Hayward – Hugo CLT

Who’s guarding Giannis tonight? PJ will probably start on him, unless Miles gets the start over him but I wouldn’t bet on Borrego making lineup changes or adjustments. Giannis is going to get his, but what I’m more concerned with (again) is the opposing team’s big men. Zeller should match up fine with Lopez but I have a feeling Bobby Portis might do work (RIP Big Black) on us in the paint tonight. Portis seems like the type of role player that tend to find the seems of this Hornets team. Middleton versus Hayward should be a fun matchup to watch, and Gordon needs to win that matchup for the hornets to have a chance of winning (or us shutting down Giannis but I think this is more likely).

The best chance we have tonight is catching fire from 3, and that’s ok to admit against a playoff team with the reigning MVP. Another team performance on offense and defense would be huge for my morale and more importantly the morale of the actual team. This game could be a turning point for us, in a good way. If we win and 5-6 guys get double digit points again, like the Pacers game Friday, it would be hard for Borrego to not use that as a blueprint for winning moving forward. Who would have thought playing OK ( I almost typed good, lets not get carried away here Hugo) team defense and making the extra pass would win a team more games. Not going to lie, I feel more confident going into this game against the Bucks than I did last night going into the Pacers game, let’s hope Giannis doesn’t take a dump all over that.

Charlotte Keys

4 Players in double digits– If 4 people get double digit points this game I think we keep it to within single digits. If 5+ people have 10 or more points, I think we have a shot at winning.

Closeouts – The bucks are 4^th in the league in 3PT% and 6^th in 3PTA… that could lead to some ugliness versus our aversion to closing out.

Rebounding – The Bucks are great rebounders, we suck at rebounding. With our noted lack of big men we need to rebound with tenacity, especially on the defensive end.

Milwaukee Keys

Get to the free throw line – The Bucks kind of suck at getting to the free throw line. Dominating the free throw matchup would all but hand Milwaukee the win.

Don’t rush – Staying calm and collected would make it very difficult for the Hornets to pull of an upset.

Prop Bets HugoCLT’s Overall Record (8-2)

Khris Middleton UNDER 5.5assists (+100)

PJ Washington OVER 13.5points (-116)

Gordon Hayward OVER 3.5asists (-116)

Terry Rozier OVER 19.5points+assists (-120)

The Pacers come to Charlotte tonight for their first of 2 games at the spectrum center. The Hornets look to close the gap and move up to the upper echelon of 10 loss teams in the east. The Hornets have been playing underwhelming, uninspiring, dogshit basketball under Borrego the past few weeks. Borrego needs to do change something; maybe switch defenses, change rotations, play different bigs, yell at the players, bark at the refs, throw a chair, SOMETHING. His monotone reflections before and after games almost makes me understand the players lack of enthusiasm, a coach should be a motivator or at least evoke some sort of emotions. The Hornets have been playing flat as hell, might be time to start photoshopping cigs into Borrego’s mouth a la Jay Cutler because it really seems like he “don’t careeeee”.

The Pacers should not be as upset as the Hornets because they are sitting pretty at 4th in the eastern conference and only a half game behind the Bucks in the central. The Pacers also received tremendous news that Caris LeVert’s kidney growth has been successfully operated on with no future treatment needed, after the trade that may have quite literally saved his life. I could see Domantas Sabonis being a real problem for the Hornets tonight but he is listed as a game time decision so it may not come to that. Just checked Sabonis’ stat line for the last matchup against us and whoooof, lets hope he doesn’t put up another +39 on us shooting 80% from the field.

Hornets Keys

Emotion – Playing with emotion is very clearly not going to happen because of Borrego but someone has to step up and give us some enthusiasm (or something).

Defend 3’s – can I get a closeout? Please? Anyone? If the hornets can hold them to under 43% (not asking for much here) from three I would be happy and stfu about the closeouts, at least temporarily.

Bigs – If Carey and Richards cannot give us anything better than current Bizmack then we might as well send their asses to Greensboro (I don’t think they suck that bad, Hornets just need to see what they have here)

Pacers Keys

Myles Turner – With Sabonis likely out, Myles Turner needs to take advantage of the Hornets poor post defense.

Defend Gordon – The Pacers do not matchup versus Hayward very well and he has been on a heater lately.

Tag: Hayward

Bucks(11-7) @ Hornets(8-11) [Preview]

Pacers(10-7) @ Hornets(7-10) [Preview]