The Portland Trail Blazers play host to the Charlotte Hornets at Moda Center on Monday.

The Hornets (16-17) have traded off wins and losses in each of their last nine games, grabbing one of their biggest victories of the season on Sunday. They overcame a 14-point deficit to defeat the Sacramento Kings, grabbing their first second-half lead with just 1.6 seconds remaining. Malik Monk was the hero, hitting a game-winning and-one with 1.6 seconds left to complete that comeback victory. He and the rest of the bench carried them in that game, outscoring the Kings bench, 43-11. They got that win behind a 42-point gem from P.J. Washington too which also marked a career-best scoring game. Washington and Monk are small pieces to an otherwise talented young core, with LaMelo Ball and Terry Rozier having breakout seasons themselves, as well.

The Trail Blazers (18-14) looked like one of the teams to beat this time last week but have gone on to lose four-straight since then. It's really no surprise when you see the competition, losing to the Los Angeles Lakers, Denver Nuggets, Phoenix Suns, and a resurgent Washington Wizards team in that span. This stretch is the first time that they've really missed Jusuf Nurkic and C.J. McCollum, showing just how much scoring they lack outside of Damian Lillard. The good news is that both of them are expected back sometime shortly after the All-Star break, and that week off is a perfect time for them to get healthier. There is some talk that this team will make a trade before the trade deadline because they want to build this franchise around Lillard and make him as happy as possible.

These teams played once last season, with Portland prevailing, 115-112. That gives the Trail Blazers six-straight wins in this series, dating all the way back to 2017.