The Hornets take on the Kings for the annual noon tip off on Martin Luther King, Jr. day game. The game is unfortunately not televised but maybe it’s a good thing since both teams are in the bottom three of the Western conference combining for 29 wins. The Hornets are coming off a loss to the Warriors while the Kings won on Saturday–but it was against the Bobcats and probably shouldn’t count. So if you’re at the game or listening on the radio here are…

Three Potentially Interesting Things to Watch

Perimeter Defense

This might as well go for every game from now on. Monty takes a defend inside out approach, which is not a wrong mindset at all, however he has everyone commit on the help defense. This is why four or even five guys collapse leaving shooters open on the perimeter. Something’s got to change because even poor 3-point shooting teams seem like they go off against the Hornets. The Kings have DeMarcus Cousins and I feel like Monty’s game plan is to shut him down. The Kings rank 10th in 3-pointers made per game. Needless to say, I’m worried.

Backdoor Cutters

The biggest weakness on the defensive end for Anthony Davis has to be the fact that he consistently misses backdoor cutters along the baseline or side of the key. He keeps his focus on the ballhandler and it allows a cutter to just walking in right behind him for an easy catch and shoot. It’s just gifting the opponent free points. The Hornets bigs need to keep their heads on a swivel and look for the incoming cutters.

Monty’s Rotations

There’s a plan to the rotations. I’m sure of it; I just don’t know what it is. I’m curious to see if it is consistent to Saturday or if Monty changes the minutes distribution up again. Is Monty going with the hot hand? I’m going to be keeping a close eye on the on court match-ups.

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