Swarm and Sting
Fansided

Charlotte Hornets return home to battle the Miami Heat

By Elijah Edwards

MIAMI, FL - DECEMBER 1: Dwight Howard
MIAMI, FL - DECEMBER 1: Dwight Howard /
facebooktwitterreddit

After a brief road stint, the Charlotte Hornets return to the Spectrum Center for four straight games. Given their road record, the Hornets could definitely use a decent homestand. They’ll begin it Friday night against the Miami Heat.

“There’s no place like home.” That holds especially true for the Charlotte Hornets (10-17), given that 80% of their wins have come in the Spectrum Center. Granted, 8-6 isn’t that great of a home record, but it’s one of the few positive things going for the team this season. Perhaps this series of games could help turn their season around. Getting revenge against the Miami Heat (13-14) would be a nice place to start.

In their first meeting, the Hornets were without Kemba Walker. Still, it was a close game with the final being 105-100. You have to assume that having Kemba back and being at home will shift the odds in the Hornets’ favor. Then again, any team can lose on any given night, right?

Charlotte lost their last game against the Houston Rockets in Houston, 96-108. They are 13th in the East. Miami is coming off a loss as well, losing to the Portland Trailblazers at home, 95-102. They are 10th in the East.

More from Swarm and Sting

Charlotte Hornets vs Miami Heat
7:00 p.m. EST, Friday, December 15th, 2017
Spectrum Center
Broadcast on Fox Sports Southeast

Injury Report:

CHA:

Cody Zeller – Knee (Out)

Steve Clifford

MIA:

Hassan Whiteside – Knee (Out)

Okaro White – Foot (Out)

Rodney McGruder – Leg (Out)

Justise Winslow – Knee (Out)

Things to keep an eye on:

With all the injuries the Heat have right now, this could prove to be a blowout, but it can be hard to tell which Hornets team you’re going to get on a nightly basis. To be fair, the Hornets played well most of the game earlier in the month, but couldn’t finish the Heat off and allowed a 9-0 run to end the game. Josh Richardson had a career high with 27 points in the first game. One would assume that won’t happen again. Charlotte shot just 25% from deep against the Heat in their last game. It’ll be interesting to see if they can do a better job this time, but when you’re only shooting 34.9% from three on the season, you might not want to get your hopes up.

Keys to the game:

Not so fun fact: Dwight Howard had nine turnovers in the last game against the Heat. The rest of the team combined for 13. He also had five personal fouls, which limited his production. He’s going to need to be more disciplined if the Hornets want to win. Having 20 and 20 Dwight would be very nice against a team that is very lean in the frontcourt right now. The Hornets will also need to create open shots from downtown because 25% isn’t going to cut it. If Kemba can attack the basket and dish out when the defense closes in on him, that could set up open shooters.

Next: A look back at Larry Johnson's legacy

This is a game the Hornets can and should win, but they’ll need to play a full 48 minutes. Too many times have they let teams back in it late only to end up losing the game. Winning all four of their next home games would be a shot in the arm the team desperately needs. Beating a weakened Heat team would set the tone very nicely.

Home/Hornets News