What: Charlotte Hornets (5-10) at New York Knicks (9-7)
When: 7:30pm Eastern
Where: Madison Square Garden; New York, NY
How to watch: Bally Sports Southeast, NBA League Pass
Outfitting: Hornets–Association (white), Knicks–City (blue)
Game Lines: Hornets +11.5, O/U 222.5
Injuries:
Hornets: LaMelo Ball-doubtful (ankle), James Bouknight-probable (knee), Nick Richards-out (concussion), Cody Martin-out (knee), Frank Ntilikina-out (leg)
Knicks: None
LaMelo Ball will probably be downgraded to out before too long. Clearly the betting market doesn’t think he’ll play, as the spread has moved from 7.5 to 11.5 since it opened. Without Ball, Terry Rozier will handle the starting point guard duties, and I’d presume Brandon Miller will slide back into the starting lineup. Rozier played well in Ball’s absence, dishing out nine assists to go along with an efficient 22 points in his first game back from an injury of his own. He doesn’t have the creativity or natural passing instincts of Ball, but he’ll fill in just fine.
The Knicks have their full complement of players, and they’re still the same team the Hornets saw a little over a week ago. They have a strong defense and grab all of the rebounds. Their offense is slow and features a lot of self creation from their ball dominant stars, but it’s just good enough to complement their defense.
In the last meeting between these two teams, Mitchell Robinson grabbed 11 offensive rebounds. The Hornets did a good job of not letting those turn into second chance points, but they can’t expect that to hold up if they keep giving up rebounds like that. Donte DeVincenzo hit seven 3-pointers on ten attempts. The Hornets can’t have that happen again if they’re going to win this game.
The Hornets are technically still alive in the In-Season Tournament. The Bucks are already 3-0 in the group, so the Hornets can’t pass them to win the group. Their hopes, if you could call them that, rest on them being the best second place team of any of the three Eastern Conference groups. That would require a Hornets win and losses by the Heat, Cavs, Celtics, and Nets. On top of that, the Hornets need to have the best point differential of what would be seven 2-2 teams to advance. They’re currently sitting at -30, so at the very least they need to win by 40 to pass the idle 76ers and hope for a couple of decent margins of defeat for the teams they need to lose.
The Hornets “have a chance,” but I wouldn’t hold my breath.
This game still counts for the regular season though, so no reason to treat this any different than any other game, unless the Hornets find themselves up by more than 30 when garbage time rolls around.
