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

The Hornets (14-42) had the second-worst record in the NBA a week ago, but something has changed. This team made some major moves at the trade deadline and come into this matchup winning four of their last five games. It usually takes this team a month or two to win four games, and it says something about the newly acquired players. Tee Mann has looked superb as the team's starting point guard in the absence of LaMelo Ball, while Grant Williams has been a nice spark off of the bench. He lit a fire with that spark on Friday, though, escalating a scuffle with the Golden State Warriors. That's the sort of fire this veteran brings, and it remains to be seen if that's a positive for this young Hornets team, but early indications are that it is a good thing.

The Trail Blazers (15-40) come into this matchup amid a six-game losing streak, losing five of those by at least nine points. This was expected to be one of the worst teams when they got rid of Damian Lillard, and that's certainly proving to be the case. What is frustrating is that this team has plenty of talent to post a better record than this. Anfernee Simons, Deandre Ayton, Jerami Grant and Malcolm Brogdon form a solid core, while Scoot Henderson is one of the most promising rookies in the NBA. The last two players mentioned are sidelined right now, and losing two ball-handlers after the Lillard trade has proven to be a disaster for this club.

This is the third matchup between these teams, with Portland winning the first two. They won each of those by double-digit margins.