It is hard to determine if the Charlotte Hornets or Cleveland Cavaliers are in more desperate shape for as they prepare to meet Friday night.
The Hornets have won just one of their past 10 games and one of their star players will be out again.
Cleveland, beginning a four-game homestand, is mired in a five-game losing streak.
For Charlotte, point guard LaMelo Ball was in his first home game of the season Wednesday night as the Hornets were enduring another late-game collapse. He landed on a fan’s foot with 1 minute, 34 seconds left in the 125-113 loss to the Indiana Pacers.
He rolled the same ankle that forced him to miss the first 13 games of the season and has been ruled out of the Cavaliers game.
Cleveland has issues that surfaced in a 113-98 road loss to the Milwaukee Bucks on Wednesday. The Cavaliers’ skid has come after an eight-game winning streak.
The game against Charlotte will be just the second home outing for the Cavaliers in more than two weeks. They will play four home games across six nights, but even a more welcoming setting won’t be an automatic solution for the Cavaliers.
Bickerstaff has hinted at lineup changes or role adjustments.
And Charlotte, again, is left without Ball, at least for now. He racked up 26 points Wednesday night before exiting with the injury.
Ball seemed to get the Hornets going in the right direction from an offensive standpoint. That alone wasn’t putting Charlotte back on track.
So facing the Cavaliers next could be a blessing for the Hornets. Cleveland was stuck with a season-low point total in the Milwaukee game — the first time the Cavaliers failed to reach 100 points this season. That also was the first time the Cavaliers suffered a loss by more than seven points this season.
Cleveland forward Kevin Love reached a notable mark by moving to third place on the Cavaliers franchise’s all-time list for defensive rebounds by snatching his 3,569th board. Love has been coming off the bench, averaging 21.9 minutes, 11.6 points and 7.3 rebounds in eight games this month.
The Cavaliers have additional woes with the announcement that Dylan Windler, who has yet to play this season because of a sprained right ankle, will be out at least another month. He had a platelet-rich plasma injection and was put in a walking cast.
