NBA: Memphis Grizzlies vs. Charlotte Hornets Preview, Odds, Prediction

The Memphis Grizzlies seek another win, this time in Charlotte against the Hornets. Ja Morant and the boys play excellent basketball, filled with attractive moves and dunks. Meanwhile, the Hornets opened the season in such style, but as time went by started losing pace, which is why they aren’t in the playoff zone anymore. Additionally, their play-in spot is in danger due to the current stretch of negative results. That goes especially for the matches at home. We expect to see an interesting and mind-blowing game with at least a couple of highlight-reel dunks.

Preview

Memphis Grizzlies (39-18, -250) come to North Carolina with four wins in a row and high morale following those successes. Three of them were on the road, vs Knicks, Magic, and the Pistons, with the sole at FedEx Forum being against the LA Clippers. The most recent clash of the Grizzlies was in the Motor City, where they rolled over the sorry Pistons, 132-107.

The Grizzlies were controlling the situation throughout the entire event, not allowing the hosts to have the slightest chance of making an upset. Memphis shot excellent from deep, hitting 15 of 30 three-point attempts, and they also had 60 boards, twenty more than the Pistons.

Ja Morant had 23 points and six assists, Desmond Bane scored one point fewer but had six boars, while Steven Adams had a very good performance with a strong double-double, 16 buckets, and 14 boards with five assists. Brandon Clarke added 14, while Kyle Anderson had 13 and 11 boards.

Charlotte Hornets (29-28, +200) snapped a six-game losing streak against the Pistons. Hah, there you have an interesting similarity that both of today’s rivals played their previous events in Detroit. Like the Grizzlies, the Hornets too posted a very high triumph, 141-119, removing some of the pressure following a terrible streak that saw them falling down in the East standings.

Charlotte had a high shooting percentage, with 55.7% of made FG attempts and 18 threes in 42 tries. The man in the middle was LaMelo Ball with 31 points, 12 assists, and seven three-pointer hits in nine shots. He was all over the court, adding five boards and four assists, all that in 32 minutes. Miles Bridges and Terry Rozier had 25 points each, with the note that Rozier posted a triple-double with 11 assists and 10 rebounds.

The newcomer, Montrezl Harrell scored 15 off the bench, 7-for-9 from the field in 22 minutes, and he could be a valuable addition to this Hornets’ squad, especially for playing two-on-two with LaMelo.

Head to Head

The previous meeting was in Tennessee and the guests from Charlotte won, 118-108. Hayward had 25 points, while Kelly Oubre added fantastic 37 buckets. On the other side, Morant had 32 and Dillon Brooks 20.

Prediction

Our pick in this event is guests’ victory, mainly because of the current form. The Hornets aren’t in good shape, and we simply can’t bet on their win after seeing all those losses in the past several days. Tonight’s game will be a nice opportunity for the Grizzlies to post another success on the road, and we suggest betting on that.

Pick: Grizzlies win

Here is the preview for the Nuggets vs. Raptors game.