Charlotte Hornets travel to Indiana to battle the Pacers

The Charlotte Hornets are in playoff contention, but have a tough schedule remaining, can they help themselves with a road win over the Indiana Pacers?

With 27 games left in the season, the Charlotte Hornets (27-28) are still clinging to a playoff spot. That could all change, however, as they have the 3rd toughest remaining schedule according to tankathon.com. Still, the team could surpass expectations and remain in the playoff race, but they’ll need to play their best in order to do so.

This includes beating a tough Indiana Pacers (37-19) squad that has won five straight games. The last time these two teams faced off, it wasn’t pretty for the Hornets as they lost 95-120. That game was never really close as Charlotte allowed the Pacers to shoot over 50% from behind the arc and committed 16 turnovers.

Charlotte’s last game was a 129-120 win over the Atlanta Hawks. They are 7th in the Eastern Conference.  105-90 win over the Cleveland Cavaliers. They are 3rd in the East. This is the final game of the year against Indiana.

Charlotte Hornets at Indiana Pacers
7:00 p.m. EST, Monday, February 11th, 2019
Bankers Life Fieldhouse
Fox Sports Southeast

Injury Report:

CHA:

Tony Parker – Back (Doubtful)

IND:

Doug McDermott – Ribs (Game-Time Decision)

Victor Oladipo – Quad (Out)

Things to watch for:

The obvious thing to note is the absence of All-Star guard Victor Oladipo. You’d think losing a player of his caliber would hurt the team immensely, but the Pacers have gone 6-4 since he injured his knee on January 23rd.

As important a player as Oladipo is, the Pacers still have plenty of talented players they can throw at you.

It’ll be interesting to see if the newly claimed Shelvin Mack will join the team in Indy. Given Tony Parker’s uncertain status, the team may opt to have Mack available immediately.

Keys to the game:

Defense.

Charlotte has had trouble defending from the floor over the past few weeks, especially on the perimeter. This also includes their last game against the Pacers, where they allowed Indiana to shoot 52% from downtown.

Even against inferior teams like the Hawks, who shot over 53% from the field in their last game, they’ve shown terrible lapses on defense.

In fact, they’ve fallen all the way to 21st in the league in terms of opponent field goal percentage. That has to improve if they want to endure a brutal remaining schedule.

To make things worse, Indiana is 4th in the NBA in field goal percentage and 5th in three-point percentage. They cannot sag off shooters or let Indiana get open or else this one might be decided early.

It’s do-or-die time for the Hornets right now. The next few weeks will surely test them and fans are hoping the team can weather the storm. Here’s hoping they can do just that Monday night in Indy.