Charlotte Hornets at Toronto Raptors gamethread

Happy New Year At The Hive! The Charlotte Hornets are over .500 in the year 2016 and that's pretty cool. Tonight they take on the Toronto Raptors all the way up in Canada. The Hornets are still battling some injuries, but they're doing a little better than they were last game so let's hope they play a little better too.

The Raptors have been consistently one of the better teams in the Eastern conference the last few years, but they've never been able to get over the hump that is the first round of the playoffs. This season, they might be playing their best basketball of this core's tenure, and it will be interesting to see how they handle the upstart Hornets.

Kyle Lowry is your player to watch tonight. An all-star last season, and slimmed down this year, he's the Raptors best player and will be the key to the game.

Projected Starting Lineups

Charlotte Hornets

PG: Kemba Walker

SG: P.J. Hairston

SF: Nicolas Batum

PF: Marvin Williams

C: Cody Zeller

Injury Report: Jeremy Lin (OUT), Spencer Hawes (OUT), Al Jefferson (Out)

Toronto Raptors

PG: Kyle Lowry

SG: DeMar DeRozan

SF: DeMarre Carroll

PF: Luis Scola

C: Jonas Valanciunas