Thursday, February 20th at 8pm

-       vs. Brooklyn Nets (25-28): Saturday, February 22nd at 7pm

-       @ Indiana Pacers (32-23): Tuesday, February 25th at 7pm

-       vs. New York Knicks (17-38): Wednesday, February 26th at 7pm

Tonight, the Hornets will take on the Chicago Bulls in Illinois. The Bulls are in a similar boat as the Hornets, but once they get their players healthy, they have more to play for to be honest. They have a really young team and they could benefit from playing really hard in the closing stages of the season and it could give them a confidence boost heading into next year. I don’t think that will be the case in Charlotte, so it is difficult to say how this game will go, but I think this will be a great chance for Charlotte to continue their winning streak. This will be the last meeting between the two teams and Charlotte currently leads the season series at 2-1. Hopefully they can get another season series win tonight. 

The Nets are next on Saturday and we learned today that Kyrie Irving will miss the rest of the season. The Nets are still a decent team without Irving, so it will be a tough game at home for Charlotte. This also will be the final game of the season series between the two, but Brooklyn leads 2-1. This game will be a chance for Charlotte to tie the series up and inch a little closer to that 8 seed. Caris LeVert has been leading the Nets lately and he is averaging 24 PPG in his last 5. They also have Spencer Dinwiddie, DeAndre Jordan, and Jarret Allen to look out for. It should be an interesting game, but I wouldn’t count on the Hornets winning here. 

Next on the slate is the Pacers and this will be the most difficult game of the week. With almost a fully healthy roster, the Pacers could be a force in the playoffs. They’re one of the most complete teams in basketball and they don’t have many weaknesses. They finally have Victor Oladipo back, but he hasn’t really had a full go yet. Domantas Sabonis is averaging 19.7 PPG and 10.6 RPG in his last 10 and former NC State forward, TJ Warren is averaging 21.1 PPG in his last 11. It will be tough for the Hornets to pull away with a win here, but they have beaten them this year. It was their first meeting, but the Hornets have lost the other two. This will also be their last meeting this season and the Hornets have a shot to even it up here. 

The last game of the week is against a weak Knicks team. Julius Randle has been in a groove as of late averaging 21.3 PPG and 11.7 RPG in his last 10, but the rest of the team is lacking. The Hornets have won the previous two meetings this year and they will meet one more time this season. The Knicks look to be one of the worst teams this year, thus giving them a shot to get a good draft pick. This could be another win for Charlotte, but in the state that the Hornets are in, it wouldn’t surprise me if they take the loss here. It will be interesting to see how it turns out. 

Yacs