**What:** Charlotte Hornets (6-14) (1-8 away) at Brooklyn Nets (3-16) (0-9 home)
**When:** 7:30pm Eastern
**Where:** Barclays Center; Brooklyn, NY
**How to watch:** FanDuel Sports Network, NBA League Pass
**Outfitting:** Hornets–Icon (teal), Nets–Icon (black)
**Game Lines:** Hornets -4.5, Hornets money line -185, O/U 227.5
**Injuries:**
Hornets: Tre Mann-questionable (ankle), Pat Connaughton-out (calf), Josh Green-out (shoulder), Grant Williams-out (knee)
Nets: Michael Porter Jr.-probable (back), Noah Clowney-probable (hip), Terance Mann-questionable (rib), Cam Thomas-out (hamstring), Haywood Highsmith-out (knee)
The Hornets hit the road with the vibes at a high point. After getting dismantled by the Knicks before Thanksgiving, the guys came back with a renewed level of competitiveness and focus. They took down the Bulls on Friday then came back less than 24 hours later to overcome a 17 point deficit to snap the Raptors’ nine game winning streak. After defeating one of the hottest teams in the NBA, the Hornets turn their attention to one of the league’s worst.
That makes this a prime spot for a letdown, which the Hornets have been prone to despite their own underwhelming win/loss record. They gave the Pelicans their first win of the season back in early November. A couple weeks later, they lost pretty convincingly to a Pacers team that was 1-13 at the time. The next game, they were the victims of the Clippers’ only regulation win in the entire month of November.
The Hornets can’t take this Nets team lightly, even if they’re careening towards one of the top spots in the draft lottery. Michael Porter Jr. is still trying to get buckets. He topped 30 points three times in November, and the Nets won all three of those games. Nic Claxton is turning into an offensive hub at the top of the key, and the Nets like to run a lot of handoff action around him in that part of the floor. That’s going to put a lot of onus on Ryan Kalkbrenner and Moussa Diabate to take away the jump shots and cuts the Nets look for off those looks. The rest of the scoring kind of comes by committee.
The Hornets are going to have a relatively healthy group once again. They need to win this game just to prove they can keep their focus against the rare inferior competition they face.
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