What: Charlotte Hornets (7-21) (3-10 away) at Los Angeles Lakers (16-15) (10-4 home)

When: 10:30pm Eastern

Where: crypto.com Arena; Los Angeles, California

How to watch: Bally Sports Southeast, NBA League Pass

Outfitting: Hornets–Icon (teal), Lakers–Icon (yellow)

Game Lines: Hornets +13.5, O/U 229.5

Injuries:
Hornets: Brandon Miller-questionable (ankle), Mark Williams-doubtful (back), LaMelo Ball-out (ankle), Gordon Hayward-out (calf), Frank Ntilikina-out (leg)

Lakers: Jarred Vanderbilt-probable (heel), LeBron James-questionable (knee), Anthony Davis-questionable (ankle), Cam Reddish-questionable (groin), Gabe Vincent-out (knee)

The Hornets have maybe quietly lost eight straight games and ten of their last 11. It’ll be tough to snap that streak against the Lakers, who when healthy are one of the tougher outs in the league. The ‘when healthy’ part is up in the air tonight. Both LeBron James and Anthony Davis are listed as questionable, and a home game against the Hornets is about as good an opportunity as their is to rest those guys with a visit to the Timberwolves. On the other hand, the Lakers have lost four out of five and may be feeling some heat to get the ship right. They also recently snapped the Spurs 18 game losing streak, so they may not want to drop another game to a flailing bottom feeder.

The Hornets are down a lot of intrigue if both Williams and Miller continue to be sidelined. In a season that’s quickly trending towards lost, watching Ball, Miller, and Williams is the main thing to keep Hornets fans coming back. With all of them potentially out and the Hornets playing at 10:30 Eastern time, I wouldn’t blame any of you if you decided to go to bed instead.

Over their last six games, the Lakers are almost as bad defensively as the Hornets are. That may help the Hornets right the ship on offense, where they’ve been far and away the worst team in the league in that same six game stretch. Without LaMelo Ball creating offense, it’s a jumbled mess of drives and isolation basketball.

For the Hornets to win, they’re going to need to hope at least one of LeBron and AD don’t play. They’ll need to find their range from deep and actually play with a little togetherness. If all that happens and the Lakers miss a few shots, there’s some hope for tonight. But that doesn’t seem likely given the pretty wide spread for this game.