The Charlotte Hornets are headed north of the border on Friday, visiting the Toronto Raptors amid a stretch that has seen the Hornets lose 5 of their previous six video games.
That features three discouraging losses in a row. Since March 21, Charlotte (18-54) has suffered a 35-point loss to the Oklahoma Metropolis Thunder, a 17-point loss to the struggling Miami Warmth and a seven-point loss to the Orlando Magic in a sport that was tied after three quarters. The Hornets are assured to complete with fewer than 30 wins for the third consecutive season and at the moment maintain the league’s third-worst document.
Whereas it hasn’t been the season coach Charles Lee and the Hornets hoped for, Lee continues to be agency in his perception that Charlotte is constructing a profitable group.
“The purpose for us was to create a normal of competitiveness,” Lee stated. “Create an surroundings of simply work and obsession with day by day enchancment, apply days, weight room periods, our diets, sport days, all of it. Simply loving the entire journey. The third half was like, constructing an surroundings of togetherness and a tradition of togetherness as a result of we undergo this journey collectively. I feel that each one these objectives are nonetheless in movement and I am completely satisfied as hell with them.”
Whereas LaMelo Ball is the staff’s season-long scoring chief at 25.2 factors per sport, Miles Bridges has been carrying Charlotte’s offense probably the most in current months. Bridges has led the Hornets in scoring 18 occasions of their previous 30 video games relationship again to Jan. 27, together with a career-high 46 factors in opposition to the Cleveland Cavaliers on March 7 and a game-winning 3-pointer in opposition to the San Antonio Spurs on Feb. 7. Brandon Miller was averaging 21 factors per sport earlier than he went down for the season in January with a wrist harm.
The Raptors (26-47) entered this week on a skid, sustaining their fourth straight loss in a 123-89 rout by the San Antonio Spurs on Sunday. Toronto responded on Monday, nonetheless, beating the Washington Wizards 112-104 on the second leg of a back-to-back. That momentum carried into Wednesday evening in Brooklyn. The Raptors put forth one in all their greatest efforts of the season, beating the Nets 116-86 in a convincing wire-to-wire effort.
RJ Barrett leads Toronto in scoring at 21.3 factors per sport. Scottie Barnes is the staff’s engine on each ends of the ground, averaging 19.5 factors, 7.8 rebounds and 5.9 assists per sport. Barnes additionally averages a mixed 2.5 steals and blocks per sport, main the staff.
“Every little thing that Scottie does is essential for us and we as a staff,” Raptors coach Darko Rajakovic stated. “We go so far as Scottie goes. I am encouraging him, he is our chief. He units the tone on the defensive finish. He units the tone with the way in which he performs, with ball motion, with drive. He is consistently enhancing in all elements of his sport.”
Immanuel Quickley additionally contributes 17.4 factors per sport in his 29 appearances thus far this season, whereas Jakob Poeltl averages 14.4 factors and a team-high 9.6 rebounds per sport for Toronto.
–Area Degree Media