Tonight is the latest matchup between the student and the master: Charles Lee and Joe Mazzulla.

Their two teams are coming into tonight's game moving in different directions. The Charlotte Hornets are 3-6, losers of five straight with the worst offense in the NBA, while the Celtics boast a 6-2 record and are sitting pretty near the top of the Eastern Conference.

The deck is stacked against the Hornets. Let's check out how our staff sees tonight's game playing out.

Zach Roberts: Celtics 122, Hornets 89

Until I see otherwise, I’m just not convinced this Hornets offense can score at any sort of clip. Kon Knueppel is out again, and Coby White has yet to get going in limited action. Brandon Miller will score 35 points every few games, but in between them, he shoots something like 3/17 from the floor. Today could well be another clunker for the $209 million man.

The Celtics may not be as deep as last season, but they’re still obviously one of the NBA’s best teams. The Hornets are one of the worst. It’s hard to win when you can’t score and you can only sometimes prevent the other team from scoring. This should be another very long, ugly contest as more questions are raised in Charlotte.

Mark Livingston: Celtics 112, Hornets 101

Things haven’t been going well for the Hornets lately, and Friday night’s matchup with Boston isn’t going to make life any easier. Charlotte has lost five straight games, and the defense continues to be a problem, especially late in games. The Hornets had a chance to beat Brooklyn on Wednesday but couldn’t get enough stops in the fourth quarter.

Boston comes into Charlotte having won six of its first eight games, and the Celtics aren’t a team the Hornets can afford to make many mistakes against. Brandon Miller also needs to bounce back after making just two of his 15 shots against the Nets. Charlotte needs him to be more aggressive offensively, but the rest of the team has to help him out.

The Hornets should be able to hang around for a while, especially playing at home. But unless Charles Lee can get his team to play better defense and avoid those long stretches where everything seems to go wrong, it’s hard to see Charlotte pulling off the upset. Boston has too much going in its favor right now, and the Celtics should eventually take control in the second half.

Schuyler Callihan: Celtics 118, Hornets 102

Charlotte is banged up beyond Kon Knueppel. Moussa Diabaté is questionable, Dennis Schröder is as well, and Coby White is still getting his feet wet after missing the first couple of weeks. This isn’t exactly a get-right type of night for the Bugs, who will have to rely on the shot-making of Grayson Allen and Naz Reid putting together a strong night on both ends of the floor. Per usual, they will keep it interesting for a while, but the wheels will ultimately fall off in the second half, where they are 24th in the league in point differential (-3.8) in the third quarter and 30th in the 4th quarter (-6.7).

Matt Alquiza: Celtics 110 Hornets 97

There's not much of a path to victory here for the Hornets unless, mercifully, their three-point shots start falling.

Boston is a top-ten team on both sides of the ball (8th on offense, 10th on defense), and are more talented and deeper than this current iteration that Charlotte is trotting out onto the floor. Kon Knueppel and Grant Williams have already been ruled out, and based on the recalling of Christian Anderson Jr. from Greensboro, Dennis Schroder may be unavailable as well.

All of that will be too much for Charlotte to overcome and they will essentially be elimiated from NBA Cup contention with the loss.