After losing in heartbreaking fashion at home on Saturday, the Charlotte Hornets must take on the Miami Heat on the road.
Well, the Charlotte Hornets (6-11) certainly know the sting of revenge after their last game. After beating the Chicago Bulls by one point in their first game of the year, the Bulls defeated the Hornets by a single point in an improbable series of events that saw their five-point lead vanish in a matter of seconds.
There’s no use in worrying about that one, however, as the team now must travel to Miami to try and defeat the Miami Heat (11-4). I say try because the series has been lopsided over the years, though the Hornets did split the season series last year.
It’s been a while since they outright won the season series, though, with that being the 2009-2010 season. Yes, almost an entire decade of losing to the same team. Granted, much of that was due to the presence of LeBron James, but still, the Hornets are due.
It’ll be a challenge as the Heat are playing some impressive basketball this season. They have seven players averaging scoring in double-digits and have one of the league’s better defenses, especially inside. If Charlotte does want to finally win another season series, then they’ll have to be at their best.
Charlotte suffered a 116-115 last-second defeat at the hands of the Chicago Bulls. They are tied for 10th in the Eastern Conference. Miami is coming off a loss of their own courtesy of the Philadelphia 76ers. The score in that one was 113-86. They are tied for 2nd in the East. This will be the first of four meetings this season.
Charlotte Hornets at Miami Heat
7:30 p.m. EST, Monday, November 25th, 2019
AmericanAirlines Arena
Fox Sports Southeast
Stream: Fubo.tv
Injury Report:
CHA:
None
MIA:
Justise Winslow – Concussion (Out)
Derrick Jones Jr. – Hip (Out)
KZ Okpala – Achillies (Out)
Things to watch for:
The Heat have not lost consecutive games thus far this season, meaning the Hornets will have to buck another trend in order to come out of this with a win. They did manage to win their first game against Miami last season and that was also a road game, so there is potential, but of course, that was a vastly different team.
Most fans knew the Hornets would struggle this season and even in their wins, they’ve struggled, with their largest margin of victory being just 7 points. Four of their six wins have been by 3 points or less. They have won three games on the road, though, so this could be a good one.
Keys to the game:
Miami leads the league in turnovers, coughing the ball up 19 times a game. That’s three more per contest than the Hornets and readers are well aware of how much I’ve harped on that. If Charlotte can force Miami to commit turnovers, they have to make sure they convert off of them because that’s something else they’ve had issues with at times.
The Heat do somewhat make up for those turnovers by scoring the 4th most points off of turnovers. If the Hornets decide to have one of their sloppy games, then making sure to get back on defense to stop the Heat from capitalizing is imperative.
The Heat and Hornets have built up a bit of a rivalry over the last half-decade, including a down to the wire playoff series. This game could add fuel to the fire that keeps that rivalry ablaze, but the Hornets must avoid the mistakes that have plagued them over their last four games. Can they notch their 7th win of the season? We’ll find out Monday night in South Beach.