Charlotte Hornets: Preview and things to watch for vs. the Indiana Pacers
By Emmett Ball
After two back-to-back games against Orlando earlier this week, the Hornets find themselves with another two-game series against the 10-7 Indiana Pacers. They play Wednesday and again on Friday. The NBA is doing these back to back games this season in order to cut down on the travel due to the pandemic.
The difference here is that these two games will be played in Charlotte. There’s no home-court advantage without the fans, but the players should be happy to be back in town. The Pacers are coming off a high scoring win against the Toronto Raptors Monday night while the Hornets failed to complete the two-game series sweep against the Magic in Orlando.
The Pacers have been active on the trade market recently, as just over a week ago they traded away star Victor Oladipo to the Houston Rockets in a four-team mega trade in which they received Caris Levert from the Brooklyn Nets and a 2023 second-round pick from Houston. Levert just underwent successful surgery to treat renal cell carcinoma of his left kidney; the 26-year-old will be out indefinitely.
Charlotte Hornets vs Indiana Pacers
7:00 p.m. EST, Wednesday, January 27th, 2021
Spectrum Center
Fox Sports Southeast
Injury Report:
Charlotte:
Nick Richards- Ankle (Questionable)
Indiana:
Caris Levert- Kidney (Out)
Domantas Sabonis- Knee (Questionable)
T.J. Warren- Foot (Out)
Keys to the game:
The Hornets got torched from three-point land against the Magic Monday as Orlando hit 19-37 of their tries from deep. On Sunday the Magic also shot well from three shooting 45 percent. Neither the Magic nor the Pacers are statistically great at three-point shooting as a team, so Charlotte cannot afford for Indiana to use the deep ball to their advantage. The Hornets have been trying some zone defense this year, which doesn’t necessarily work well against three-point shooting so coach JB might want to take note of that.
Indiana has a particularly great defensive team, ranking in the top 5 of teams in the league in steals and top 10 in blocks. That is big in part because of their center, Myles Turner. So far this season he has averaged a career-high 4.1 blocks per game, protecting the paint for Indiana. Point guard Malcolm Brogdon has also been particularly good on defense, average just over 1.5 steals per game. The Hornets need to make sure they limit turnovers and take care of the basketball.
What to watch for:
Gordon Hayward has been playing like an all-star this year, average over 24 points, 5 rebounds, and 3 assists. He has certainly been worth the money Charlotte paid him. Now the question remains, who will be that second guy that the Hornets can confidently go to? Terry Rozier, Devonte Graham, PJ Washington, and certainly Lamelo Ball have shown flashes of being that role, but other nights will look like just a role player. It will be interesting to see who will step up in the coming days and weeks for Charlotte.
Ex-Hornet Jeremy Lamb is finally back from his ACL tear after having surgery back in March and boy has he looked solid. Through four games he has averaged just under 17 points, 5 rebounds, and an assist off the bench. With Caris Levert and T.J. Warren out with injury, Lamb has been given an increased role and has been flourishing thus far.
The return of Cody Zeller from his hand injury has looked promising so far. Right now, coach Borrego has kept Bismack Biyombo in the starting lineup, with Zeller coming off the bench. Zeller has outplayed Biyombo in rebounding and scoring in about ten fewer minutes for both games against the Magic, so hopefully, he will look to be a spark off the bench against Indiana and eventually could regain his spot as starting center in the future.