**What:** Charlotte Hornets (17-28) (7-13 home) vs Washington Wizards (10-33) (4-18 away)
**When:** 12:00pm Eastern
**Where:** Spectrum Center; Charlotte, NC
**How to watch:** FanDuel Sports Network, NBA League Pass
**Outfitting:** Hornets–City (orange/yellow), Wizards–Statement (navy)
**Game Lines:** Hornets -10.5, Hornets money line -485, O/U 232.5
**Injuries:**
Hornets: Branon Miller-probable (ankle), Ryan Kalkbrenner-probable (wrist), Mason Plumlee-out (groin)
Wizards: Khris Middleton-questionable (foot), Trae Young-out (knee/quad), Bilal Coulibaly-out (back), Marvin Bagley III-out (back), Cam Whitmore-out (DVT), Tristan Vukcevic-out (hamstring), AJ Johnson-out (hamstring)
This game was originally scheduled for 6:00 but was moved up to get people out of the arena and back home safely before the impending winter storm that’s supposed to hit the southeast Saturday night through Sunday. The Wizards also have to get out of here and back to Washington before they get hit as well.
On the floor, you’d like to see the Hornets start to take that next step where they consistently beat the teams that are a tier below them. The aggregate play has been phenomenal for the last few weeks, but they’ve slipped up and lost some close games that could have or even should have been wins. They’ve lost five straight home games with the last win coming over a month ago against this very same (though now different) Wizards team.
The Wizards made the somewhat surprising decision to trade for Trae Young a couple of weeks ago. It’s a curious move for a team that’s been in a long rebuild and hasn’t really shown any signs of climbing out of it. I guess they saw a buy low opportunity on a star player since they only had to give up CJ McCollum’s expiring contract and Corey Kispert. They probably don’t intend on playing him much the rest of the way, so they’ve got a lot of eggs in the basket of Young, Alex Sarr, Kyshawn George, and whoever they get in this upcoming draft.
In the meantime, they’re the worst team in the league. They have the worst record and the worst point differential in the league. They’re the league’s second worst offense and second worst defense. And a lot of that was with CJ McCollum and Corey Kispert. They’re not around anymore. They’ve lost eight straight games and only two of those were by single digits. Their offense is a mess right now.
That doesn’t mean it’s going to be an easy win for the Hornets. They’ve made a habit of underperforming against beatable competition. Let’s see if they can come out locked in and handle this Wizards team the way they’re supposed to.
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