**What:** Charlotte Hornets (16-27) (7-12 home) vs Cleveland Cavaliers (24-20) (10-9 away)
**When:** 7:00pm Eastern
**Where:** Spectrum Center; Charlotte, NC
**How to watch:** ESPN, FanDuel Sports Network, NBA League Pass
**Outfitting:** Hornets–Icon (teal), Cavaliers–Statement (black)
**Game Lines:** Hornets +2.5, Hornets money line +120, O/U 236.5
**Injuries:**
Hornets: Tidjane Salaun-probable (achilles), Mason Plumlee-out (groin)
Cavaliers: Darius Garland-out (toe), Sam Merrill-out (hand), Max Strus-out (foot)
It’s NBA’s rivalry week, and who could think of a more high profile rivalry than the one between the Charlotte Hornets and the Cleveland Cavaliers. Truly one of the most storied rivalries across sports. My guess is ESPN is taking the Ball brothers angle, which is very on brand for ESPN to focus on a connection that is both not basketball related and not very relevant to the masses anymore, especially since Lonzo barely plays right now.
It’s been an entertaining and competitive series between the Hornets and Cavs so far this season. They’ve split two games, and both were competitive and somewhat high scoring.
On the season, the Cavs have been all over the place. They’ve taken a huge step back from their Eastern Conference dominance of a season ago despite having most of the same key pieces. They’re not shooting the ball as well and their defense has slipped quite a bit. And they’re unpredictable from game to game. In their last eight games, they barely lost to a really good Pistons team, barely beat a really bad Pacers team, lost to the Timberwolves, beat the Timberwolves, lost at home to the Jazz the game after the Hornets beat them by 55, swept the 76ers, then got smacked by the Thunder. It is a true grab bag of results.
The one constant has been Donovan Mitchell, who is averaging a career high 29.0 points per game. He’s scoring in bunches and hitting a high volume of threes, and he can turn into an unstoppable force on offense if he feels like his team is slipping and needs him to carry the load. We’ve also see De’Andre Hunter kill the Hornets once the season. Jalen Tyson is having a mini-breakout and the two big lineup of Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen might pose some problems for a smaller Hornets team. Still, the Hornets have been playing well, and this is a winnable game for them.
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