Meet the Opponent: Magic, 8-1 in Past 9 Games, Run It Back with Hornets

The Orlando Magic on Monday night travel to Charlotte for the second of four games this season with the Hornets. What could Charles Lee's up-and-coming team do differently to challenge the streaking Magic?

Orlando Magic forward Franz Wagner (22) drives to the basket as Charlotte Hornets forward Cody Martin (11) defends during the second quarter at Kia Center. / Kim Klement Neitzel-Imagn Images

The Orlando Magic and Charlotte Hornets meet once again Monday night in downtown Charlotte. Tipoff is 7 p.m. ET between the two Southeast Division foes.

It's been 13 days since the Magic welcomed Charles Lee's Hornets into the Kia Center, then promptly showed them the door with a 25-point victory in the NBA Cup. Since then, Orlando has won five of six games; Charlotte has won two of five. Orlando, 11-7 overall, is third in the East.

Their last time out, the Magic handled the Detroit Pistons, with Franz Wagner totaling 30 points, nine rebounds, and eight assists in three quarters.

The Hornets find themselves among a slew of Eastern Conference teams at or below .500. They sit 12th in the standings at 6-10 but are two games removed from the fifth-seeded Heat, who are 7-7. LaMelo Ball scored 50 points in their most recent game, a 125-119 loss to the Milwaukee Bucks.

Charlotte will be missing their third-, fourth-, fifth-, and sixth-leading scorers for Monday's matchup. Expect volume shooting from Ball and Brandon Miller, who together are averaging 56 points a game since these two teams met last.

On Nov. 12, Ball had 35 points on 27 shots, but Miller was limited to just eight points (3-of-18 shooting). The Magic defense again will be focused on those two.

About the Hornets

Leading Scorers [active]

• LaMelo Ball: 30.2 points, 4.9 rebounds, 6.9 assists, 43.0 FG%, 35.6 3PT%
• Brandon Miller: 19.8 points, 4.9 rebounds, 3.8 assists, 42.1 FG%, 37.8 3PT%

Injury News

• Miles Bridges: OUT (right knee bone bruise)
• DaQuan Jeffries: OUT (right hand fracture)
• Tre Mann: OUT (low back soreness)
• Nick Richards: OUT (right first rib fracture)
• Grant Williams: OUT (torn right ACL)
• Mark Williams: OUT (left foot tendon strain)

Notable Numbers

• 22nd net rating (22nd offense, 19th defense)
• 22nd eFG% (52.4), 21st opp. eFG% (55.1)
• 30th FTA rate (.204), 21st opp. FTA rate (.272)
• 23rd TOV% (15.8), 22nd opp. TOV% (13.7)
• 6th OREB% (32.9), 7th opp. OREB% (27.9)
• 26th pts off. TO/game (16.1)
• 3rd 2nd chance pts/game (17.6)
• 24th fastbreak pts/game (13.8)
• 27th pts in paint (41.0)
• 2nd %FGA 3PT (48.9), 2nd %PTS 3PT (45.3)

Charlotte is one of the leaders of the NBA's three-point barrage movement, which shouldn't come as a surprise given coach Lee's prior stop as an assistant on Boston's bench. No team has attempted or made more threes than the defending-champion Celtics; the Hornets are a close second in each category.

Ball is taking 24.0 shots a game – four more than any other season of his career. More than half of his shots (12.8) are threes, and he's hitting them a median clip (35.6 percent). He's also getting to the foul line more than ever and he owns the league's highest usage rate (37.4). His 30.2 points a night rank third in the NBA.

Second-year wing scorer Brandon Miller is Robin to Ball's Batman. He is making 37 percent of his threes while taking three more attempts game in Year Two versus Year One.

Charlotte's loss at Milwaukee encapsulates this Hornets team thus far. The Hornets got 82 points from Ball and Miller and still fell to the Bucks, who have more talent.

The Hornets are rebuilding and Lee is the coach chosen to lead it. He's a player-first coach with a booming voice and a gravitational pull that quickly makes you understand why Charlotte felt comfortable appointing him their man in charge on the sidelines. But these processes take time in the NBA. While a philosophy can be overhauled in one night, sometimes the roster needs a couple of seasons to catch up.

There's promising talent up and down the Hornets' 15-man roster. Many of them are hurt, though, and Charlotte is learning lessons about how to persevere.

Orlando will have its hands full with the two perimeter scorers. The game plan less than two weeks ago involved two main pillars: Run Charlotte off the three-point line as much as possible, and limit the Hornets' ability to convert on the offensive glass — one of their best traits this season.

Charlotte took 38 threes in that Nov. 12 loss, the second-lowest of any Hornets game this season, and they grabbed only eight offensive rebounds, tied for the second-fewest in any outing.

The Magic, with an overall talent advantage and a defense that limited the three-point-happy Hornets to 89 points in their first meeting, have an opportunity to score their ninth win in 10 games.

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