Less than 24 hours after getting beaten badly by the Boston Celtics, the Phoenix Suns are back in action taking on the Charlotte Hornets. A total of 4 players scored 20+ points in the 127-112 loss at Boston last night, but a poor effort from three-point land (35.5%) cost the Suns the game. Jusuf Nurkic once again excelled getting 20 rebounds, the Suns won the rebounding battle 51-33, but even that wasn’t enough. They’ll have a much easier task in tonight’s game though as they take on a team they’ve beaten in the last 6 meetings. Phoenix is also 4-1 ATS in their last 5 against Charlotte, with the Dallas Mavericks being just half a game behind them in the standings, they cannot afford to lose to a team like this.
Charlotte got blown out 133-119 in the first meeting of the season played in late December. Since then a lot has happened, the current iteration of this team isn’t very close to the one that lost by 14 in that game. Terry Rozier, who had 42 points in that game, is gone. P.J. Washington has also been traded away to Dallas, the Hornets cannot wait for the season to be over as they’re currently stuck in 13th place in the Eastern Conference. They are showing signs of life winning 2 of their last 3 games over Memphis and Brooklyn, but that’s mainly due to those teams struggling right now. Phoenix is a much more serious opponent, the Hornets have just 1 victory against Pacific Division teams in their last 10 outings.
