What: Charlotte Hornets (5-8) (1-5 away) at Brooklyn Nets (5-9) (3-3 home)
When: 7:30pm Eastern
Where: Barclays Center; Brooklyn, NY
How to watch: FanDuel Sports Network, NBA League Pass
Outfitting: Hornets–Association (white), Nets–Statement (black)
Game Lines: Hornets +3.5, Hornets money line +135, O/U 220.5
Injuries:
Hornets: Tre Mann-questionable (back), Mark Williams-out (foot), Nick Richards-out (ribs), DaQuan Jeffries-out (hand)
Nets: Dorian Finney-Smith-probable (ankle), Ziaire Williams-probable (hip), Bjoan Bogdanovic-out (foot), Nic Claxton-out (back), Day’Ron Sharpe-out (hamstring)
It’s NBA Cup day! The first game of the group stage for the Hornets didn’t go as planned. They got blown out by a Paolo Banchero-less Magic team thanks to Franz Wagner turning into a superstar. Hopefully tonight goes better. It’s theoretically the easiest game in the group stage and the last one the Hornets have had on the road.
The Nets were expected to be a bottom dweller coming into the season, but they slightly overachieved in the first few weeks of the season. They started 4-4 before falling off somewhat. They’re 1-5 over their last six with the one win coming over the freefalling Pelicans.
Cam Thomas gets the chance to be the guy and he’s delivered from a scoring perspective, but it hasn’t translated to much team success. He’s averaging a career high 24.6 points per game, but the team has been rather significantly worse with him on the floor than when he sits. He’s a bucket getter but dominates the ball and doesn’t do much else. But his bucket getting can be almost impossible to stop when he’s hot.
Cam Johnson and Dennis Schröder are the next two in line to carry the offense. They along with Dorian Finney-Smith have been deadeye shooters. Having those three on the floor together has been the Nets’ recipe for success.
Ben Simmons has been playing and still not shooting. He’s averaging 7.0 assists, 5.8 rebounds, and 4.5 field goal attempts per game. The Hornets will probably play the same defense they did on Giannis and let Simmons have free run with the ball more than 15 feet from the basket.
The Hornets catch a break with Nic Claxton out due to injury. That’s a welcome reprieve after Jarrett Allen and Evan Mobley ate the Hornets lunch on Sunday. With he and Sharpe both out, Ben Simmons and Noah Clowney are the team’s centers, which is a perfect matchup for a Hornets team that also doesn’t have any centers.
