What: Charlotte Hornets (0-0) vs Brooklyn Nets (0-0)
When: 7:00pm Eastern
Where: The newly renovated Spectrum Center; Charlotte, NC
How to watch: WSOC-TV, FanDuel Sports Network, NBA League Pass
Game Lines: Hornets -4.5, Hornets money line -190, O/U 228.5
Injuries:
Hornets: Josh Green-out (shoulder), Grant Williams-out (knee)
Nets: Haywood Highsmith-out (knee)
The NBA season is back in full swing, which means we have finally made it to the point of the calendar year where there’s usually at least one sport playing over the airwaves. We’re going to get Hornets games fast and furious over the next six months. It starts with arguably the most beatable team in the league, at least on paper to start the season. But it’s game one. Literally anything can happen. Michael Carter-Williams almost got a quadruple double that one time.
The Nets have been trying and failing to tank for a couple of years now. Their team keeps overachieving and winning too many games to get a high draft pick while never being anywhere close to a threat to win anything. The roster this season looks like their best chance to really embrace the tank and lose a lot of games. They traded away last season’s best player Cam Johnson to the Nuggets. They got back Michael Porter Jr., who can get buckets, but he’s not the kind of player that typically elevates a team. He’s going to average like 25 a game this season and the Nets will hardly be any better for it most nights. Basically what Cam Thomas has been for them already.
The Hornets are going to be the first team to encounter the interesting usage battle that’s inevitably going to occur between Porter and Thomas. Thankfully no one else on the roster seems to be the shot taker type, so their should be plenty of opportunities to go around. They might legitimately both average 20 shots per game while no one else cracks double digits.
For the home team, we get a rare sighting of a healthy LaMelo Ball, Brandon Miller, and Miles Bridges playing together. All of the trio had moments in the preseason, and they look poised for strong offensive seasons if nothing else. Based on the preseason, it looks like rookies Kon Knueppel and Ryan Kalkbrenner are poised to fill out the starting lineup, which would be incredibly exciting. Knueppel provides a perfect complement on the wing as a floor spacer and offensive connector while Kalkbrenner can patrol the paint and function as the lob target the Hornets had in Mark Williams last season.
Remember, it’s game one, and weird things can happen in one game sample sizes, so we can’t overreact to tonight. The lone exception is if the Hornets thoroughly dominate this game, then we can start talking ‘yoffs.
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