Neither the Indiana Pacers nor the host Charlotte Hornets are feeling good going into their meeting Thursday night.
But the teams have different levels of anguish.
The Hornets will try to recover from a buzzer-beating 3-pointer by Toronto’s Immanuel Quickley that resulted in a 97-96 loss on Wednesday night.
“The great thing is we get to hoop-it-up again tomorrow night and try to bounce back,” Hornets coach Charles Lee said after the game.
The Pacers are in a bad place with a 13-game losing streak and will look for their first victory in a month.
The latest setback came with Tuesday night’s 120-116 loss to visiting Cleveland.
“This is an extraordinary situation, and we’ve got guys that are fighting their butts off,” Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said. “They really are. … We did everything we could possibly do in the first three quarters (vs. the Cavaliers). … We’re a group that is fighting hard, and we’re going to keep fighting.”
Forward Pascal Siakam has been Indiana’s leading scorer in the past six games; he had 22 points vs. Cleveland.
“The guy I feel for the most is Siakam,” Carlisle said. “I hope that fans and media realize the type of year that he’s having. I know how badly he wants to win games and bring these fans joy.”
Siakam also had 22 points in the Pacers’ 127-118 victory against the visiting Hornets on Nov. 19. That marked one of the six games Indiana has won this season, though the outcome halted an eight-game skid.
Since that game, Indiana has won four games. Its last victory came Dec. 8 vs. Sacramento, just three days after Indiana’s most recent road triumph, which came at Chicago. The Pacers’ road losing streak is at six games.
Carlisle remains at 999 career victories, so the milestone watch continues.
The Hornets, meanwhile, have held three consecutive opponents to less than 100 points.
“It’s great to see the physicality I think we’re bringing at that end,” Lee said. “We can be even better. That’s the beauty of this group is that we do keep getting better.”
Lee said he would like to see better communication on defense to go with improved physicality.
On offense, the Hornets will look for guard Kon Knueppel to respond after he shot 4-for-17 from the field and scored only 11 points Wednesday. That was his lowest scoring output since late November.
Because the Hornets have dealt with so many injuries this season, they had to monitor minutes for some players. Lee said that went into some decisions regarding lineup combinations with the team scheduled to play on back-to-back nights.
“Trying to be a little bit mindful of where we are in the back-to-back and our allocation of minutes to put us in the best position to be healthy,” he said. “Just a tough decision that I have to make.”
Charlotte played on Wednesday without Brandon Miller, who was listed as questionable earlier in the day with a knee ailment.
“He’s going to continue to get evaluated,” Lee said. “We’re just trying to manage him and make sure that he can be most available as we keep going … and the upcoming West Coast road trip as well.”
