After a tight road win in Utah Thursday night, the Hornets are right back in action Friday night as they take on the Golden State Warriors at 10 pm EST. After eight days off for the all-star break, Charlotte opens the second half of their season with two road games on back-to-back nights.
The Warriors are at least on even footing, having played and defeated the Lakers on Thursday night. But still, they didn’t have to travel in between the two games; they’ve enjoyed the comforts of Chase Center.
They’re just 28-26 and 10th place in the West, but Golden State has been hot lately, winning seven of eight as they attempt to make a late playoff push.
The big story of the night will be the family reunion as new Hornet Seth Curry takes on his older brother Stephen. If that wasn’t fun enough, remember of course that their father, and former Hornet, Dell Curry is the color commentator.
That will surely steal the headlines, but the biggest story going into this game for Hornets fans was the health of LaMelo Ball. Ball hasn’t played in almost a month due to a sore ankle, but was expected to be back after the all-star game. That obviously wasn’t the case as he sat out Thursday’s game at Utah.
Hornets injury report
Despite it appearing like the return of LaMelo Ball was imminent, he is listed as ‘Out’ yet again for Friday’s game. This is somewhat expected after sitting out Thursday in Utah, but it’s still incredibly disappointing.
There have been a lot of reasons for optimism recently in Charlotte, but the injury issues have been a real turd in the punchbowl. We already know all about the Mark Williams back injury - he’s ‘Out’ again Friday night - and now the LaMelo situation is getting to be just as frustrating. Hopefully, we’ll get a positive update from the team soon.
Davis Bertans is also listed as ‘Doubtful’ after leaving Thursday night’s game with an apparent knee injury.
Warriors injury report
It’s a pretty clean injury report for Golden State. Chris Paul has been out since early January after undergoing surgery for a fractured hand. He’s due back possibly as soon as next week but remains ‘Out’ Friday night.
Gary Payton II missed Thursday night’s game with an illness, but he is listed as ‘Probable’ and is expected to return to face the Hornets. Despite the Hornets’ recent winning ways, the Warriors are listed as 12.5-point favorites.