What: Charlotte Hornets (19-60) (8-30 away) at Atlanta Hawks (36-43) (21-19 home)
When: 7:30pm Eastern
Where: State Farm Arena; Atlanta, GA
How to watch: Bally Sports Southeast, NBA League Pass
Outfitting: Hornets–Association (white), Hawks–Icon (red)
Game Lines: Hornets +11.5, O/U 222.5
Injuries:
Hornets: LaMelo Ball-out (ankle), Cody Martin-out (ankle), Seth Curry-out (ankle), Mark Williams-out (back), Amari Bailey-questionable (illness)
Hawks: Trae Young-questionable (finger), De’Andre Hunter-questionable (tiredness), Wesley Matthews-questionable (hamstring), Jalen Johnson-out (ankle), Onyeka Okongwu-out (toe), Seth Lundy-out (ankle)
The Charlotte Hornets are officially done with the 41 home games on their schedule. Three more road games take us to the merciful end of yet another disaster of a season. That starts with a visit to the Atlanta Hawks, who are duking out with the Bulls for the all important ninth seed. The owner of that nine seed will get to a host a game between the two teams with the winner moving on to lose to probably the Heat or 76ers.
The Hawks are losing that battle. They’ve lost three straight games after a decent stretch that positioned them to make a run at a .500 season. They’re played their last 23 games without star point guard Trae Young, which sounds like a bad thing, but they’ve gone 12-11 in his absence, which is above the level they were playing at with him. He could potentially return from that absence tonight to take on the team he struggles against more than any other team in the NBA for some reason.
Something Hornets fans are all too familiar with–where the basketball gods giveth, the basketball gods taketh away. Young’s imminent return as coincided with the departure of Jalen Johnson, who injured his ankle in last night’s game against the Heat. Johnson is turning himself into a household name in NBA circles and should be on the ballot for the NBA’s most improved player.
The Hornets will seemingly have the healthiest current iteration of their roster. Hopefully they’ll just make the game interesting to watch.
