**What:** Charlotte Hornets (16-49) (6-25 away) at San Antonio Spurs (27-37) (16-15 home)
**When:** 8:00pm Eastern
**Where:** Frost Bank Center; San Antonio, TX
**How to watch:** FanDuel Sports Network, NBA League Pass
**Outfitting:** Hornets–Icon (teal), Spurs–Statement (black but with different graphics)
**Game Lines:** Hornets +3.5, Hornets money line +135, O/U 230.5
**Injuries:**
Hornets: Josh Okogie-out (hamstring), Brandon Miller-out (wrist), Tre Mann-out (back), Grant Williams-out (knee)
Spurs: Victor Wembanyama-out (veins), De’Aaron Fox-out (finger), Charles Bassey-out (knee)
The appeal to this game takes a big hit with the players that are absent. Victor Wembanyama is always fascinating to watch, but he’s out with a relatively scary medical issue. The Hornets are also without Brandon Miller, which takes away the first vs second pick battle that always gets the people going. And De’Aaron Fox is out, which makes the Spurs pretty much the same team that was bad enough to get Wemby in the first place.
That means the Spurs best player is probably rookie Stephon Castle. He went off for a career high 33 points last time these two teams met, and he’s built off that for the last couple weeks. Prior to a couple of relative duds against the Mavericks, he had topped 20 points in five of six games while dishing out a handful of assists.
The Spurs are otherwise carried by their cast of players that I can only describe as Spursy. Devin Vassell, Keldon Johnson, and Jeremy Sochan are all, like…fine. They kind of take turns being good. It’s like they all deserve to be exactly a 79 overall in 2K. Then there are the vets Chris Paul and Harrison Barnes just kinda chilling there. It’s a weird team in its current state.
But the big story. The reason we’re all tuning in. The Hornets will be up against former Hornets great, Bismack Biyombo. Biz has started the last 12 games for the Spurs and is still doing what he always does–trying hard, grabbing rebounds, and missing free throws. I need to see at least a few minutes of he and Moussa Diabate battling for rebounds. That might be the most entertaining part of the game.
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