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With the Warriors rolling and the Charlotte Hornets reeling, the home team will have a decisive advantage when the teams meet Tuesday night at Chase Center.
This is a test of sorts for the Warriors. They lost numerous games to inferior rosters before acquiring Jimmy Butler III, but this is the first since he joined them on Feb. 8. Coverage on NBC Sports Bay Area begins at 6 o’clock, with tipoff scheduled for 7:10.
With Charlotte missing top scorer LaMelo Ball (injury management on second night of back-to-back set) and Brandon Miller (out for the season with wrist surgery), the Hornets will lean on the explosive Miles Bridges, their No. 3 scorer to threaten the Warriors.
Bridges, a 6-foot-6 forward, is averaging 20.2 points per game this season but has bumped that number to 24.8 over his last five games. He must, however, contend with Golden State’s best defenders: Draymond Green and Butler.
Green has raised the level of his game since his NBA All-Star Weekend declaration that the Warriors would win the 2025 NBA Finals. Rejuvenated since the trade-deadline acquisition of Butler, Green has posted positive plus/minus numbers in five of six games since Butler’s arrival.
To further illustrate his overall impact, Draymond’s only negative plus/minus game over the past six was the Feb. 12 loss to the Mavericks in Dallas – Golden State’s only post-Butler defeat.
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With 23 stocks (combination of steals and blocks) in the last six games, Green also is fortifying his case for a ninth selection to the league’s All-Defensive team.
Bridges has scored at least 25 points in 10 games, three in which he scored 30 or more. The formula to preventing an upset win by Charlotte under these circumstances seems simple. Contain Bridges.
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The favored Warriors (30-27) are playing well since acquiring Butler, winning five of their last six games and posting their first three-game win streak since mid-November. The Hornets (14-42), by contrast, have lost 12 of their last 14 games and are bound for the draft lottery for the eighth consecutive year.
This is a tremendous opportunity for Golden State to push its win streak to four, which would be its longest since a five-game streak (Oct. 29 through Nov. 6) that began in the second week of the season.
