The Charlotte Hornets Look to Bounce Back Against the Orlando Magic

The Charlotte Hornets are coming off of a loss to the Boston Celtics and are looking to rebound with a win against the Orlando Magic.

The Charlotte Hornets (14-9) are set to take on the Orlando Magic (13-11) in a divisional match-up for the team’s first meeting of the season. These two team’s split their season series last year at two games apiece with the Hornets winning both games in Orlando last season.

The Magic are coming off of a dominating win against the Brooklyn Nets in which they got the victory with a 105-82 win. They return home to face Charlotte where they have been a different team as compared to last season.

The Charlotte Hornets are coming off of a close and heartbreaking loss to the Boston Celtics, 98-93, at home where the team rarely ever loses this year. The Hornets will be on the road for this game and they haven’t played too well away from home so far this season. They have had the past three days off to rest in preparation for this one.

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The Magic are an impressive 7-4 at home this season and have shown growth for a young team this year. They had only won three home games at this point in the season last year. The Hornets are only 6-7 on the road this season and have struggled much more away from home. They are a dominating team at The Hive but they will need to learn how to win on the road if they want to remain a top team in the Eastern Conference.

Divisional match-ups like this one are always fun because both teams are very familiar with each other as they will play four times this year. It will be interesting to see who takes the season series this year because both of these young teams are looking to make significant improvement and growth. They both have and both have winning records this year which may be a bit surprising to some.

Al Jefferson may be able to return in this game from his left calf strain but he will have to serve his five game suspension once he gets healthy and the sooner he gets heathy, the sooner he can serve those five games.

Charlotte Hornets (14-9) @ Orlando magic (13-11)

7:00 p.m. EST, Wednesday, December 16th – Amway Center

Broadcast on FOX Sports Southeast

Injury Update:

CHA:Michael Kidd-Gilchrist – OUT (right shoulder surgery), missed last 23 games Al Jefferson – PROBABLE (left calf strain), missed last six games*

* If active, Jefferson will serve game 1 of a five game suspension.

ORL: C.J. Watson – sore left calf, OUT

Best Match-up to Watch:

Charlotte Hornets Bench vs Orlando Magic Bench

This is a match-up of two of the best scoring benches in the NBA and each team’s bench could surely decide the game. We all know that the Hornets’ bench has changed and won a lot of games for the team this season and their success is almost directly a result of their bench play.

The Charlotte Hornets have the fourth highest scoring bench in the NBA with 40.4 points per game this season and the Magic have the 11th highest scoring bench with 36.6 points per game. There is a big gap between the two teams in terms of ranking but they are only serrated by an average of four points per game.

Jeremy Lin, Jeremy Lamb, and Spencer Hawes have played great as part of the second unit for Charlotte this year and as of late. They lead the bench unit and will hope to have a good game against the Magic in this one.

The Orlando Magic are led by Victor Oladipo who they moved to the bench earlier this season and Aaron Gordan who was the team’s first round draft pick last season. Oladipo is averaging 13.8 points per game off of the bench to lead Orlando.

Prediction:

The Charlotte Hornets have been successful against most teams as of late and will bounce back from their most recent loss in this one. I pick the Hornets to get the win over the Magic even though the Magic have been money in Orlando this year, Charlotte has had three days to rest for this one and they will be prepared.

Next: The Charlotte Hornets Are Great on Both Ends of the Floor

Check back with Swarm and Sting for post game recaps, news, and analysis on the Charlotte Hornets.