Clippers at Hornets
The Charlotte Hornets are one of the best teams in the Eastern Conference - as long as they're playing in their own arena. The Hornets will try to push their home winning streak to six in a row and pull over .500 overall when they host the Los Angeles Clippers on Monday.
Charlotte sits at 7-18 on the road but is 19-8 at home after knocking off Memphis and Chicago in the first two of a three-game homestand. "I think you're seeing the character rebuild right before us right now," Hornets coach James Borrego told reporters after watching his team recover from a fourth-quarter deficit to down the Bulls 125-118 on Saturday. "(We) got down early again, and I think our guys were competing early. They were trying. The effort was there. We were making shots. The spirit was right. The competitiveness was right." The Clippers got off to a fine start on their six-game road trip with a win at Detroit on Saturday but could not handle one of the top teams in the East on the second of a back-to-back with an afternoon start and dropped a 121-103 decision at Toronto on Sunday. "I don't complain a lot about scheduling," Los Angeles coach Doc Rivers told reporters. "This one, right when we saw it, it's ridiculous."
TV: 7 p.m. ET, FS Prime Ticket (Los Angeles), FS Southeast (Charlotte)
ABOUT THE CLIPPERS (29-25): Los Angeles, which visits Indiana, Boston and Minnesota to round out the trip, is clinging to the No. 8 spot in the Western Conference and dropped three of its last four games. The Clippers fell to the Atlanta Hawks and the Lakers before embarking on the trip and allowed at least 121 points in each of those three setbacks. Reserve shooting guard Lou Williams seemed immune to the short turnaround with 18 points in 21 minutes on Sunday and is doing his best to pull the team out of the funk while averaging 25.5 points over the last four contests.
ABOUT THE HORNETS (26-26): All-Star guard Kemba Walker is carrying the team and scored 15 of his 37 points in the fourth quarter on Saturday while adding 10 assists. Finding secondary scoring is the big challenge for Charlotte, but second-year guard Malik Monk is stepping up of late and scored 18 points against the Bulls - his fourth straight game scoring in double figures. "He's a very confident kid," Borrego told reporters of Monk. "I think what's special and what will continue to be special about him is the fourth-quarter confidence, swagger if you want to call it that. That he's not afraid of the moment, he's willing to take the big shot, make the big play. ... The kid is turning the corner and I don't want to be satisfied with this. I want him to keep going, keep growing, but we're seeing the effects of what Malik can do for our ball club."
BUZZER BEATERS
1. Hornets SF Nicolas Batum is 14-of-25 from the floor over the last three games.
2. Clippers SF Danilo Gallinari (back) missed the last nine games but is expected to join the team at some point on the road trip.
3. Los Angeles earned a 128-109 win at home over Charlotte on Jan. 8 behind 27 points and 10 assists from Williams.