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Hornets and Hawks battle for supremacy in the Southeast division

Can Jalen McDaniels and Miles Bridges keep up their recent stellar play?



It’s a battle between two Southeast division heavyweights as the Hornets face the Hawks. The standings atop the division couldn’t be closer between the division-leading Hornets at 27-24, the second place Hawks at 28-25, and the third place Heat a half game behind at 27-25. Not only does this game have implications about who might win the division (which is ultimately meaningless, but it’s fun to have bragging rights), it may also factor heavily into which of these two teams makes the playoffs.

This will be the third and final meeting between Charlotte and Atlanta this year. The Hornets won both of the previous contests which took place back in January. Gordon Hayward dropped 44 points in the first match-up. In the second contest LaMelo Ball posted a 22-point, 12-rebound, 11-assist triple-double.

While the Hornets will be without Gordon Hayward, LaMelo Ball, and Malik Monk, they will be facing a Hawks team that is also depleted by injuries.

Spoiler:

Jaden McDaniels has started each of the last two Hornets games (both wins) and played just over 31 minutes in each contest. Over Charlotte’s last two games he has averaged 20 points, six rebounds, and four assists while shooting 16-of-25 (64%) from the field, including 5-of-9 from the 3-point line. Prior to his two-game hot streak he had exceeded 20 minutes just twice this year. Getting above-average production from Jalen McDaniels would be huge. While it’s obviously not ideal having so many injuries, it can only help over the long run for the coaching staff to give Jalen big minutes in big games and see exactly what he’s made of.

The same can be said for Miles Bridges. After a streaky season scoring, he’s on a nice four-game run where he has averaged 18.9 points per game on 25-of-42 (59.5%) shooting. Another high-scoring, highly-efficient game from Miles would go a long way in keeping the Hornets in first place in their division and fourth overall in the East.

jayu70 wrote:Good grief! This is getting ridiculous, and this is a much needed win to maintain our spot in the standings.