What: Charlotte Hornets (43-36) (22-17 away) at Boston Celtics (53-25) (27-11 home)
When: 8:00pm Eastern
Where: TD Garden, Boston, MA
How to watch: NBC, Peacock
Outfitting: Hornets–Icon (teal), Celtics–Association (white)
Game Lines: Hornets +5.5, Hornets money line +185, O/U 219.5
Injuries:
Hornets: Coby White-probable (groin), PJ Hall-out (ankle)
Celtics: None
This is as close to a playoff warmup game as the Hornets are going to get. It’s a late local start and the game is being nationally televised on NBC. This is the kind of environment they’re going to be dealing with in the play-in and should they make the playoffs. And the Celtics are a very possible postseason opponent depending on how the rest of the regular season shakes out.
The Celtics are at full strength and are looking like a juggernaut once again. Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown are both superstars that can do a little bit of everything. Tatum’s return and improving form has allowed Derrick White to get easier looks and go back to his elite glue guy role, and it’s sent Payton Pritchard to the bench, where he’d be a Sixth Man of the Year candidate if he played there all season. Nikola Vucevic is back, and while we haven’t seen much of him with the Celtics, the Hornets are fully aware of the threat he provides.
There are a bunch of parallels between these two teams. There’s a lot of overlap in the construction of the starting lineup. There are a couple of superstar scorers, a shooter, a glue guy, and a high energy big that pummels the offensive glass and creates a of bunch of problems on the defensive end. On the bench is an elite shot creating guard and some solid defensive role players. The Celtics are like the seasoned version of the Hornets.
And that’s what makes this such a tough game. Both teams are so similarly constructed and do a lot of the same things. On the surface, they have the same strengths and weaknesses. The Celtics are simply better and more experienced right now.
In the last meeting, the Hornets had one of their worst nights shooting in quite a while. They finished the game 12-of-43 from three. Their four primary scorers were 8-of-33. They aren’t going to win games when all of their top options go cold at the same time. Fortunately that doesn’t happen often, and they’ll need for it to not happen tonight. The 3-point shooting has hovered around 40% in the four games since that loss, and that’s with a rough shooting game against Brooklyn right after the loss to Boston thrown in. The shooting is trending back towards the norm. They’ll give themselves a chance if they can hit around 40% of their threes on high volume.
The Hornets currently find themselves in a three way tie for seventh after a win by the Magic and a loss by the 76ers on Monday night. They all sit a half game behind the Raptors, who play the Heat tonight. A Hornets win combined with a Raptors loss would move the Hornets in the 6 slot for the time being. This is also the toughest game the Hornets have left. A win here would have them flying high before the final two games of the regular season and the playoffs.
