**What:** Charlotte Hornets (4-11) (3-4 home) vs Los Angeles Clippers (4-11) (1-6 away)
**When:** 1:00pm Eastern
**Where:** Spectrum Center; Charlotte, NC
**How to watch:** FanDuel Sports Network, NBA League Pass
**Outfitting:** Hornets–Icon (teal), Clippers–Association (white)
**Game Lines:** Hornets +1.5, Hornets money line +110, O/U 228.5
**Injuries:**
Hornets: Brandon Miller-available (shoulder), Sion James-probable (groin), Tre Mann-questionable (ankle), Josh Green-out (shoulder), Grant Williams-out (knee)
Clippers: Kawhi Leonard-out (ankle), Bradley Beal-out (hip), Derrick Jones Jr.-out (knee), Jordan Miller-out (hamstring)
We’ve got an early afternoon meeting between two teams that are floundering at the moment, so you can get it out of the way and have the rest of your afternoon to be productive. The shared 4-11 records surely feel different between the two teams. The Hornets are young and building and are probably content with just about any record provided it seems like the team is trending the right way as they add talent. The Clippers are not in that boat. They have an older team built around stars at the tail ends of their primes, and the Thunder own their first round pick. They need to start winning games both for their own good and for the good of the league.
Unfortunately, a team built around aging, injury prone stars is currently dealing with injuries to its older, injury prone stars. Bradley Beal played just six ineffective games before suffering a broken hip that’ll sideline him for the season. Kawhi Leonard is dealing with an ankle sprain that is also [apparently a foot sprain](https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/46949879/clippers-kawhi-leonard-dealing-ankle-foot-sprains). Without those two, the Clippers are basically James Harden and friends.
Harden has been trying to carry the Clippers, averaging 29.1 points and 8.4 assists per game since Kahwi went down with his injuries. Ivica Zubac has been the robin to his batman, and his physicality always gives the Hornets problems. After them, they have the old Hawks duo of John Collins and Bogdan Bogdanovic, but neither have had quite the impact in LA than they did in their days in Atlanta.
Their bench is almost an All Star lineup if it was 2012, and I don’t think the average NBA fan realizes who’s on that bench. There will be minutes featuring a second unit that contains Nicolas Batum, Brook Lopez, and Chris Paul. There are a couple of guys named Kobe playing for LA too. It’s a fascinating roster, really.
The Hornets will be celebrating the return of Brandon Miller after he missed a few weeks to recover from a shoulder subluxation. He’s seemingly poised to take a step forward in his career, but he needs to stay on the court. The Hornets badly need his shooting and play making in the lineup, and his return will allow Sion James to return to the bench, where he’ll probably be more comfortable.
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