What: Charlotte Hornets vs Brooklyn Nets
When: 7:00pm Eastern
Where: Spectrum Center; Charlotte, NC
How to watch: TV 64, DAZN, NBATV
It’s only the preseason, but we’ve got some semblance of Charlotte Hornets basketball on our television screens and radio dials tonight. Unfortunately we’re going to be missing some guys, so we won’t get to see exactly what the regular season will look like, but it’s better than nothing.
The big story going into the preseason opener is that the Hornets are dealing with a handful of soft tissue injuries that will keep a few guys out of the preseason. Kon Knueppel and Grant Williams are out with hamstring injuries, and Coby White is out with a calf injury. Knueppel said that he was almost three weeks out from his injury at media day, so he seems to be near the end of his recovery timetable, but he’ll be out of the preseason. Williams and White will also miss the preseason, but the timing of their injuries isn’t as clear. White’s seems like it just happened, so he might be in doubt for the season opener.
We’ll get Dennis Schroder and Grayson Allen as the starters in the back court, but we should get to see Brandon Miller and Moussa Diabate with the debut of Naz Reid in the starting lineup. That also makes some room for more minutes for rookies Christian Anderson and Hannes Steinbach, who will get their first test against NBA players that play for a different team.
The Nets will be an interesting watch. They added Julius Randle to form some sort of core with Michael Porter Jr. and drafted Mikel Brown to fill up more of their depth chart with young guards. He makes an intriguing combo with Egor Demin, who followed a solid rookie season with a dominant showing in summer league.
We’ll probably see about 15-20 minutes from most players tonight, so if you’re really only keyed in on the starters, you’ll only have about two or three quarters of basketball to watch. But it’s Hornets basketball. That’s all that matters.
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