**What:** Charlotte Hornets (3-4) (1-2 away) at New Orleans Pelicans (0-6) (0-2 home)
**When:** 8:00pm Eastern
**Where:** Smoothie King Center; New Orleans, LA
**How to watch:** FanDuel Sports Network, WSOC TV (Charlotte) (check local listings), NBA League Pass
**Outfitting:** Hornets–Association (white), Pelicans–Statement (red)
**Game Lines:** Hornets +2.5, Hornets money line +120, O/U 237.5
**Injuries:**
Hornets: LaMelo Ball-questionable (ankle), Brandon Miller-out (shoulder), Josh Green-out (shoulder), Grant Williams-out (knee)
Pelicans: Zion Williamson-questionable (hamstring), Yves Missi-questionable (illness), Dejounte Murray-out (knee)
To start, I’m kind of surprised the Hornets are underdogs tonight. I know expectations for these teams differed at the beginning of the season, but the Pelicans have been the worst team in the league this season. The Hornets have been not that. And now the Pelicans might be without their best player, skinnier Zion Williamson. The Hornets might not have LaMelo Ball, but they’ve shown they can still function at a high level without him, at least against bad teams. Again, the Pelicans are that.
Before we talk about the specifics of the game, I do want to point out that I feel bad for Pelicans fans, but I do enjoy that we have a truly incompetent front office to watch from afar. That’s kind of a rare find these days, especially in the NBA where teams have gotten more analytically driven and smarter in general. But while the rest of the league was getting smarter, the Pelicans zigged against everyone’s zag and hired the duo of Troy Weaver and Joe Dumars to run their front office after they completely ran the Pistons into the ground. They’re on the fast track to do that in New Orleans as well.
First, they traded the Pacers their pick back in the 2026 draft in exchange for the 23rd pick in the 2025 draft (that was before Haliburton tore his Achilles, but still a needless move to do at the time). The Pacers are currently barreling towards a high lottery pick. Then, even more inexplicably, they gave up their own unprotected 2026 first round pick to move up from that 23rd pick to the 13th pick. They never looked to be a good team on paper, and early returns are trending towards the worst case scenario. How to a ruin a franchise in like a month. A true masterclass.
Anyway, now that I’ve said all that, they’ll probably beat the Hornets because Trey Murphy will make like 10 threes and score 45 points. That’s if Jordan Poole lets him shoot enough to score like that. Seriously how do you feel good enough about this roster to give up its unprotected pick in next year’s draft. Sheesh.
Oh, and we get to watch Jeremiah Fears, who got a lot of Buzz around these parts during the pre-draft process, so that’ll be interesting.
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