The Phoenix Suns and Charlotte Hornets are both within the NBA’s play-in tournament category in their respective conferences.
So when they meet Thursday night in Charlotte, it’s a chance to improve their status.
The Hornets (40-36), who have won six of their last eight games, are jockeying for position in the Eastern Conference playoff race. They’re encouraged about their prospects as the regular season’s finish line approaches.
“I think the heart is there, the heart is showing every night,” Hornets swingman Brandon Miller said. “We’re competing at the highest level against any team on any given night, and just building wins for the city of Charlotte. I think we’ve been doing a great job with that.”
The Suns (42-34), who are in solid position in the Western Conference, are trying to regain their winning touch in road games.
The Hornets rolled past the Brooklyn Nets for a 117-86 victory Tuesday night in their first road outing in more than two weeks. Miller led the way with 25 points.
“It was beautiful basketball,” Charlotte coach Charles Lee said. “The thing that we tried to talk about at halftime is not going away from what helped us build that big lead, and the ball movement was beautiful.”
Now, the Hornets are back home for a pair of games.
The Suns lost 115-111 on Tuesday at Orlando, so that left them at 18-19 in road games. They’ve lost five of their last six road outings.
The Suns didn’t use Jalen Green across the last 16-plus minutes in Tuesday’s game. That was a decision coach Jordan Ott made, with Grayson Allen, Royce O’Neale and Devin Booker logging large chunks of time.
“Not injured,” Ott said of Green. “We just decided to go smaller, play smaller and use some other guys in that stretch that he’s normally in.”
O’Neale, who tallied 14 points, logged 31 minutes for his most playing time in an eight-game stretch.
Booker scored 34 points and has led the team in scoring in four of the last five games. He had 30 points last month against Charlotte in a 111-99 Suns’ triumph.
Lee said he has seen particular growth in the Hornets across the past couple of weeks. That helped in the game vs. the Nets.
“Their ability to respond to a loss, to a win,” Lee said. “The ability to come together in these moments.”
For the Hornets, Coby White, LaMelo Ball, Kon Knueppel and Brandon Miller all have reached the 25-point mark at least once across the past eight games.
The host Suns committed only six turnovers and made 23 of 26 free-throw attempts in the 12-point March 8 win over Charlotte. Collin Gillespie hit five 3-point shots and Green and Rasheer Fleming both had four treys in that game. The Hornets, who trailed by four points going to the fourth quarter, took 45 of their 88 shots from 3-point range in the game.
Ott said it’s possible that center Mark Williams, who has a foot injury and hasn’t played since March 3, could return during the road trip. He played his first three seasons for Charlotte before an offseason move to the desert.
