What: Charlotte Hornets (34-33) (20-16 away) at San Antonio Spurs (48-18) (25-7 home)
When: 3:30pm Eastern
Where: Frost Bank Center; San Antonio, TX
How to watch: Prime Video
Outfitting: Hornets–Icon (teal), Spurs–Association (white)
Game Lines: Hornets +5.5, Hornets money line +200, O/U 229.5
Injuries:
Hornets: Coby White-probable (heel), Ryan Kalkbrenner-probable (illness), Tidjane Salaün-out (calf), Liam McNeeley-out (ankle)
Spurs: Victor Wembanyama-questionable (ankle), Dylan Harper-questionable (calf)
We come upon the most consequential regular stretch the Hornets have played in several seasons (not counting positioning for the lottery). They suddenly find themselves in one of the hottest playoff races in recent memory, as several teams in their vicinity all started winning literally all of their games as soon as the Hornets inserted themselves into the playoff conversation. They will now play their next three games against a title contender and then two direct competitors in the playoff chase. The first of those is today’s game against the San Antonio Spurs.
The Spurs have rode lottery luck (again) to bounce back into the conversation about teams that could win the NBA Finals. Victor Wembanyama has fully established himself as the superstar everybody expected from the time he was like 15 years old, and he’s playing some of the best basketball of his career in the month of March. Stephon Castle and De’Aaron Fox add a scoring 1-2 punch in the back court, and the rest of the roster is filled out with perfect high motor, plus defender role players.
The Hornets won the first meeting between these teams, which was coincidentally also early in the afternoon and broadcast on Amazon Prime. In that game, Moussa Diabate and the rest of the Hornets gave Wemby all sorts of problems, holding him to just 16 points on 15 shots. They did just enough on both ends of the floor to ride a dominant performance on the glass to a win. The Spurs are one of the best defensive rebounding teams in the league, so counting on another huge day on the offensive glass might not be wise. The Hornets will need to deal with the Spurs physicality on the perimeter.
Collin Sexton helped power the Hornets to a win in the first meeting with 21 points off the bench. He’s not here anymore. It’d be a great time for Coby White to get his groove back and for the stars, who all struggled from deep, to have a day more representative of what they’re capable of.
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