**What:** Charlotte Hornets (13-24) (7-11 home) vs Indiana Pacers (6-31) (1-16 away)
**When:** 7:00pm Eastern
**Where:** Spectrum Center; Charlotte, NC
**How to watch:** Local TV (check local listings), FanDuel Sports Network, NBA League Pass
**Outfitting:** Hornets–Statement (purple), Pacers–Association (white)
**Game Lines:** Hornets -3.5, Hornets money line -166, O/U 232.5
So I didn’t have a chance to watch the Raptors game live, but I happened to check my phone to see that the Hornets were up two with two seconds left, so I pulled up the FanDuel Sports Network app just in time to watch Immanuel Quickley bury a game winner in all of our faces. That kind of sapped my motivation to go back and rewatch the game later. The Hornets have to quickly move on to the Pacers, so we will too.
The Pacers are very, very bad with Tyrese Haliburton on the shelf and Myles Turner departed for Milwaukee. They’re basically left with Pascal Siakam and some role players. Siakam is still very good, but there’s only so far he can take a team as the only star talent. Bennedict Mathurin and Andrew Nembhard are good players, but they’re not the second and third best players on a good team. And now Mathurin is going to be out a while with a thumb injury. Nembhard is pesky, but the Pacers need more than pesky.
The Pacers are not very talented right now, but they are scrappy. That scrappiness is always going to make them live against a team like the Hornets that is prone to letting their guard down. We already saw it happen once this year when the 1-13 Pacers thoroughly beat the Hornets who were coincidentally coming off a heartbreaking loss to the Raptors in the game prior.
The good news is the Hornets are coming off another good defensive showing, so they should be able to bring that with them tonight. They just have to get better shooting from LaMelo Ball and Kon Knueppel, and hopefully Brandon Miller comes back as well to help the offense.
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