**What:** Charlotte Hornets (3-5) (1-3 away) (0-0 Cup) at Miami Heat (4-4) (2-0 home) (0-0 Cup)
**When:** 8:00pm Eastern
**Where:** Kaseya Center; Miami, FL
**How to watch:** FanDuel Sports Network, NBA League Pass
**Outfitting:** Hornets–Association (white), Heat–Statement (red)
**Game Lines:** Hornets +4.5, Hornets money line +165, O/U 243.5
**Injuries:**
Hornets: Collin Sexton-probable (neck), LaMelo Ball-questionable (ankle), Brandon Miller-out (shoulder), Josh Green-out (shoulder), Grant Williams-out (knee)
Heat: Bam Adebayo-out (toe), Tyler Herro-out (ankle), Terry Rozier-out (FBI)
This is already the second and final time the Hornets will travel to Miami this season. We won’t have to see the Heat again in any capacity until March. It’s an interesting little scheduling quirk I guess.
The headline for this game, besides the fact that it’s an NBA Cup game, is that both teams are potentially going to be without their two best players. Between the Hornets and Heat, which team has the best players three through twelve on the roster? It’s the question that people around NBA circles all want to see answered.
Both teams are stumbling into Miami for this meeting. Since the last meeting, both of them have 1-3 records. The Hornets blew out the Jazz for their one win, while the Heat pulled out a narrow victory over the Clippers. For the Heat, it was part of a really tough western conference road trip against four teams that all figure to be factors in the playoff picture. For the Hornets…it was just kinda them being the Hornets.
Withotu Adebayo and Herro, the Heat are going to be the Andrew Wiggins and Norman Powell show featuring cameos from Jaime Jaquez Jr. Powell has become a legitimate offensive star at this point. Wiggins and Jaquez are more inconsistent but both are capable of giving the Hornets a lot of problems. All three, and Jaquez in particular, have been scoring incredibly well inside the arc. That means Kalkbrenner and Diabate are going to have to be on point protecting the rim, and the Hornets perimeter defenders need to put extra effort into recovering if they get screened or beaten off the dribble by one of those three.
For those that may have forgotten the rules of the NBA Cup:
* Teams are divided into six pools of five (three pools per conference). Each team plays the other four teams in their pool. NBA Cup games are on Tuesdays and Fridays.
* The top team from each pool and the best team that did not win their pool advance to a knockout round. Point differential is the first tiebreaker among teams with the same record.
* Teams that don’t make the knockout round will play two games against other teams that did not make the knockout round.
* Teams that lose in the first round of the knockout round will play a second game against another team that lost in the first round of the knockout round to ensure everyone plays the same amount of games.
* The semifinals and finals are played in Las Vegas.
* All games in the NBA Cup aside from the final also count towards regular season records.
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