**What:** Charlotte Hornets (14-25) (7-13 away) at Los Angeles Clippers (15-23) (9-9 home)
**When:** 10:30pm Eastern
**Where:** Intuit Dome; Inglewood, CA
**How to watch:** FanDuel Sports Network, NBA League Pass
**Outfitting:** Hornets–Association (white), Clippers–Icon (navy)
**Game Lines:** Hornets +5.5, Hornets money line +256, O/U 228.5
The Hornets get a chance to get some revenge for their NFL brethren. The Carolina Panthers just lost to the Los Angeles Rams in the wild card round of the NFL playoffs. Now, the local basketball team heads to Los Angeles to play the NBA team that very few people care about, relatively speaking.
The Clippers got off to a real rough start, which was terrifying given that the Thunder control their first round pick. Fortunately for the entire NBA, they’ve started winning some games and climbing up the standings. They’re very old, but they have a lot of good players still, even if most are past their primes.
Kawhi Leonard might be the exception to that. He’s 34, but he’s having one of the best statistical seasons of his career. He’s averaging career highs in points and steals per game, and his 3-point volume has increased pretty significantly. He’s scored at least 20 points in 20 straight games, and he’s mixed in a couple of 40+ point and a 55 point performance in there. James Harden went nuclear in the first match-up with the Hornets, so you know he’s going to come out confident in this one.
After that big two, the roster is filled with veteran role players. Ivica Zubac has slowly grown into one of the more physically difficult centers to deal with. Kris Dunn is a pest. John Collins still plays in the NBA. So do Brook Lopez and Nicolas Batum.
The Hornets will be confident after their destruction of the Jazz, but we saw how they responded the last time they came off a surprisingly convincing margin of victory. Let’s see if they learned from that and if they can actually build some momentum.
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