Indiana @ Charlotte preview

Last Meeting ( Dec 15, 2019 ) Charlotte 85, Indiana 107

Just when it looked as if they might plunge toward the bottom of the Eastern Conference standings, the Charlotte Hornets swept a two-game road trip in impressive fashion. They will try to match their longest winning streak of the season at three in a row when they return home to take on the Indiana Pacers on Monday.

The Hornets dropped six in a row to close out December and fall 10 games below .500 before squeezing past Cleveland to begin the trip and then knocking off the Dallas Mavericks in overtime in a see-saw affair Saturday night. "I give our group a lot of credit to come out and get up whatever it was, double digits early, play with poise, play with urgency, play with force," Charlotte coach James Borrego told reporters. "And then to lose that lead, how do we respond? That's all we talked about in the timeout, how are we going to respond?" The Pacers need a response of their own after falling 116-111 at the lowly Atlanta Hawks on Saturday. Domantas Sabonis scored 25 points on 11-of-15 shooting but his teammates combined to hit 34.7 percent of their shots as Indiana lost for the fourth time in five games.

TIME: 7 p.m. ET. TV: FS Indiana, FS Southeast

ABOUT THE PACERS (22-14): Guard Malcolm Brogdon missed five games in the past two weeks and Indiana is 1-4 without him in that stretch. The starting backcourt of Jeremy Lamb and Aaron Holiday combined to go 8-of-29 from the floor in the loss to the Hawks, which saw Atlanta score 43 points in the first quarter and then hold the Pacers to 16 in the fourth. "We didn't start the game right," Lamb told reporters. "Down the stretch we didn't put the ball in the hole."

ABOUT THE HORNETS (15-23): Charlotte led by as many as 20 points in the first half but trailed by 12 with under nine minutes left in regulation before making a final push. "We just stayed resilient," forward Miles Bridges told reporters after recording his third double-double with 11 points and 11 rebounds. "We could have given up when they went up by 12. We didn't give up. We needed that win." Terry Rozier scored 29 points on 10-of-15 shooting and Devonte' Graham added 27 points and 13 assists in the victory.

BUZZER BEATERS

1. Brogdon is not traveling with the team as he deals with a sore back.

2. Rozier is averaging 29.5 points while making 11-of-20 3-pointers over his last two games.

3. The teams split two earlier meetings.

PREDICTION: Hornets 108, Pacers 107