Charlotte Hornets out for revenge against the Brooklyn Nets

After sweeping the Golden State Warriors for the season, the Charlotte Hornets take on the Brooklyn Nets, looking for some sweet revenge.

It’s the middle of a five-game home stand and the Charlotte Hornets (9-14) are 1-1 so far in said stand. Their third match-up will be against the Brooklyn Nets (11-10). The same Nets that defeated them back in Brooklyn just a few weeks ago.

Riding high after defeating the woeful Golden State Warriors, the Hornets will look to avenge that loss in Brooklyn and finally get into double-digit wins. If they can do that, it will be much later than when they did it last year, with that happening on November 26th of that season. For a team that most fans thought would be at the bottom of the Eastern Conference at this point, that’s not that much of a falloff. Then again, they could be primed for a long losing streak. You just never know with this squad.

Charlotte’s last game was a 106-91 victory over the Golden State Warriors. They are currently 9th in the Eastern Conference and are three games back of the Nets. Brooklyn’s last contest was a 130-118 win over the Atlanta Hawks. They are in the 7th spot in the East. This is the second of four meetings between these teams.

Charlotte Hornets vs Brooklyn Nets
7:00 p.m. EST, Friday, December 6th, 2019
Spectrum Center
Fox Sports Southeast

Stream: Fubo.tv

Injury Report:

CHA:

None

BKN:

Kevin Durant – Achilles (Out)

Kyrie Irving – Shoulder (Out)

Caris LeVert – Thumb (Out)

Things to watch for:

Charlotte still hasn’t faced off against Kyrie Irving this season. They still lost their last one against Brooklyn, but that was on the road, so maybe the Hornets can take advantage of the Net’s injured stars.

The last game between these two was kind of ugly with both teams putting a lot of bricks from inside and out. They combined to shoot 49 free-throws with Charlotte actually having the edge in that category. It’ll be interesting to see if that is repeated.

Keys to the game:

Brooklyn isn’t very efficient from the charity stripe, making just over 74% of their free-throws. Charlotte, of course, is even worse, ranking 28th in free-throw percentage. Much of that lays on the Hornets’ frontcourt, but if this does come down to free-throws, it is absolutely imperative they make their shots from the line.

The Nets’ opponents snag the 6th highest total of offensive boards in the league, allowing their opponents to get over 11 offensive rebounds per game. Charlotte is not a great rebounding team by any stretch, but if they can keep Brooklyn off the glass after misses and convert offensive boards into second-chance points, that would certainly help.

Here’s yet another winnable game, but the Charlotte Hornets must play cleaner basketball than they did back in Brooklyn. Can they make tow in a row? We’ll find out Friday night in Charlotte.