It's going to take a monumental effort from the Charlotte Hornets to spring an upset tonight.

The Cleveland Cavaliers, one of last year's Eastern Conference finalists, will clearly be the superior team when they take the floor in Charlotte tonight. Our staff at Charlotte Hornets On SI are't optimistic about the Hornets' chances at getting the Cavs sleeping tonight, but someone does have a little bit of faith in the home team.

Score predictions for tonight's game are below. Let's dive in.

Matt Alquiza: Hornets 103, Cavs 102

Call it an early Christmas miracle. Call it irrational confidence. Call it whatever you please.

I don't have much rationale here other than belief in pride, and I think the Hornets have a bunch of it. Behind monster nights from Naz Reid and Grayson Allen, and a return to form for Coby White, a severly undermanned Charlotte side pulls off the upset tonight.

Owen O'Connor: Cavs 117, Hornets 96

The Hornets inability to score over 100 points is starting to get extremely frustrating. Though their defense is impressive and should perform well against the Cavs, Charlotte’s offense will be the very reason that they will not win this game. Not to mention, half of the Hornets rotation is injured. It's shaping up to be another disappointing Hornets loss tonight.

Schuyler Callihan: Cavaliers 116, Hornets 96

The Bugs are beat up right now with Knueppel, Miller, and Schröder out, Grant Williams still ruled out, and Moussa Diabaté being questionable. Where does the offense come from? Coby White and Grayson Allen can only do so much. Naz Reid will do his thing, but the scoring depth just isn’t there for this to be a competitive game. Cavs roll and maybe even do so from the jump.

Zachary Roberts: Cavaliers 110, Hornets 91

Until I see evidence of the contrary, I'm still not believing in this offense. 91 might be generous. Tonight, it's the Coby White show, and his numbers have been pretty horrendous. Maybe he’s finally knocked off the rust, but he can't knock off rust to become a superstar that can lead an offense to victory by himself because he’s never been that. Unless he and Naz Reid somehow have career nights tonight, this one won't be close.