What: Charlotte Hornets (11-29) (7-13 home) vs Portland Trail Blazers (16-28) (7-16 away)
When: 7:00pm Eastern
Where: Spectrum Center; Charlotte, NC
How to watch: FanDuel Sports Network, NBA League Pass
Outfitting: Hornets–City (mint), Blazers–Association (white)
Game Lines: Hornets -4.5, Hornets money line -200, O/U 220.5
Injuries:
Hornets: Seth Curry-probable (ankle), Cody Martin-probable (groin), LaMelo Ball-questionable (wrist), Miles Bridges-questionable (back), Brandon Miller-out (wrist), Tre Mann-out (back), Grant Williams-out (knee)
Blazers: I don’t know because they’re coming off a back to back. Donovan Clingan, DeAndre Ayton, and Matisse Thybulle all missed last night’s game.
The Hornets get comfortable at home as they tip off a nine game homestand. Now that they’re back at home, it appears the training staff was able to find some injuries to add to the report. With how the season has gone, I wouldn’t be surprised if Ball and Bridges end up getting ruled out. After all, the Hornets have been winning and they’re favored in this one. Gotta be careful not to stumble into too many wins.
The Blazers have been somewhat surprisingly regular bad instead of very bad this season. Anfernee Simons leads a balanced scoring attack along with Shaedon Sharpe. Jerami Grant and Deni Avdija provide some do-it-all glue guy stuff from the forward positions. They have good size at the center position with Ayton and Clingan, though both might be out tonight. That leaves Robert Williams and Duop Reath as the center rotation. They played well against the Magic, but Mark Williams has a chance to feast on this matchup.
The most notable story in the Blazers season recently is the sudden emergence then maybe disappearance of Scoot Henderson. He’s gotten off to a bumpy start to his career after fans and the media had him as the near consensus number two pick behind Victor Wembanyama in the 2023 NBA Draft. He had actually been worse statistically in year two than he was in his rookie season. Then he scored 39 points against the Nets on January 14th and followed that with a three game stretch where he averaged a tick over 20 points per game. That was the player he was supposed to be.
Then he followed that with 11 points on just eight shot attempts in 34 minutes and a four point showing against the Magic in which he fouled out in just 14 minutes. Who knows what you’re going to get with him, though I’m sure there’s a part of him that holds some vendetta against the Hornets for passing on him.
