**What:** Charlotte Hornets (38-34) (18-17 home) vs New York Knicks (48-25) (20-16 away)
**When:** 7:00pm Eastern
**Where:** Spectrum Center; Charlotte, NC
**How to watch:** FanDuel Sports Network, NBA TV
**Outfitting:** Hornets–City (orange/yellow), Knicks–Icon (blue)
**Game Lines:** Hornets -1.5, Hornets money line -115, O/U 223.5
**Injuries:**
Hornets: Pat Connaughton-questionable (illness), Tidjane Salaün-out (calf)
Knicks: Miles McBride-out (pelvis), Landry Shamet-out (knee)
Here we go. We’re getting to the nitty gritty of the schedule. The Hornets get tested by several of the Eastern Conference’s elite in the final weeks of the season, and that starts with this visit from the Knicks.
The Knicks are currently third in the Eastern Conference and in a dogfight with the Celtics for the two seed. They’re riding a seven game winning streak, though as is the case with a lot of winning streaks right now, it comes with a grain of salt. All of the wins in that streak are either tanking teams, the injured Warriors, or the Pelicans. No one is close to the level that the Hornets are playing at right now.
That said, the Knicks are still very good. Jalen Brunson is having yet another superb season, averaging 26 points and seven assists per game. The rest of the core has taken a little bit of a step back purely out of a reduction in playing time. Mike Brown is more willing to use his bench than Tom Thibodeau did, so everyone besides Brunson is playing fewer minutes. It’s a tough group to contend with. Jalen Brunson is very difficult to contain, and he’s surrounding by shooting, which makes it hard to give help on him. Mikal Bridges, OG Anunoby, and Josh Hart are all playing as excellent 3&D players while Karl-Anthony Towns does the 3 part well. There’s good depth on the bench as well, including Jose Alvarado, who was one of the more under the radar acquisitions at the trade deadline.
The key to this game is going to be containing the dribble penetration of Brunson. Limiting how much he breaks down the defense gives the Hornets a fighting chance to defend the 3-point line. On the other side of the floor, the Knicks guard well, but they do cede a pretty high volume of 3-pointers to their opponents. The Hornets need to capitalize on that. There’s a good chance this turns into a shootout.
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