Tag: Terry Rozier

Charlotte Hornets at Phoenix Suns odds, picks and best bets

Previewing Sunday’s Charlotte Hornets at Phoenix Suns matchup, with NBA betting odds, picks and best bets.

The Charlotte Hornets (15-26) head to the Grand Canyon State to play the Phoenix Suns (15-23) at Talking Stick Resort Arena for an 8 p.m. ET tip-off. We analyze Hornets-Suns odds and lines, with NBA betting advice and tips around the matchup.

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Hornets at Suns: Key injuries

Suns

  • PF Frank Kaminsky (knee) out

Hornets at Suns: Odds, lines, picks and betting tips

NBA odds courtesy of BetMGM; access USA TODAY Sports for a full set of today’s betting odds. Odds last updated at 12:45 p.m. ET.

Prediction

Hornets 114, Suns 107

Moneyline (ML)

Doesn’t it feel like the Hornets are an East Coast version of the Suns or vice versa? Comparable records and every player is going against someone of a similar NBA-ilk: Devonte’ Graham–Devin Booker, Miles Bridges–Kelly Oubre Jr., and P.J. Washington–Deandre Ayton are legitimately compelling matchups. Because of the similarity in the talent of the rosters, both mostly healthy and on equal rest, let’s place a smaller wager on the HORNETS (+300) for the outright win as well as the spread.

New to sports betting? A $35 wager on Hornets +300 returns a profit of $115.

Line/Against the Spread (ATS)

The Hornets are 8-3 ATS in road games against teams below .500. Also, Charlotte is 5-7 ATS when laying eight or more points but 2-0 ATS, and straight up, when spotted at least 8 points against a below .500 team. The Suns laying 8.5 points in this matchup is downright disrespectful as they are 1-5 ATS in their last six games as favorites. Don’t expect them to get some home cooking with the refs tonight, either. The combined home team ATS record of the assigned referees is 31-51 on the season. Also, I am taking a glass half full approach with BetMGM’s line pricing; their Suns’ (-8.5, -106) line compared to HORNETS +8.5 (-115) number is them trying to persuade bettors toward the worse side.

HAMMER HORNETS (+8.5, -115). New to sports betting? A $115 wager on the Hornets to stay within 8 points in a loss or win outright returns a profit of $100.

Over/Under (O/U)

I LEAN OVER 217.5 (-129) but don’t love, or even like, the total because of the juice, it being a curiously low total for two below-average defensive teams and us backing the slow-paced Hornets team (ranked last in Pace). What leans me to the Over is their combined Over/Under record of 43-36, and the Over is 9-1 in the last 10 Hornets-Suns games.

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Ex-Celtic Terry Rozier likes what he sees from Boston

Despite having a hand in the Celtics’ disaster of 2018-19, now-Charlotte Hornets guard Terry Rozier happy to see his old team has righted the ship.

Former Boston Celtics reserve guard Terry Rozier likes what he sees in this year’s iteration of the team he left to join the Charlotte Hornets in free agency.

Plagued by too many mouths — including Rozier’s — clamoring to be fed among many other issues, the 2018-19 Celtics saga is one most would like to forget. But despite the frustrations that ultimately sent the Ohioan south to North Carolina, Scary Terry has no hard feelings.

He’s since come into his own with regular minutes as a starter for the Hornets, logging a career-high 17.7 points and 4.3 assists per contest over 33.4 minutes a game.

While he still struggles against his former team — going just 11 of 41 versus the Celtics since leaving them, and 4-of-13 on New Year’s Eve — he’s happy to see the 23-8 start to the franchise he left, recovering from the rough season that ultimately forced his exit.

“Last year obviously we had bumps in the road that we couldn’t overcome,” offered Rozier (via the Boston Herald’s Steve Bulpett).

“This year I think they’ve got a lot of guys that’s just leading the way and putting everything aside and just having fun for the most part, and I think it’s working for them,” he added.

Alluding to the feel this Celtics team has behind point guard Kemba Walker’s easy-going leadership coupled with wings Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum’s emergence, Rozier’s praise stands in stark contrast to the dark cloud the seemed to hang over the team the season prior.

While the team arguably had a talent downgrade in the offseason, seeing not only point guard Kyrie Irving and big man Al Horford decamp, but forward Marcus Morris moving on to the New York Knicks and Rozier dealt away, the Louisville product downplayed the losses’ effects.

“[T]alent, it can’t always get you to where you want to go,” suggested the Youngstown native.

“You’ve got to have the guys that want to be good, want to play hard, want to learn — stuff like that. Obviously you can have all the talent in the world; if you don’t put it together and everybody don’t buy in, it’s not going to work out.”

“And I think that’s what we got caught up in last year,” Rozier continued, placing at least some of the blame squarely on his own shoulders.

“But this year I’m happy for them. It’s like they pulled it back together,” he concluded.

And whether using the record itself as a measuring stick, individual achievements by the players, or the overall lighter mood as a measuring stick, it’s hard to argue against his assessment.

Now a Hornet, a thriving Terry Rozier makes his Boston return

Earning his hefty new paycheck with Charlotte, Terry Rozier makes his first return to Boston’s TD Garden as a Hornet tonight.

Tonight, Terry Rozier returns to Boston with the Charlotte Hornets.

Whether we see ‘Scary’ Terry as his new team takes on the Boston Celtics, or something more akin to the chaotic whirlwind often taking the floor for the Celtics during the disappointing 2018-19 Boston campaign he had no small role in shaping, one thing is certain:

Rozier is thriving in his new role.

Signed-and-traded to the Hornets as part of the deal bringing All-NBA point guard Kemba Walker to Boston this summer, many sucked their teeth on hearing just how much (three years, $57 million) the young guard would make, scoffing at the idea he’d be worth such a lofty figure.

So far, he’s been proving doubters wrong, racking up a career season in terms of numbers and helping drive Charlotte to a much better record than most anticipated at 13-9.

Logging career highs in points (17.4), rebounds (4.6) and assists (4.2) per game with career-best accuracy from deep (39.3%), two (42.8%) and the stripe (85.7 %), Rozier is finally looking something like the player team president Danny Ainge saw when he drafted the Louisville product 16th overall in 2015.

Considered a reach at the time, the Ohioan’s meteoric rise to national attention spelled the end of his time in Boston, the then-23-year-old having shown the world he can shine on the biggest of stages.

Stepping up in Boston’s remarkable 2018 playoff run with Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum and carrying the team to the brink of the NBA finals despite All-Star starters Kyrie Irving and Gordon Hayward being out, Rozier decided to bet on himself.

Then, after crashing and burning when asked to take a smaller role the following season, it seemed the Youngstown native might have been a flash in the pan, unable to adapt to what his team needs with a desire to put his own interests first.

Many questioned the logic of Hornets general manager Mitch Kupchak in inking Rozier’s new deal — would the team continue to suffer perennial mediocrity because of exactly this sort of contract?

While the jury is still out on the future the franchise will take, early returns for Charlotte on Rozier’s contract are good.

“We just felt we knew what he can do,” Kupchak said (via CBS Sports’ James Herbert).

“We also knew that he was somewhat stifled playing behind first Isaiah Thomas and then Kyrie. So we were hopeful that once he gets to be in a position where he can start and not look over his shoulder, he would flourish.”

And flourish he has. Scary Terry has always been a rhythm player — potentially devastating when he has consistency. And also when he doesn’t, though for the wrong team.

So perhaps it should come as less of a surprise that a career-high in minutes is bringing career bests with it for the former Celtic, who made it clear he wanted “an organization that believed in me and want me to play my game and showcase what I can do in this league.”

It’s not that Boston didn’t believe in Terry, mind you — they did take a gamble on him at No. 16 overall — they just had, as has been written about too many times already, too many mouths to feed.

It was a losing situation for everyone involved, and probably wasn’t’ going to work out better than it did.

Boston managed to find a replacement for their mercurial point guard, while finding Rozier the opportunity they couldn’t have given him otherwise, an opportunity he took to with gusto.

Will he receive a welcome like Al Horford — warm, peppered with a few half-hearted boos — or like the last point guard he sat behind in the depth chart, Irving?

The latter was the subject of much rancor and debate on his homecoming, so much so his former teammates requested the media leave it alone.

While Boston’s most beloved ranch-dressing-and-spaghetti-sandwich eater may have let his personal goals derail the team’s success, he also wasn’t expected to be a leader in the same way, and his public relations blunders were of an entirely different and lesser magnitude.

Rozier can probably expect fans to treat him with a little of both reactions as was shown to Horford and the Australian floor general, or at least his team.

It would have made his supporters happy to see the ex-Cardinal come into his own as a Celtic, but it wasn’t meant to be. He’s not quite there just yet with Charlotte, either, but he’s a lot closer than many thought he might get anywhere after last season because Rozier chose to believe in himself.

“I still got a long ways to go,” Rozier offered.

“But I feel like I still haven’t shown everything that I can do. I feel like there’s still another level that I’m going to take it to. And I feel like it’s coming.”

Scary Terry indeed.