The Charlotte Hornets really do want to go full-speed ahead. Much of that depends on available personnel.
A roster that is near full strength will be vital when the Hornets face the visiting Los Angeles Lakers on Monday night.
“There’s a lot of talk about just trying to keep our foot on the gas and not let up,” Hornets coach Charles Lee said.
The Lakers prevailed in the opener of a six-game road stretch and are making the cross-continent trip after winning 118-108 on Saturday night at Golden State. They are on a three-game winning streak for the first time in a month.
The Hornets have won four of their past six games.
Charlotte had significant roster fluctuation recently, with Miles Bridges, LaMelo Ball and Seth Curry all coming back to play in Saturday night’s 123-92 home victory against the New Orleans Pelicans after missing a loss to the Portland Trail Blazers a night earlier because of injuries.
Hornets center Mark Williams sat out the victory over the Pelicans because of foot soreness.
While things look promising, there is no telling what the Charlotte injury report might say leading into the Monday clash.
Ball’s impact is large when he’s in the lineup. The team’s leading scorer at 28.9 points per game, Ball has been Charlotte’s top scorer six times in the team’s past nine games, even while missing one of those games.
Known for his creativity on the offensive end, the Hornets want to turn Ball loose.
“We have asked him to play a little bit faster,” Lee said. “Try to play with more pace. Our attack guy needs to be more aggressive to try to flatten the defense and put us in more advantage situations and he has flourished in that environment.”
Anthony Davis leads the Lakers with 25.9 points and 11.9 rebounds and played one of his better games of the season Saturday against the Warriors when he had 36 points with 13 rebounds.
Davis and LeBron James (23.7 points, 9.0 assists) are the soul of the Lakers, but support players are key and Los Angeles added one when Jared Vanderbilt made his season debut Saturday after dealing with a knee injury. He had four rebounds with two points and two assists in 12 minutes.
“Vando was awesome, did all the things that we need him to do,” Lakers coach JJ Redick said. “I have a strong sense that he has been sandbagging over the last three weeks (at practice) just in terms of his intensity level. … We have not seen that in the gym, and it looked like the Vando that we know.”
Vanderbilt’s energy could come in handy in road environments.
“He plays hard every single possession,” teammate Austin Reaves said. “He’s going to give us second-chance opportunities. We’re going to get more steals with him out there because he’s so active.”
Los Angeles ended a three-game road skid on Saturday. The stopover in Charlotte will start a stretch of four games in six nights on the East Coast.
Charlotte is 1-1 so far on a nine-game homestand that extends until Feb. 7. The easy victory over New Orleans on Saturday was a rare opportunity to be in complete control throughout the game.
“Our intensity level, our focus, didn’t waver,” Lee said.
Without Williams, the Hornets benefited from Moussa Diabate’s 13 rebounds off the bench. It also gave DaQuan Jeffries a chance to log 27 minutes while collecting six points with seven rebounds.
The Hornets tied a franchise record with nine players hitting at least one 3-pointer. They had 21 total 3s and shot 42 percent from distance.
“We just put the work in,” Bridges said. “Everybody is playing with confidence. As long as we do that, we’ll give ourselves a chance every day.”
–Field Level Media
