Toronto can both solidify themselves in the top four spots of the Eastern Conference and drill another dagger into the hopes of Charlotte making the 2017 NBA playoffs. The Raptors currently sit as the fourth seed, three games back of Boston in the top spot heading into Wednesday night's action. The Hornets are three games behind Miami and will need a lot of help to make it, but they have been winning more games recently. Tipoff is set for 7:30 PM Eastern time on Wednesday night and the game can be seen on FSN Southeast and Sportsnet One in Canada.
Hornets (33-41, 4th Southeast)
Charlotte has at least found themselves in the playoff hunt after winning four of their last six games. It could have been better, but they missed taking down Cleveland by just a 112-105 margin. After throttling Phoenix like most teams have done down the stretch, they took a misstep once again in a 120-106 defeat. The Hornets have been allowing teams to hit 51.1 percent of their shots in the last five games.
In the prior matchup, center Frank Kaminsky (11.6 ppg, 4.7 rpg) had 27 points against the Raptors. He's coming off of a 20-point performance against the Bucks. Shooting guard Marco Belinelli (10.5 ppg) is probable for the contest after suffering a head injury against the Bucks.
Raptors (45-29, 2nd Atlantic)
Toronto storms in with six consecutive victories. Many of those wins came against playoff hopefuls like Indiana, Chicago, and Miami. Their recent results have included an 8-point win over Dallas, and thumping Orlando 131-112 just two nights ago.
Point guard Kyle Lowry (22.8 ppg, 6.9 apg) put up 21 points and 6 assists against the Hornets the last time out, but he will not be in this contest.
He's slated to return in early April from his wrist injury. Shooting guard DeMar DeRozan (27.2 ppg, 5.3 rpg) has been straight-up deadly offensively. He's broken the 40-point mark in consecutive games against the Bulls and the Heat, and put up 36 points on Orlando the last time out.
The Raptors are 6-point favorites at home and the total O/U is set at 202 points. The Hornets are 22-8 against the spread in their last 30 meetings against Toronto, but are 0-5 in their last five games after a double-digit loss at home.
