What: Charlotte Hornets (12-34) (8-18 home) vs Washington Wizards (7-41) (2-21 away)
When: 7:00pm Eastern
Where: Spectrum Center; Charlotte, NC
How to watch: FanDuel Sports Network, NBA League Pass
Outfitting: Hornets–Icon (teal), Wizards–Association (white)
Game Lines: Hornets -4.5, Hornets money line -185, O/U 217.5
Injuries:
Hornets: Vasilije Micic-questionable (ankle), LaMelo Ball-out (ankle), Brandon Miller-out (wrist), Tre Mann-out (back), Josh Okogie-out (hamstring), Cody Martin-out (hernia), Grant Williams-out (knee)
Wizards: Alex Sarr-out (ankle), Marvin Bagley III-out (knee), Saddiq Bey-out (knee)
The fun way to do this preview would be to dunk on the Wizards for how bad they are. That loses a little bit of its luster when you consider that the Wizards are 2-0 against the Hornets this season and 5-41 against the rest of the NBA. Still, the Wizards are bad, and there’s really no way to talk about them without really driving that home.
To start, I’ll share this Tweet from Kirk Goldsberry showing the offensive and defensive efficiency of every team in the league over the last ten games.
The Efficiency Landscape. What Jumps Out? pic.twitter.com/pcc7oiQwVb
— Kirk Goldsberry (@kirkgoldsberry) January 31, 2025
Firstly, good job Hornets being on the positive side of the line. They boys are trending up.
Secondly, you’ll notice that the Wizards are so bad that they didn’t even make it on the graphic. They’re too much worse than everyone else. That graphic is a little outdated, but at this very moment, the Wizards have a -17.0 net rating over their last ten games. As you can see, the totality of teams playing the Wizards would be far and away the best team in the league. And that’s with a random win in Minnesota on Saturday giving them a boost.
Prior to that win, the Wizards had lost 15 games in a row. 13 of those were by double digits, and eight were by more than 20. Again, aggressively bad (except on Saturday).
They were able to scrape out a win against a Timberwolves team without Anthony Edwards, who was out sick. They limited the Wolves to 40% shooting from the field and 30% from three while they hit an above average number of 3-pointers by their standards. Kyle Kuzma scored 31 points to lead the charge.
Despite his game leading performance on Saturday, Kuzma is having a really down year. His stats have dropped precipitously pretty much across the board. He’s dealt with a couple of injuries throughout the year. I don’t know if something is nagging him or if simply playing for the Wizards for four seasons has taken its toll on him.
Along with Kuzma, veterans Jordan Poole and Malcolm Brogdon are the most effective players but in the most different way possible. Borgdon is about as steady as they come while Poole is one of the more erratic players in the league. Second year pro Bilal Coulibaly has been alright. Jonas Valanciunas is big. Corey Kispert and Bub Carrington might make some shots. Justin Champagnie was randomly good leading into the first meeting with the Hornets but has since come back to Earth and is kind of struggling to find minutes at this point.
The Hornets should win this game given how these teams are playing, but the Hornets never cease to surprise us.
