Cleveland Cavaliers at Charlotte Hornets Preview

Both teams carry different playoff agendas. The Hornets are in a battle to escape the play-in games, while the Cavs still possess a fighting chance to catch fire for the final play-in spot.

In their first two meetings, the Cavs seemed to hold their opponent at arm’s length. They consistently held a 7-10 point lead on Charlotte in the second half on April 15, earning a 103-90 victory.

The first game came way back on opening night. That contest was never close, with Cleveland opening up a 24 point advantage at one point. Collin Sexton and Darius Garland combined for 49 points, and Terry Rozier dropped 42 in Charlotte’s losing effort.

Let’s see how both teams have fared recently ahead of Friday night’s game.

Cleveland Cavaliers

The Cavs enter Friday night four games back of tenth place Washington with 14 games to go. The team has a winnable schedule (including seeing Washington on Sunday night) to make a run at the final play-in spot. Eight to ten wins over the final stretch would give them a reasonable chance of getting in.

Cleveland is coming off a wire-to-wire victory over another ten-seed rival, the Chicago Bulls, on Wednesday. Collin Sexton led the team in scoring for the fourth straight game, while Kevin Love led the side once again with nine boards. Sexton also dished out seven assists.

Taurean Prince, who led the squad with 25 points in 29 minutes last time out against Charlotte, just underwent season-ending ankle surgery.

Charlotte Hornets

Charlotte is having a rough go of it over the last two weeks. They have dropped six of their last seven games to dip two games below .500. At one point, they played themselves out of the play-in seeds up to the sixth spot.

Inconsistencies are the signs of a young team, but the Hornets have shown signs of improvement all season.

This is a game the team needs to show up for because they then face a tough stretch of games over the next week. They are 3.5 games back of Boston for the coveted six-seed, and they face them twice next week. They also have Milwaukee and Miami coming up before finishing out the season with the Clippers and Nuggets.

Final Thoughts

Though these two sides don’t look like world-beaters, there is a lot to like about this matchup. If you’re a fan of defense, you might be in for a treat.

These two sides rank 12th and 14th in opponent points per game, and both teams are in the bottom third of the league in scoring output. We may see a low-scoring affair to start off the weekend.

Look for the Cavs, who have forced 36 turnovers in their last two games, to wreak havoc on Charlotte’s offense and collect some timely turnovers.