NBA Game of the Week: Hornets at Warriors

Hornets at Warriors Breakdown:

The game of the week in the NBA is the Golden State Warriors going up against the Charlotte Hornets on Friday 2/28 at 10:00 pm EST.

The Warriors and Hornets are very similar teams in that they both have very young promising rookies in center for the Warriors James Wiseman and shooting guard for the Hornets Lamelo Ball, who were picked sequentially in order, Wiseman was the second overall pick and Ball was the third overall pick. 

They both also have veteran forwards in Gordon Hayward and Draymond Green who do a little bit of everything for their teams. This season series between these two teams also have a little history behind them that’ll turn the interest level up for fans. Let me tell you what happened in last Saturday’s matchup between the Hornets and Warriors.

In their last game against each other, Draymond Green got his second technical foul late in the game and got ejected while also putting the Hornets at the line down by one. Terry Rozier makes the free throw, then the Hornets get the ball back after tying the game because of the second technical foul. 

With no Draymond Green, who is Golden State’s best defender, the Hornets inbounded the ball to Terry Rozier and he put up a crazy circus shot and he hit the shot to beat the buzzer and the Hornets ended up winning the game 102-100.

Numbers Don’t Lie:

Now that you have some background on the matchup at hand, let’s go into some of the Hornets stats. The Hornets currently sit at tied for 8th in the eastern conference with the Bulls with a record of 14-16. The second overall pick and the future of the Hornets franchise, Lamelo Ball has exceeded expectations by being the rookie leader in points, rebounds, assists and even steals and looks to be the frontrunner for the Rookie of the year award. 

The Warriors have managed to stay afloat in the very competitive western conference without their second superstar Klay Thompson. Thanks to Steph Curry’s 30 points per game and league leading 160 threes made this season. They currently sit as the 8th seed with a record of 17-15.

The Steph Effect:

The Western Conference is as loaded with talent as it’s ever been and the Klay Thompson-less Warriors are somehow still in the mix and it’s all thanks to the only unanimous MVP ever Steph Curry. Let’s break down some of the numbers this year for Steph.

He is averaging 30 points, 6 assists, and 5 rebounds a game on 48% shooting from the field and 43% shooting from long range this season. Nobody expected the Warriors to still be in the playoff hunt this late into the season especially after what they did last year without Klay Thompson going 15-50 good for last place in the western conference which helped them secure the draft rights to James Wiseman.

On Monday night the Hornets not only kept pace with the best team in the league, the Utah Jazz, but they had a lead at halftime but fell apart in the second half eventually losing the game by a score of 132-110. If the Hornets can fix their second-half woes and more players other than Terry Rozier can hit clutch shots this team could make some noise post-all-star break but I can’t see them getting it done tonight.

With the recent history, these teams have, the star power they possess, and the overall skill and differences between the players. I’d say this is going to be a good game to watch on a Friday night. My blind score prediction for this game is 118-109 Warriors win.

Catch this game on NBA League Pass, or your local NBC Sports channel on Friday 2/28 at 10:00 pm EST.