Lakers at Hornets
The Charlotte Hornets avoided being swept on a five-game road trip with a victory in the finale and will try to turn that into a winning streak when they return home to host the Los Angeles Lakers on Tuesday. The Hornets will play four of their last six games this month at home, with the two road contests at sub-.500 foes Brooklyn and Orlando.
Charlotte relies heavily on star guard Kemba Walker to produce points but found a way to win on Saturday while spreading the offense around more evenly. Reserve guard Marco Belinelli and starting power forward Marvin Williams led the team in scoring with 19 points apiece while combining to go 7-of-10 from beyond the arc. The Lakers ended an eight-game skid with a win at Philadelphia on Friday but could not handle the defending champions in a back-to-back and fell 119-108 at Cleveland on Saturday. Los Angeles is past the halfway point of a seven-game trip and finishes out at Charlotte, Miami and Orlando this week before heading home to face the rival Clippers on Christmas Day.
TV: 7 p.m. ET, Spectrum Sportsnet (Los Angeles), FSN Southeast (Charlotte)
ABOUT THE LAKERS (11-19): Los Angeles point guard D'Angelo Russell sat out Saturday with soreness in his left knee and is not expected to play on Tuesday. The 20-year-old recently missed 12 straight games with the same injury and was 13-of-40 from the field in four games after returning. Rookie Brandon Ingram, 19, started in the backcourt with Russell out on Saturday and nearly became the youngest player in history to post a triple-double with nine points, nine assists and 10 rebounds.
ABOUT THE HORNETS (15-13): Spreading the floor with the likes of Williams, Belinelli and Frank Kaminsky can only help to open driving lanes for Walker, who used his drive-and-kick abilities to record 10 assists in Saturday's triumph. Charlotte could use more consistency out of the starting center position with Cody Zeller, who scored in double figures three times on the five-game trip but managed eight points at Indiana and was held to two points on 1-of-7 shooting in Boston on Friday. Zeller was at his best in the win at Atlanta, collecting 16 points and 11 rebounds in his second double-double of the season.
BUZZER BEATERS
1. Lakers C Tarik Black (ankle) is expected to return after sitting out Saturday.
2. Hornets SF Michael Kidd-Gilchrist averaged 5.2 points on 34.5 percent shooting on the road trip.
3. Charlotte took the last three in the series and won the two meetings last season by a combined 29 points.