**What:** Charlotte Hornets (1-0) vs Atlanta Hawks (1-0)
**When:** 7:00pm Eastern
**Where:** Spectrum Center; Charlotte, NC
**How to watch:** TV64 in Charlotte, local TV in other regional markets, DAZN, NBA League Pass
**Outfitting:** Hornets–Statement (purple), Hawks–Association (white)
**Game Lines:** Hornets +2.5, Hornets money line +124, O/U 225.5
**Injuries:**
Hornets: Kon Knueppel-out (hamstring), Coby White-out (calf), Grant Williams-out (hamstring)
Hawks: Mouhamed Gueye-out (foot), Henri Veesaar-out (knee)
The Hornets are back in front of friendly faces in Spectrum Center for the first time in the 2026-27 season. They’ll do so with a 1-0 record. They [gritted out a tough win](https://atthehive.com/charlotte-hornets-vs-brooklyn-nets-game-1-recap-and-analysis/) over the Brooklyn Nets in the opener, but they’ll probably have to play a little bit better to get a win over the Hawks.
The Hawks are trying to build off a scorching finish to last season. They went 19-5 over the last two months of the season to climb from having a losing record to a tie for the fifth seed with a 46-36 record. They went out in the first round to the eventual champion Knicks, but at least they can say they took as many games off the Knicks as the rest of the Knicks’ opponents combined for the rest of the playoffs (two).
Unlike the Hornets, who didn’t let the late season success stop them from executing a plan I believe they already had in place in terms of player movement, the Hawks elected to keep the nucleus of the team intact. They traded away most forgettable first overall pick of all time Zaccharie Risacher to the Mavericks and got back Lu Dort from the Thunder. They also nabbed Aaron Wiggins from the Thunder in a separate deal, and they picked up Kingston Flemings in the draft thanks to the trade they used to fleece the Pelicans last year. All of those players were meant to bring stability to a bench unit that was all over the place last season as the Hawks churned a bunch of their roster at the trade deadline.
The early-as-can-be returns on that approach have been good. They went toe to toe with the Magic in Orlando for the season opener and came out with a win. Jalen Johnson did the box score stuffing with 20 points, six assists, and 14 defensive rebounds. The guards were all incredibly efficient, and Dyson Daniels swiped five steals.
The Hornets didn’t play all that well against the Nets but were able to pull out the win with pure guts and determination. With White and Knueppel still on the shelf, they’ll be at a disadvantage in terms of offensive firepower against this Hawks team. They’ll have to win the game the same way they did the opener, by winning the possession battle. The Hornets need to take care of the ball and dominate the rebounding battle, and that could help them overcome the Hawks advantage in scoring pop.
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