Charlotte Hornets host Cleveland Cavaliers amid two-game skid

After winning three straight, the Charlotte Hornets have now lost two straight. But, a home game against the lowly Cleveland Cavaliers could be just what the team needs.

It feels like forever ago since the Charlotte Hornets (14-15) were riding high on a three-game winning streak, but in reality, it was only a week ago. Since then, the team has had a brutal overtime loss to the New York Knicks and a blowout loss to the Los Angeles Lakers. They’re still only one game below .500 and with the Cleveland Cavaliers (8-23) coming into town, they have every opportunity to even things out.

They’ll have to be careful, though, as the Hornets have losses to the four worst teams in the Eastern Conference. Their loss to Cleveland came back on November 13th and it was very bad, with the Hornets shooting a mere 35% from the field while allowing the Cavs to shoot over 52%. Let’s hope we don’t get a repeat of that.

Charlotte’s last game was a 100-128 loss to the Los Angeles Lakers. They are currently tied for the 7th spot in the East. Cleveland’s last outing was a 92-91 win over the Indiana Pacers. They are 13th in the East. This is the third of four games against the Cavs.

Charlotte Hornets vs Cleveland Cavaliers
7:00 p.m. EST, Wednesday, December 19th, 2018
Spectrum Center
Fox Sports Southeast

Injury Report:

CHA:

None

CLE:

Jordan Clarkson – Back (Out)

Tristan Thompson – Foot (Out)

Kevin Love – Toe (Out)

John Henson – Wrist (Out)

Things to watch for:

Injuries should play a role for Cleveland, but I said that the last time these two teams played, and the Hornets proceeded to get trounced by 24.

This will be the second game of a back-to-back for Cleveland so that exacerbates things for them. This should be the perfect opportunity for Kemba Walker to break out of his shooting slump. The Cavs give up the highest field goal percentage in the NBA, allowing opponents to shoot 48.2% from the floor.

Keys to the game:

Don’t play down to their level.

As mentioned before, the Hornets sport losses to the bottom four teams in the East. That’s unacceptable for a team with playoff aspirations. This especially shouldn’t happen at home, but they found a way to give up a 21 point lead against the Knicks in the Spectrum Center and subsequently lost that game. They can hardly afford another loss to an inferior team.

These last two defeats have been pretty embarrassing for your Charlotte Hornets. With a banged up Cavs team coming into town, Charlotte is primed for a win. We’ll see if they can even up their record again Wednesday night in the Queen City.