The Portland Trail Blazers are facing the Charlotte Hornets at home in Portland’s second game back after the NBA All-Star break. The Blazers have lost four straight games, including a loss to the Los Angeles Lakers on Thursday night.
The Hornets are playing their third game back from the break. They split their first two games, beating the Lakers on Wednesday and losing to the Denver Nuggets on Thursday to start their Western Conference road trip.
Portland Trail Blazers (23-33) vs. Charlotte Hornets (14-40) – Sat. Feb. 22 – 7pm Pacific
How to watch via antenna or cable: See your options on the Rip City Television Network
How to watch via streaming: BlazerVision in Oregon and Washington; NBA TV elsewhere (also available on streaming via NBA TV on League Pass)
Trail Blazers injuries: Deandre Ayton, Matisse Thybulle (out).
Hornets injuries: NONE
The Hornets find themselves firmly in the mix of the race to the bottom. They sit just one win ahead of both the New Orleans Pelicans and Utah Jazz, giving them a good chance to finish as a bottom two team in the NBA. While they have won just three of their last 15 games, the scent of Portland’s win streak still lingers as they are winners of 10 of their last 15, even including the current four-game losing streak.
Portland’s collection of young talent has been translating to wins recently; Charlotte’s has not. Whether that means the Blazers are trending up quicker, or if they are shooting themselves in the foot by not being in the mix for a bottom record, remains to be seen.
Reader Questions
Before most games, we ask you all to make our previews better by asking us questions! Keep your eyes peeled for posts just like this to add your questions and (possibly) have them answered right here in these very previews!
From pdxpar5:
Which team is further along or poised for faster/greater success in their rebuild given current roster, upcoming draft assets, cap situation, leadership, and ownership?
The answer should be the Hornets. They made the Play-In Tournament a few years ago with LaMelo Ball and Miles Bridges as the two best players, both of whom are still on the team. They’ve also added Brandon Miller who looks great. However, they are the fourth worst team in the NBA this year. They haven’t found any players with their high draft picks that look like high level players to compliment those three.
Portland, on the other hand, had started their rebuild with a trio of intriguing prospects in Scoot Henderson, Shaedon Sharpe and Donovan Clingan. Adding in players like Toumani Camara and Deni Avdija puts the Blazers firmly ahead of the Hornets in my opinion.
From TomFowlery:
Where is Mark Williams in his dreams at night?
I would imagine he’s in Los Angeles. Trades that fall through generally lead to those players being traded anyway, as we saw in the infamous Marshon vs. Dillon Brooks trade, so logic says Williams is on the way out of Charlotte. Maybe they convince him to stay by telling him how hard it was to trade him, but I would not be surprised if Williams started next season on a new team.
What Others are Saying
Dave McMenamin of ESPN writes about how Jeff Schwartz, agent for Hornets big man Mark Williams, went public with his displeasure of the Los Angeles Lakers failing his client’s physical in an “actually, we call backsies” trade between Charlotte and Los Angeles:
“The overwhelming sentiment, after conferring with multiple, nationally recognized doctors, is that the Los Angeles Lakers should not have failed Mark Williams on his physical,” Jeff Schwartz of Excel Sports Management said in the statement. “Mark was ready and able to play for them and should have been given that opportunity.” When asked for a response to Schwartz’s statement by ESPN, the Lakers declined to comment. “I don’t think it was solely because of my physical,” Williams said. “I felt like I could have contributed to them. But, obviously, they had second thoughts.”
