Time: 07:00 P.M. EST Venue: Time Warner Cable Arena
After a poor road trip, the Charlotte Hornets are limping home - literally in the case of top big man Al Jefferson. Playing on the road could play to the Brooklyn Nets' advantage. Jefferson's status is in doubt Wednesday night when these teams on the outside of the Eastern Conference playoff picture meet in a critical matchup in Charlotte. The Hornets (30-39) capped a 1-4 trip with Monday's 98-86 loss to Chicago. Jefferson, averaging 16.9 points and a team-high 8.6 rebounds, was held out for most of the second half as a precaution because of a sore right knee." I just got concerned with him, that's why I didn't put him back in," coach Steve Clifford said. "He was limping in the first half and he wanted to keep playing but we don't need something where he's out for an extended period of time." The Hornets are 7-3 without Jefferson, whose status is uncertain. Charlotte fell one-half game behind Boston for the Eastern Conference's final playoff spot because the Celtics routed Brooklyn 110-91 on Monday. The Nets dropped 1 1/2 games behind Boston into 11th place. Brooklyn is the only team with a better record on the road (17-20) than at home (12-20)." Maybe we need to have that mind-set on the road as we do at home but we've definitely got to take care of home a lot better than we do," guard Alan Anderson said. The Hornets are one of the league's worst shooting teams at 42.4 percent overall and 31.6 on 3-pointers. They made 39.2 percent overall on their trip while averaging 88.8 points. Mo Williams shot 37.8 percent in the five games and Kemba Walker was at 37.7, though Walker scored a team-high 29 points against the Bulls." It's been a long trip," Clifford said. "We played better, we had some stretches of good play (Monday) and we gotta get ready to play better Wednesday." These teams have split two matchups, meaning this final one will determine the head-to-head tiebreaker. Brooklyn won 114-87 at Charlotte on Dec. 13 despite playing without Brook Lopez while the Hornets cruised to a 115-91 road rout March 4 despite being without an injured Walker. The Nets' defeat Monday was costly because they lost the tiebreaker to the Celtics, who captured three of four meetings. Brooklyn shot 36.0 percent after connecting at a season-high 61.3 rate two days earlier in a 123-111 win at Indiana.'' We knew this was a big game, you guys knew this was a big game,'' guard Deron Williams said. ''It wasn't just one game like it normally is when you lose to a team when you fall back one game in the standings. This was actually two because of the tiebreaker." Lopez scored 31 points and has averaged 29.7 and 67.9 percent shooting in his last three games. The 7-footer had been 4-0 in his career against Charlotte before this month's defeat. The Hornets average a league-low 11.9 turnovers. Walker is among the NBA leaders in assist-to-turnover ratio (3.11) and touches per game (94.3).
Looking for More Picks?
You can browse all the individual handicapper picks below.
Brooklyn Nets
Charlotte Hornets
Pick Center
NBA
FINAL (3/25/2015)
ProfessorsPicks
