What: Charlotte Hornets (18-56) (11-26 home) vs Utah Jazz (16-59) (7-29 away)
When: 7:00pm Eastern
Where: Spectrum Center; Charlotte, NC
How to watch: FanDuel Sports Network, NBA League Pass
Outfitting: Hornets–Association (white), Jazz–City (purple)
Game Lines: Hornets -2.5, Hornets money line -140, O/U 220.5
Injuries:
Hornets: Josh Green-probable (shoulder), Seth Curry-probable (knee), Josh Okogie-out (hamstring management), LaMelo Ball-out (ankle), Brandon Miller-out (wrist), Tre Mann-out (back), Grant Williams-out (knee)
Jazz: Collin Sexton-questionable (ischial tuberosity [hip]), Cody Williams-questionable (illness), Larui Markkanen-out (knee), Walker Kessler-out (conditioning), John Collins-out (ankle), Jordan Clarkson-out (foot), Taylor Hendricks-out (leg)
The Jazz have poorly tanked the last couple of years, and they made sure to not let that happen again this season. Lauri Markkanen has had a very down year compared to his first two in Utah, and he’s missed a big chunk of the season on top of that. The rest of their decent players have all missed significant periods of time, and the team has even eaten a $100,000 fine for violating the league’s play participation policy by holding Markkanen out of games. They’re doing that again tonight with a battle for lottery seeding somewhat on the line.
The Hornets notched a key victory in that regard by losing to the Pelicans on Sunday night. They now have 2.5 games of cushion should they luck their way into a win or two down the stretch. That’s the same gap that currently exists between the Hornets and Jazz. Should the Jazz win tonight, it becomes slightly more possible that the Hornets overtake them in the lottery standings. However, that would require the Jazz winning at least two more games outside of this one, which seems impossible given that they’re 1-15 since the start of March with the only win coming at home over the Wizards.
It looks like both Miles Bridges and Mark Williams are going to play, which gives the Hornets a huge advantage over a Jazz team that looks like it’ll be starting a lineup of G Leaguers and maybe but probably not Collin Sexton. Keyonte George and Kyle Filipowski probably check in as the team’s best players without an active Sexton, which says about all that needs to be said about this game.
