Magic vs Hornets Picks, Prediction Today | Tuesday, March 5

Here's everything you need to know about Magic vs. Hornets on Tuesday, March 5 — our expert prediction and betting picks for today.

The Orlando Magic will travel to Charlotte on Tuesday night to take on a Hornets squad trying to avoid a five-game losing streak. Can the Hornets get back in the win column or will the Magic impose their will?

Let's get to our Magic vs. Hornets prediction and pick.

This is a difficult matchup for this Charlotte defense considering the Magic rank No. 1 in the NBA in offensive rim rate (39%) while the Hornets are bottom 10 in limiting opponent rim shots and 26th in opponent rim FG% allowed.

The Hornets may also be without starting center Nick Richards again, so they could be forced to play Grant Williams at the five. That is a recipe for disaster against this paint-focused Magic offense, and I fully expect Orlando to dominate offensively here.

The Hornets rank 28th in defensive rating on the season, but that is largely because of the presence of Mark Williams and Richards at the five boosting some of their season-long numbers. Without those two in the lineup, I think this is easily the worst defense in the NBA right now.

Betting Orlando's team total over is definitely my initial lean when evaluating this game.

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The Hornets' offense has been disturbingly bad over their last six games, ranking 29th in offensive rating (100.7) over that stretch. And things won't get any easier for them here as they take on a Magic defense that ranks fourth in adjusted defensive rating.

Charlotte's only hope is that it can space Orlando out and hit some of its 3s, since the Hornets will almost certainly struggle to succeed in the paint, where the Magic will have a massive size, strength and length edge.

The Hornets have been able to generate a lot of 3-point attempts since the trade deadline, ranking 10th in offensive 3-point attempt rate (37.8%) but just 17th in accuracy (36.3%) over that stretch. On paper, this should be a better shooting team with players like Vasilije Micić, Tre Mann and Davis Bertans seeing major minutes of late. They will need an outlier shooting performance here if they want to compete with this solid and healthy Magic squad.

The Hornets are ranked 30th in adjusted net rating (-10.1) and are a full -1.5 points worse than the 29th-ranked Wizards (-8.6). This is a historically bad team that has lost four straight after winning four straight following the P.J. Washington and Gordon Hayward trades.

Charlotte has been covering at an impressive rate (7-4 ATS), but I think this is a horrible matchup for the Hornets and lean toward the Magic laying single digits. Orlando's defense ranks second best in turnover rate (15.5%) on the season and this Charlotte team has been bottom five in taking care of the ball since the deadline. The Magic are +1.5 in adjusted net rating on the season, so I’m not sure how you arrive at +8.5 here even when factoring in home-court advantage.

I think the Magic impose their will defensively and blow this lowly Hornets squad out. I’d back Orlando up to -10 in this spot.

Pick: Magic -8.5 (Play to -10)

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