Road wins don’t come easy for most NBA teams. That certainly holds true for the Charlotte Hornets. Can they split the season series and get a much-needed road win against the Portland Trail Blazers?
Road games haven’t exactly been a boon for the Charlotte Hornets (23-30) this season. At 8-16 (.333), the team has certainly struggled away from home. With 17 road games left, however, there’s still a bit of time left for them to improve. They’ve won five of their last seven on the road, so there’s reason to be optimistic, albeit cautiously.
I say cautiously because nine of those 17 upcoming road games are against teams either in playoff contention or vying for playoff contention. One of those such teams is the Portland Trail Blazers. The same Blazers team that narrowly beat the Hornets in Charlotte, back on December 16th. The score was 93-91. Charlotte’s main issue in that game was their poor field goal percentage, only shooting 34.4% from the floor and 22% from three. You’re not going to see much success with those numbers against any team.
Charlotte’s last game was a 104-121 loss to the Denver Nuggets. They are 10th in the East. Portland is coming off a loss as well, losing to the Detroit Pistons, 91-111. They are tied for 6th in the West.
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Portland Trailblazers vs Charlotte Hornets
10:00 p.m. EST, Thursday, February 8th, 2018
Moda Center
Fox Sports Southeast
Injury Report:
CHA:
Marvin Williams – Ankle (Game-Time Decision)
POR:
Evan Turner – Calf (Game-Time Decision)
C.J. Wilcox – Knee (Out)
Things to keep an eye on:
Don’t look now, but Nicolas Batum has been playing rather well lately. He’s averaging 22.6 points over the past three games and has led the team in assists in four of their last seven games. It seems he’s finally found where he fits within the offense. He’ll definitely need to be on point against his former team. Can the Hornets stop the duo of C.J. Mccollum and Damien Lillard? Let’s hope so because, in their last game, they combined for 43 points. That’s not exactly mindblowing, but this was on the road. You’d imagine being at home would prove to make guarding them more difficult.
Keys to the game:
Make your shots. As mentioned before, Charlotte shot very poorly in the last game against Portland. The captain, Kemba Walker, shot 0-9 from deep. If they want to win, he cannot repeat that. Charlotte had the rebounding edge (no surprise there), but only by five. Portland is a great rebounding team as well, sitting at 8th in the NBA in total rebounds per game. Dwight Howard will need to be aggressive, especially on the offensive glass.
Next: What Kemba means to the City of Charlotte
It’s no secret that successful teams win on the road. With 17 of their last 29 games coming on the road, Charlotte has to improve upon their record away from home if they even want to sniff the playoffs. A win on the road against the Trailblazers would certainly help.