What: Charlotte Hornets (10-28) (6-13 home) vs Dallas Mavericks (23-19) (10-11 away)

When: 12:00pm Eastern

Where: Spectrum Center; Charlotte, NC

How to watch: NBATV, FanDuel Sports Network, NBA League Pass

Outfitting: Hornets–Statement (purple), Mavericks–Association (white)

Game Lines: Hornets +5.5, Hornets money line +180, O/U 223.5

Injuries:
Hornets: Brandon Miller-out (wrist), Tre Mann-out (back), Grant Williams-out (knee)

Mavericks: Dereck Lively II-questionable (ankle), Luka Doncic-out (calf), Dante Exum-out (wrist), Jaden Hardy-out (ankle), Dwight Powell-out (hip)

Don’t look now, but the Hornets have won three of their last four games, and two of the wins came on the road. That doesn’t mean the Hornets are going to make some magical run to the playoffs, but perhaps the roster is decently competitive when most of the players are healthy. Also none of the four games were against a good team.

That kind of continues today. The Mavericks are 23-19, which is fine, but that doesn’t truly tell the story of who the team is at this current moment. Luka Doncic has been out since Christmas day with a calf strain. Going into that game, the Mavericks were 19-10. They’re 4-9 since Luka got hurt. Prior to the injury, the Mavs had the league’s fourth best offensive rating at 117.4. In his absence, it’s 109.1, which is fifth worst in the league.

Without Doncic, Kyrie Irving is left to shoulder a heavy offensive burden, which he’s absolutely capable of handling. The problem is depth behind him. Irving isn’t the facilitator that Doncic is, so his individual brilliance doesn’t have the same elevating effect that Luke does when he’s on the floor. Spencer Dinwiddie and ol’ pal PJ Washington are the next biggest offensive threats, and both are shooting sub-40% from the field since Christmas day. Same goes for Klay Thompson, who is actually not that good anymore despite how aggressively the Mavs pursued him in the offseason. He’s scored in single digits in three of his last five games.

This game has a chance to be really ugly if the Hornets have one of those games where none of their shots go in. While the Mavericks have been poor offensively since Christmas, the Hornets are one of the few teams that have been worse. They need to find some easy shots, and hopefully LaMelo Ball regains his groove from deep. If that happens, the Hornets can defend well enough against a shallow Mavericks offense to give themselves a chance to win.