**What:** Charlotte Hornets (29-31) (12-16 home) vs Portland Trail Blazers (29-31) (13-16 away)
**When:** 1:00pm Eastern
**Where:** Spectrum Center; Charlotte, NC
**How to watch:** FanDuel Sports Network (without Eric and Dell), NBA League Pass
**Outfitting:** Hornets–Association (white), Trail Blazers–City (black/teal)
**Game Lines:** Hornets -7.5, Hornets money line -310, O/U 229.5
**Injuries:**
Hornets: None (huhhh???)
Trail Blazers: Donovan Clingan-questionable (illness), Deni Avdija-doubtful (back), Shaedon Sharpe-out (leg), Damian Lillard-out (achilles)
The Blazers have kind of quietly planted themselves firmly in the heart of the Western Conference play-in race. Deni Avdija and Shaedon Sharpe have both taken big leaps in their development, and Avdija probably should be the front runner for Most Improved Player. Second year pro Donovan Clingan has shown some major potential as a two-way big that can stretch it out to the 3-point line on offense. And Portland might be without all three of them this afternoon.
That leaves Jerami Grant and Jrue Holiday to carry the load with some help from recently returned Scoot Henderson off the bench. Even with some of their cornerstones befallen by injury, the Blazers have been a scrappy bunch. They took the Timberwolves to the wire and stole road wins over the Suns and Bulls, though I don’t know how impressive those are right now.
There’s a chance this game can get off the rails. The Blazers are an elite offensive team, but they’re a terrible defensive rebounding team, which doesn’t bode well against a Hornets team that is elite at rebounding on both sides. There is only one team that turns the ball over more frequently than the Charlotte Hornets, and that team is the Portland Trail Blazers. Portland doesn’t shoot the ball particularly well, but they get to the free throw line a lot, where they also don’t shoot the ball particularly well. They’re especially bad shooting from deep, and we’ve seen the Hornets feast on poor shooting teams since the calendar turned to 2026.
A lot of the Blazers’ high free throw rate can be attributed to Avdija, so if he doesn’t play, they become significantly easier to guard. The Hornets have been the best team in the league at limiting opponent free throws, and that’s a big part of Portland’s offense. At the same time, the Hornets will be able to lean on their strategy of walling off the paint and forcing the Blazers to shoot over them.
It’s a good match-up on paper for the Hornets. They should be able to nullify the Blazers’ strengths, especially with the players they’ll be without, while the Blazers don’t have the same counters for the things the Hornets do well. There’s also the advantage of playing a west coast team at 10:00am west coast time. It is definitely a winnable game for the purple and teal.
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