What: Charlotte Hornets (7-17) (2-8 away) at Chicago Bulls (10-15) (3-9 home)
When: 8:00pm Eastern
Where: United Center; Chicago, IL
How to watch: FanDuel Sports Network, NBA League Pass
Outfitting: Hornets–City (mint), Bulls–Statement (black)
Game Lines: Hornets +5.5, Hornets money line +190, O/U 232.5
Injuries:
Hornets: Miles Bridges-questionable (knee), Tidjane Salaün-questionable (ankle), LaMelo Ball-out (calf), Tre Mann-out (back), Grant Williams-out (knee)
Bulls: Zach LaVine-probable (back), Lonzo Ball-probable (injury management), Nikola Vucevic-questionable (illness), Patrick Williams-questionable (foot), Josh Giddey-questionable (foot)
The Hornets have had four full days off to get some rest and relaxation while hoping to get some players healthy. They’re in the early stages of that with Miles Bridges and Tidjane Salaün getting questionable designations after missing various amounts of time with their respective injuries. LaMelo and Tre Mann are still out, but the hope is that they’ll be back relatively soon.
The Bulls are the Bulls. They have enough talent to win some games but not nearly enough to actually compete for anything meaningful. They’re currently slotted for a play-in spot, which is right where they’ve lived for years now. If there’s one good thing they’re doing while hanging out in purgatory, it’s keeping it fresh. They’re offense has been improving year over year, but their defense is getting worse as that happens. This year, they have the fourth worst defensive rating in the league, and they’ve been playing a bunch of games with scores in the 120s and 130s. They allow their opponents to make a lot of twos and shoot a lot of threes. It’s hard to be a good defense like that.
The Bulls offense has been anchored by the usual pair of Zach LaVine and Nikola Vucevic. LaVine has put forth is lowest scoring output in a healthy season since joining the Bulls, but his efficiency has been through the roof. Vucevic has been the opposite, scoring the most he has per game since his first season in Chicago. Both players are shooting over 50% from the floor and over 40% from three. They are the dangermen.
Coby White has been a good microwave scorer on the perimeter, and he’s given the Hornets fits in the past. The rest of the roster is relatively limited offensively. The Hornets will try to funnel shots away from those three and to the rest of the lineup that’s pretty devoid of scoring talent.
