**What:** Charlotte Hornets (16-48) (6-24 road) at Atlanta Hawks (31-34) (16-16 home)
**When:** 7:30pm Eastern
**Where:** State Farm Arena; Atlanta, GA
**Outfitting:** Hornets–Icon (teal), Hawks–Statement (black)
**Game Lines:** Hornets +8.5, Hornets money line +290, O/U 234.5
**Injuries:**
Hornets: Jusuf Nurkic-questionable (shin), Josh Okogie-out (hamstring), Brandon Miller-out (wrist), Tre Mann-out (back), Grant Williams-out (knee)
Hawks: Trae Young-questionable (quad), Caris LeVert-questionable (finger), Jalen Johnson-out (shoulder), Kobe Bufkin-out (shoulder), Larry Nance-out (fractured femoral condyle \[leg; I had to look it up\])
The Hornets suddenly find themselves winners of two games in a row, both by the exact score of 105-102. It’s nothing overly impressive, but it’s worlds better than what we saw out west a couple weeks ago when this team was losing by 40 with regularity. The Hawks will be the toughest team the Hornets have faced on this potential three game win streak.
The Hawks have actually been rather good lately. They’ve been extraordinarily streaky all season long but currently find themselves on one of their upswings. They’ve won four of their last five games with the only loss coming narrowly to the Bucks. Trae Young missed the last game against the 76ers, but the Hawks still won comfortably.
Atlanta has an interesting collection of talent. Dyson Daniels has been very good lately and had 25 points and nine assists with Young out of the lineup on Monday. Rookie first overall pick Zaccharie Risacher has way too many letters in his first name and has also had some really good games lately. He’s been a sharpshooter from deep. There are a handful of guys that can cause problems on any given night, even if Young doesn’t suit up.
The Hornets need another big game from Miles Bridges, and it’d be nice if LaMelo Ball can find his offensive rhythm again. The two haven’t really been able to play really well at the same time too often this year. Daniels is going to make life very hard for LaMelo, which is all the more reason for Bridges to assert himself.
I don’t really talk about betting lines much because I’d feel bad helping people lose money. This isn’t a suggestion, but the over/under being 234.5 is pretty wild to me given how low we’ve seen a lot of Hornets scores lately. The Hawks have been playing in some very, very high scoring affairs lately. Maybe their defense will actually be soft enough to let the Hornets put some points up, but we’ll see.
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