**What:** Charlotte Hornets (20-28) (11-15 away) at Dallas Mavericks (19-28) (14-13 home)
**When:** 8:30pm Eastern
**Where:** American Airlines Center; Dallas, TX
**How to watch:** FanDuel Sports Network, NBA League Pass
**Outfitting:** Hornets–Association (white), Mavericks–Classic (green)
**Game Lines:** Hornets -3.5, Hornets money line -155, O/U 226.5
**Injuries:**
Hornets: Brandon Miller-probable (ankle), Grant Williams-out (injury management), Mason Plumlee-out (groin)
Mavericks: Klay Thompson-probable (knee), Brandon Williams-questionable (ankle), Anthony Davis-out (finger), Kyrie Irving-out (knee), Dereck Lively II-out (foot), Dante Exum-out (knee), Naji Marshall-out (rest)
I feel for Mavericks fans. As frustrating as it was to see them jump up to the top pick, it doesn’t fully make up for having to watch one of the best players get traded away in his prime for a pretty piddly return, all things considered. The oft injured Anthony Davis that they acquired as been oft injured. He’s currently out with a finger injury. He’s part of a lengthy injury report that includes a couple of other players that were supposed to be part of the core, though I don’t know what exactly that core was going to do anyway.
The now fired general manager, Nico Harrison, talked about the importance of building a team around defense. To his credit, this team has been good defensively; they’re ninth in the league in defensive rating. What he seemed to forget is that it does actually matter whether or not you can score after your team gets the stops. The Mavericks are among the worst in the league at doing that. They’re 27th in the league in offensive rating ahead of only the tanking Wizards, Kings, and Pacers. The team was built to be big and long with shooting seemingly a tertiary concern, if that. As a result, the Mavericks shoot very few threes and still shoot them at a low percentage. They’re inefficient from the field and they’re bad at shooting free throws. They simply struggle to put the ball in the basket.
Cooper Flagg has been the bright spot. After a little bit of an underwhelming start, he’s picked his game up to be the only competition with Kon Knueppel for rookie of the year. He has the ball in his hands a lot and is working on becoming a full time creator. He has moments but hasn’t quite figured out how to be efficient with his looks yet. PJ Washington is the second leading scorer among players that will be active, and we know all about him. He’s basically the same player he’s always been. Klay Thompson still gets threes up en masse but he’s not the sniper he used to be. Max Christie is by far the biggest threat from three.
With the way the Hornets have been defending, it’s hard to see the Mavericks putting a lot of points on the board. If the Hornets keep getting their shots to go down, they should be able to make it five wins in a row.
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