What: Charlotte Hornets (19-61) (7-32 away) at Boston Celtics (59-21) (26-13 home)
When: 7:30pm Eastern
Where: TD Garden; Boston, MA
How to watch: FanDuel Sports Network, NBA League Pass
Outfitting: Hornets–Statement (purple), Celtics–Association (white)
Game Lines: Hornets +19.5, Hornets money line +1300, O/U 214.5
Injuries:
Hornets: Moussa Diabate-questionable (illness), Miles Bridges-out (hip), Josh Green-out (shoulder), LaMelo Ball-out (ankle), Brandon Miller-out (wrist), Tre Mann-out (back), Grant Williams-out (knee)
Celtics: Jaylen Brown-out (knee)
The Celtics made sure they were well rested for this pivotal matchup with the Hornets. Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Derrick White, Jrue Holiday, Kristaps Porzingis, and Al Horford all sat out Wednesday’s loss to the Magic to ensure they’d be fresh to host the Charlotte Hornets. With all of those players out, the Celtics trotted out a starting lineup of Torrey Craig, Payton Pritchard, Luke Kornet, Sam Hauser, and Baylor Scheierman, the perhaps the whitest starting lineup that NBA has seen in decades. They lost 96-76.
Boston doesn’t have anything to play for; they’re firmly locked into the two seed in the Eastern Conference playoff race. That said, with the play-in tournament coming up early next week, they’re likely going to want to keep getting some minutes for their key guys to stay sharp. They’ll put themselves at a disadvantage if they try to get up for a playoff series having not played for a week while their opponent is riding the momentum of winning the play-in round a few days prior. They’ll likely be on a minutes count, but the Celtics are going to give their key guys burn. They’ll probably be good enough to blow the game open even without their usual minutes.
The Hornets are separated from the Wizards and Jazz above them by two games and the Pelicans below them by also two games, and every team has two games left to play. The Hornets have to lose at least one of the last two games to secure their spot as the standalone three seed in the lottery. Tonight seems like a good bet for that to happen seeing as the Celtics are playing their guys and oddsmakers have set it so that you’d have to bet $4000 on the Celtics to win straight up to win $100.
