Hornets at Warriors
Without Steph Curry around to handle the load, Draymond Green is stepping up with an MVP performance for the Golden State Warriors. Green will try to record his third straight triple-double when the Warriors host the Charlotte Hornets on Monday.
Curry sat out two road games last week due to a left shin bruise and exited in the second quarter on Saturday after re-aggravating the same injury. Green, who handed out a career-high 16 assists in a win at Houston on Thursday, provided a steady hand again and totaled 29 points, 17 rebounds and 14 assists as Golden State survived an overtime scare against the Denver Nuggets and earned their 34th straight home win on Saturday. The Hornets would be happy not to see Curry after the star guard buried eight 3-pointers en route to 40 points in a 116-99 win at Charlotte on Dec. 2. The Hornets are losers of eight of their last 11 games and have not had much success stopping teams while surrendering an average of 111.7 points in the last three contests – all losses.
TV: 10:30 p.m. ET, FSN Southeast (Charlotte), CSN Bay Area (Golden State)
ABOUT THE HORNETS (17-16): Charlotte is without its defensive anchor in starting center Al Jefferson (knee surgery), and Nicolas Batum is day-to-day with a toe injury that kept him out of Saturday’s 109-90 home loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder. “The reality is this: since Christmas we’ve just really lost our way defensively,” Hornets coach Steve Clifford told reporters. “…When we start to get our defense going again, then we’ll win again, but you can’t give up 109 a night and play well consistently.” The Hornets could use a little more at the offensive end as well after combining to shoot 37.3 percent from the field in the last two games.
ABOUT THE WARRIORS (31-2): Golden State let a 26-point lead slip away before coming up with the 111-108 overtime win against Denver as Green did his best Curry impression by going 5-of-9 from 3-point range and adding four steals. The Warriors are considering Curry day-to-day and will take things slowly with the star, who managed five points in 14 minutes on Saturday. “It’s just like swelling and stuff that moves around, and you feel it pretty much everywhere, so the impact is on my shin,” Curry described the injury to reporters prior to Saturday’s contest. “But I’ve learned over the past 48 hours where the impact is. It can radiate all over.”
BUZZER BEATERS
1. Warriors F Harrison Barnes (ankle), F James Michael McAdoo (toe), F Brandon Rush (hamstring) and C Festus Ezeli (foot) are all day-to-day.
2. Charlotte G Kemba Walker is averaging 29.3 points in the last four games.
3. Green leads the NBA with six triple-doubles.