What: Charlotte Hornets (15-47) (7-24 away) at Washington Wizards (9-53) (3-26 home)
When: 7:00pm Eastern
Where: Capital One Arena; Washington DC
How to watch: Bally Sports Southeast, NBA League Pass
Outfitting: Hornets–Association (white), Wizards–Icon (red)
Game Lines: Hornets +3.5, O/U 226.5
Injuries:
Hornets: Tre Mann-questionable (groin), Mark Williams-out (back), LaMelo Ball-out (ankle), Seth Curry-out (ankle), Cody Martin-out (ankle)
Wizards: Landry Shamet-questionable (calf), Marvin Bagley-out (back)
It’s wild to me that the Wizards are favored in this game. Obviously the Hornets are bad and fully capable of losing to anyone in the league, but the Wizards are 3-26 at home and have lost 16 straight games. They haven’t won at home since December 29, 2023. The 3.5 point spread implies that the Wizards would even be favored at a neutral site too. Absurdity.
So yeah the Wizards are really bad and their badness has kind of flown under the radar with more interesting story lines developing as we approach the home stretch of the season. They’ve been bottom five in both offense and defense pretty much all season but they’ve really gone in the tank in recent weeks. They have far and away the worst net rating in the league since the all star break and since the last time they won a game (which was in January).
They barely play real basketball. They’ve been playing at the fastest pace in the league but it’s not like they’re utilizing that pace to get good looks. Kyle Kuzma has been good and is capable of keeping the Wizards in games they otherwise shouldn’t be in. Deni Avdija has come on really strong of late, including a random 43 point, 15 rebound explosion against the Mavericks a few weeks ago.
Then there’s Jordan Poole. He’s been reassigned to a bench role post-all star break after an absolutely brutal finish to the opening portion of the season. In the seven games in February before the all star break, Poole averaged 10 points per game on 29.9% shooting from the field and 25.5% from three. The Wizards started bringing him off the bench and after going 4-of-17 from the field in his first game in that role, he’s been pretty good. He’s averaging 24.6 points per game over the last seven on real good shooting splits.
The Hornets will be without a handful of players, but they’ve been decently competitive (except against the Bucks). It feels like they can take control of this game by defending hard at the start and making the Wizards work. I personally haven’t watched them other than when they’ve played the Hornets (because why would I?), but when I have seen them, they don’t seem to have many answers for teams that make them try.
