Preview: Suns Face Hornets in Rare Underdog Role

Who: Phoenix Suns (42-34) at Charlotte Hornets (40-36)
When: Thursday, April 2 at 4:00 PM AZ time
Where: Spectrum Center, Charlotte, NC

The Suns are hoping to steal a crucial road victory tonight in Charlotte, though the Hornets won't make it easy.

Charlotte's won their last eight-of-11 games entering Thursday while the Suns have won just their last three-of-ten matchups. The Hornets enter this battle fairly healthy while the Suns could still be without starting center Mark Williams due to his foot injury.

Charlotte and Phoenix both are in the 20's when it comes to pace of play, opting to slow things down and get into halfcourt sets in a typical setting. While the Suns are better in terms of defensive rating, the Hornets are top five team in terms of offense.

The three-ball will be an obvious key here, as Charlotte has two players (LaMelo Ball, Kon Knueppel) that are in the NBA's top five players in terms of three-pointers made per game. As a team, the Hornets knock down more threes than any other team in the NBA.

Yet it's not just the perimeter where the Hornets win. Charlotte is a top-five team in terms of rebounds per game, and if Williams isn't able to crack the lineup tonight, the Suns could be in trouble down low as both Oso Ighodaro and Khaman Maluach are still finding their footing on the glass.

The Suns emerged victorious in their only prior meeting of the season back on March 8 in a 111-99 win, though Phoenix head coach Jordan Ott was especially concered with winning the battle down low:

"Yeah, you know, they do a great job. The rebounding numbers are really good when he switches in (Moussa  Diabate), when he's back and drops. That's just their consistent size across the board. Their starting lineup has great wing size, even though Diabate may be smaller in height, his wingspan is there and then they're just big  across the board," Ott said.

"They have multiple wings that are really good rebounders, but we're not going to change what  we do to try to go get those extra possessions. We definitely got to find some ways to get some extra possessions, because they do such a great job of cleaning glass." 

The Suns will need to be on their A-game tonight, no doubts about it.

ESPN's basketball index is giving Charlotte a 69.5% chance to win, positioning the Suns as unusual heavy underdogs.