What: Charlotte Hornets (37-34) (17-17 home) vs Sacramento Kings (19-53) (6-28 away)
When: 7:00pm Eastern
Where: Spectrum Center; Charlotte, NC
How to watch: FanDuel Sports Network, NBA League Pass
Outfitting: Hornets–Association (white), Kings–City (purple)
Game Lines: Hornets -17.5, Hornets money line -1350, O/U 229.5
Injuries:
Hornets: Kon Knueppel-probable (back), Tidjane Salaün-out (calf)
Kings: Daeqwon Plowden-probable (foot), Precious Achiuwa-questionable (back), Killian Hayes-questionable (foot), Domantas Sabonis-out (knee), Zach LaVine-out (finger), De’Andre Hunter-out (eye), Keegan Murray-out (ankle), Russell Westbrook-out (foot), Nique Clifford-out (foot), Drew Eubanks-out (thumb)
The Hornets look to make it four wins in a row after three straight blowouts over the Heat, Magic, and Grizzlies. The Kings have been feisty, but there’s no reason for this not to go the way of the Hornets’ previous three.
Sacramento has seemingly had enough of their own feistiness.They had been careening towards the bottom of the NBA standings and the top lottery odds, but they suddenly started winning some games and have since been out-tanked by the Pacers, Wizards, and Nets. They actually just beat the Nets in a tank showdown. They’re 5-3 in their last eight in large part because they’ve played a lof of other tanking teams and won literally every single one of those games. That is not how you tank, Sacramento.
After their rather narrow loss to the Hornets in which DeMar DeRozan dropped 39 points, the veteran led the Kings to a win over the Clippers with 27 points then a win over the Jazz with 41 points and 11 assists. After that, he’s seemingly gotten a directive to chill the heck out. He played just 17 minutes against the Spurs and attempted four shots. Over the three games since that performance against Utah, he’s averaged 8.3 points per game while attempting seven shots per game. After watching him nearly carry an otherwise awful Kings team to a win over the Hornets a couple of weeks ago, we can hope that he’s going to continue to play with the dial turned way back tonight.
After DeRozan, the most dangerous King is probably rookie second round pick Maxime Raynaud. He’s flown under the radar a bit because he’s a second round pick on a terrible team, but he’s had a monster back of the season. Since the all star break, he’s averaging 17.9 points, 9.1 rebounds, and 2.1 assists per game. He’s shooting over 60% from the field and can step out and knock down the occasional three. He was a no show against Charlotte in the first meeting, but he comes into this one hot, averaging 28 points per game over his last three.
And then there’s Malik Monk. He didn’t play last time for reasons unknown, but I think he’ll suit up tonight. He led the Kings to a win in their most recent game with 32 points off the bench. He’s been all over the place all season, both in terms of production and in minutes played. He’s had many games where he’s played few to no minutes, and others where he’s gotten 30+. Some games he’s been invisible, others he drops 30 points. He’ll surely want to do well against his old team, which could get dangerous if he starts feeling himself.
The Kings have a few other role players that could pose some problems here and there, but it goes without saying that the Hornets have a massive talent advantage from top to bottom. The Kings can’t score from the outside, so if the Hornets are able to limit DeRozan and protect the rim like they typically do, it’s going to be very hard for the Kings to keep pace.
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