**What:** Charlotte Hornets (4-13) (3-5 home) (0-2 Cup) vs New York Knicks (10-6) (2-5 away) (1-1 Cup)
**When:** 7:00pm Eastern
**Where:** Spectrum Center; Charlotte, NC
**How to watch:** FanDuel Sports Network, NBA League Pass
**Outfitting:** Hornets–Statement (purple), Knicks–Association (white)
**Game Lines:** Hornets +6.5, Hornets money line +210, O/U 238.5
**Injuries:**
Hornets: Pat Connaughton-out (calf), Josh Green-out (shoulder), Grant Williams-out (knee)
Knicks: OG Anunoby-out (hamstring), Landrey Shamet-out (shoulder)
It’s game three of the NBA Cup group stage. The Hornets technically aren’t eliminated yet. They just need to win each of their last two games by several dozen points and hope that the perfect combination of teams lose such that the second place team in every group is 2-2. Easy stuff.
The Knicks decided to dismiss Tom Thibodeau after a disappointing lack of adjustments in the playoffs against the Indiana Pacers. They elected to hire Mike Brown, who has a very similar pre-Knicks resume to Thibodeau, to replace him. Under Brown, the Knicks have been a middling defense, but their offense is elite. It’s not surprising given their personnel. Their two best players, Jalen Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns, are both very bad defenders. The team has tried to surround them with good defenders to mixed results.
Jalen Brunson is his usual ball dominant self; his 33% usage rate is comfortably the highest on the team. He’s an expert foul baiter and one of my least favorite players to watch in the league, so I’m not looking forward to that. KAT hasn’t been as efficient as normal but we’ve seen him go nuclear against the Hornets. He provides a matchup problem for Ryan Kalkbrenner, who has not looked comfortable chasing perimeter oriented bigs. That could mean more Moussa Diabate minutes. Mikal Bridges seems to have fixed whatever goofy hitch that showed up in his shot to start last season. Jordan Clarkson was brought in to add some offensive punch with Deuce McBride off the bench. Josh Hart is Josh Hart.
The Hornets have one of the shortest injury reports we’ve seen all season, and they’ll be at about as close to full strength as they could be. It’s a good opportunity to show what the potential is of this current roster with all its pieces.
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