Charlotte Hornets look to bounce back against the Brooklyn Nets
Coming off an ugly loss, the Charlotte Hornets are looking to redeem themselves. Can they pull it off against a suddenly surging Brooklyn Nets team?
No team is exempt from getting blown out. It happens to all teams, good or bad. The key is to learn from it, but don’t dwell on it. The Charlotte Hornets (16-16) will have to do just that after getting hammered by the Boston Celtics in Boston on Sunday.
In order to bounce back, they’ll need to defeat a Brooklyn Nets (16-19) team that has won 8 of their last 9, including impressive wins over the likes of the Los Angeles Lakers, Toronto Raptors, and Philadelphia 76ers. Needless to say, the Hornets have their work cut out for them as the Nets are getting hot at the right time.
As mentioned before, Charlotte’s last game was a 103-119 beatdown at the hands of the Boston Celtics. They are currently tied for 6th in the Eastern Conference. Brooklyn’s last game was a 111-103 win over the Phoenix Suns. They are 2.5 games back of the Hornets in the 9th spot. This is the first of four games against the Nets and the start of a back-to-back with the Nets, with Charlotte facing them away on Wednesday and at home on Friday.
Charlotte Hornets at Brooklyn Nets
7:30 p.m. EST, Wednesday, December 26th, 2018
Barclays Center
Fox Sports Southeast
Injury Report:
CHA:
None
BKN:
Allen Crabbe – Knee (Out)
Treveon Graham – Hamstring (Out)
Dzanan Musa – Shoulder (Out)
Caris LeVert – Foot (Out)
Things to watch for:
To most fans, the guy to keep an eye on would be D’Angelo Russell, and with good reason. Spencer Dinwiddie, however, is having quite the career year, averaging 17.6 points a game, just a bit higher than Russell’s 17.5.
They’re two of five players averaging over double digits in scoring for the Nets this year, so when playing well, they can generate a fairly balanced attack. Charlotte is 2-3 this season coming off losses by more than 10 points. They’ve been hovering around .500 most of the year, so maybe they’ll get there in that statistic as well.
Keys to the game:
Nothing Brooklyn does really stands out. In fact, in most statistical categories, they’re middling at best. Something to note, though, is that they are in the top ten in the league in both free throws made and free throws attempted, yet they only convert 74% of their free throws, good for 23rd in the league, which is a bit surprising. That’s not really something Hornets fans need worry themselves about, however, as Charlotte has been exceptional in terms of not giving up fouls, ranking 3rd in the NBA in fouls given up.
Something concerning about the Hornets is that they give up the 5th most assists in the league. One may disregard that, but for every one of the 25 assists per game they give up, that’s at least a guaranteed two points. That’s 50 points at the minimum, so that’s something they need to remedy and fast because all the teams around them in that category all have losing records. Fortunately for them, the Nets are 19th in the NBA in assists per game.
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Charlotte won the season series against Brooklyn last year, going 2-1 against them. I see no reason why they can’t repeat that success. It won’t be easy, however, as the Hornets have a 4-9 record away from home. If they can break up passing lanes and not allow easy looks, they can come away with a vital road win. We’ll see if they can come out victorious Wednesday night in the Barclays Center.