The Charlotte Hornets are back in town getting ready to begin another back-to-back set, starting later this afternoon with an early 5 PM EST tip-off against the visiting Utah Jazz.
Charlotte is coming off a tough 100-98 road loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers on Wednesday night, despite getting a career-high 35 points and seven threes from Terry Rozier. Although the Hornets nearly pulled off a miracle finish again after falling behind by 24 in the third quarter, the poor starts give the team very little margin for error, even when things do finally get going.
“First half [was] lethargic, I saw a very different team in the second half than I saw in the first half,” said Coach Borrego afterwards. “I guess a very immature start to the game. We got to own that and we got to get better in those areas, get off to better starts, but, I’m proud of the group. They kept battling. They’ve been doing this all year. We’ll keep battling, get back to work on Friday and get ready for Saturday.”
Utah (17-11) enters this contest having won five of its last six games and ranking two spots ahead of Charlotte in offensive rating (106.4; 22nd), 10th in defensive rating (105.2) and 12th in net rating (1.2). Donovan Mitchell is putting up 27.9 PPG on a tidy 52.0% shooting (30.4% from three) over his last seven outings and sharpshooting Croatian Bojan Bogdanović is averaging a career-high 21.0 PPG this season and sits ninth in the NBA in long-distance efficiency (45.2%).
Despite having two-time reigning Defensive Player of the Year Rudy Gobert in the middle (who leads the league with a 67.3% field-goal percentage and is third in rebounding at 13.9 RPG),
the Jazz rank just 22nd in paint scoring (45.7 PPG) and 29th in second-chance points (10.4). Utah forces the second-fewest turnovers (12.4), but ranks first in three-point percentage (38.3%), meaning the Hornets will have to be overly attentive to guarding the perimeter tonight.
Game Notes: G Mike Conley (left hamstring tightness) will not play for Utah… Charlotte has lost three straight overall meetings with the Jazz, although has won four of the last five matchups at Spectrum Center (lost, 119-111, on Nov. 30, 2018).