Carolina Panthers at Tampa Bay Buccaneers Preview

The Carolina Panthers will play the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 1:00 on Sunday. Panthers lost to the Atlanta Falcons 33-16 while Tampa Bay lost to the New Orleans Saints 31-24. The last time these two teams played the Bucs won 17-14 earlier in the season in Charlotte. The Panthers (6-9) will not be in the playoffs this year but Tampa Bay (8-7) still has a slim chance of making the playoffs with a win Sunday and Packers loss, Redskins tie and Dallas, Colts, Titians, and 49ers win’s. It will be interesting to see how the Panthers play Sunday, will they go out and play hard and try or just play like they don’t care since they won’t be making the playoffs this year. Panthers quarterback Cam Newton keeps struggling last week only completing 18 of 43 for 198 yards with 2 interceptions and 1 touchdowns against the Falcons, Tampa’s quarterback Jameis Winston was 23 of 35 for 277 yards 2 touchdowns and 2 interceptions against the Saints but has thrown 5 interceptions over the past two weeks. Doug Martin will be start his 4-game suspension, so Jacquizz Rodgers will get the start, he rushed for 100 yards against the Panthers earlier in the seasons. The Panthers rushed defense is ranked 4^th in the NFL and Tampa’s rushing offense is ranked 22^nd in the NFL so Panthers shouldn’t have to worry about the run, it’s the pass they should be worry about. Since the Panthers keeps giving up big numbers through the air every game so far, this year. Tampa Bay will be without tightend Cameron Brate who was placed on IR with a back injury, Panthers linebacker Luke Kuechly will be out due to concussion, Charles Johnson (foot) will be out and Tre Boston will be out as well with a knee injury.

Charlotte Hornets gets the victory over Miami Heat, 91-82

Charlotte Hornets got their 5^th win in 6 games, after beating the Miami Heat 91 to 82. Miami’s 10-22 record after 32 games is worst for the franchise since the 2007-2008 season, Heat used its 12^th different starting lineup Thursday night to try to find a winning starting five. Marco Belinelli missed his third straight game due to a sprained ankle, while Heat point guard Goran Dragic played, although was questionable with lower back spasms, he missed Tuesday’s game against the Oklahoma City Thunder. Miami outscored Charlotte 13-6 in final 4 minutes in the second quarter and Josh Richardson scored 13 points in the second quarter to give the Heat a 49 to 42 lead at halftime. Charlotte started the third quarter on an 8-0 run and shot 57% in the third quarter, would outscored the Heat 31 to 17 in the third quarter. Another big stat was the fact that the Hornets held the Heat to 16 points in the fourth quarter, to get the victory.

            Hornets MVP for this game would be Kemba Walker with 22 points 7 rebounds, who also recorded his 7,000 point with Charlotte franchise when he hit a three-pointer in the first quarter, he the fourth player in franchise history to reach that mark. Other Hornets leading scorers was 16 points 13 rebounds 8 assists, Marvin Williams with 13 points and one massive dunk over Hassan Whiteside in the third quarter and Jeremy Lamb with 10 points and 8 rebounds off the bench. Charlotte shot awful in tonight but the one key factor that allowed them to win this game was their defense and not turning the ball over. Forced 17 Miami turnovers that led to 21 points for Charlotte, while the Hornets only turned the ball over 8 times, the last turnover was at the end of the game when they were running the clock down and had a shot clock violation. Also Frank Kaminsky scored only 4 points on 1 of 11 shooting(9.1%), Hornets need to find a way to get him going again, maybe even a trip to the D-league to play for the Greensboro Swarm for a few games to get his convinced back and allow Christian Wood to prove himself in Frank's absents. Wood have been tearing it up in the D-League and he surely can't be as bad as Frank's is right now. Miami leading scorers was Josh Richardson with 20 points, Tyler Johnson 18 points 7 rebounds 5 assists and Hassan Whiteside 8 points 10 rebounds and only 2 blocks. With a man his length and wingspan, Whiteside should grab every defensive rebound and should block every shot that gets put in the line. But he doesn’t; he doesn’t even look like he wants to be out there, the last the one to run down the court on offense and doesn’t even try to get though screens or block outs. Charlotte Hornets (19-14) host Cleveland Cavaliers Saturday for a New Year’s Eve game.