Charlotte Hornets Report: Week of March 5th 2020

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LAST 7 GAMES

-       @ Chicago Bulls: W, 103-93

-       vs. Brooklyn Nets: L, 86-115

-       @ Indiana Pacers: L, 80-119

-       vs. New York Knicks: W, 107-101

-       @ Toronto Raptors: W, 99-96

-       vs. Milwaukee Bucks: L, 85, 93

-       vs. San Antonio Spurs: L, 103-104

If you notice that there are a lot more games than usual, that is because I forgot to do a Hornets Report last week. Last week, was a decent week for Charlotte to be perfectly honest. The biggest takeaway was definitely the big win on the road in Toronto. The Raptors are currently 2nd in the East and to beat them on the road was momentous. And just a couple days later, they actually contended with the best team in basketball. They had a great defensive game against the Bucks, but just missed getting a big home win. The Hornets have 21 more games left in the season and are surprisingly only 5.5 games out of playoff contention. We’ll see how the next week goes as they have a tough slate coming up. 

NEXT 4 GAMES

-       vs. Denver Nuggets (41-20): Thursday, March 5th at 7pm

-       vs. Houston Rockets (39-21): Saturday, March 7th at 5pm

-       @ Atlanta Hawks (19-44): Monday, March 9th at 7:30pm

-       @ Miami Heat (40-22): Wednesday, March 11th at 7:30pm

Tonight, the Hornets will square off with the Denver Nuggets. It’s no secret that the Nuggets are one of the best teams in basketball and the Hornets will have their hands full in this inter-conference matchup. The gameplan for the Nuggets runs through Nikola Jokić and you’re not going to stop him. He creates so much offense for Denver and opens up the floor for the numerous shooters on the squad. Denver won the only matchup against the Hornets this year and Michael Porter Jr. was the leading scorer for Denver in the last game. The turnover battle should be crucial in this one because Denver likes to move the ball. 

It looks like the Rockets are gearing up for a playoff run, because they have been playing good basketball as of late. They have a fully healthy team and it will be a tough matchup for Charlotte. Westbrook didn’t play in the last matchup, so I’m interested to see how his inclusion will be different from the last time they played each other. In the last matchup, James Hardon dropped 40 and was 1 rebound shy of a triple-double. It helps that the Hornets are at home this time, but it won’t be an easy contest. 

The Hawks are the 3rd worst team in the NBA, but they can break the hearts of opponents when they want to. Surprisingly, the Hawks and Hornets have only faced each other once, but including this game, they have 3 more matchups. The Hawks won the first time and unsurprisingly, Trae Young was the leading scorer with 30 points. I have a feeling this will be an absolute showoff game for Young. He has been lighting up the scoreboard all season long and I have a feeling the Hawks will let him do his thing against Charlotte. 

Miami will be the last game of the slate and it will be a challenging road test for Charlotte. A win against the Heat would be huge for Charlotte to have a shot of making the playoffs. On paper, the Heat do not look like a huge threat, but you can never count them out. They’ve clearly been a good team all season long and I feel like they are one of the rivals of the Hornets, especially over the last couple years. Miami is another team that Charlotte hasn’t seen a lot of yet, but they will over the coming weeks. Miami won their only matchup and have 3 remaining. We’ll see how those go, but expect Miami to be shaping up for the playoffs. 

Yacs