Orlando Magic at Charlotte Hornets Free Pick – Odds and ATS Predictions

The Orlando Magic (16-19) will travel to the Queen City to take on the Charlotte Hornets (17-18) at the Spectrum Center for a Southeast Division collision on New Year’s Eve. Tip-off is scheduled for 6:00 PM and is set to be broadcast on FSN. These two teams last met in October in Orlando where the Hornets extended their winning streak over the Magic to 12 games by virtue of a 120-88 bludgeoning. The Hornets closed as a 1.5-point favorite in the aforementioned contest.

Orlando Magic at Charlotte Hornets Overview

Orlando Magic

The Magic enter off a 109-107 victory at home yesterday against the Detroit Pistons as a 1.5-point favorite to extend their winning streak and cover streak to two games. Previous to this, the Magic had lost four in a row and failed to produce a cover over the skid above.

Charlotte Hornets

The Hornets enter into poor form as they have lost three of their previous four contests overall. Most recently, the Hornets fell on the road to divisional rival Washington on Saturday by a score of 130-126 losing outright as a three-point favorite.

Reasons To Back Orlando

A critical element of Orlando’s game is it is a defensive play which gives up a 107 points per game (8th in the NBA) which places them in the top-10 in the league in this department. It has been their defense that has enabled them to win games against some high-profile opponents this season, including Boston, Toronto, and Utah while also threatening quality opposition on its own court, including Portland, Philadelphia, and Golden State. Very simply this is a team that wins games by having its defense keep it in games and not the sort of outfit you want to give this kind of lumber too with a team like Charlotte currently riding through a bad patch.

Reasons To Avoid Charlotte

A huge selling point to back the Hornets here is the obvious winning streak combined with the narrative of the Magic failing to cover in their last five outings in the Queen City. As a result of both, these factors influence heavy market action on Charlotte and will likely inflict a premium on takers to back the Hornets here. Given the manner in which Orlando has lost against Charlotte (they lost by 30-plus points in their previous two defeats), a considerable bias toward recent results can inflate the point spread in favor of those that back the Magic here.