What: Charlotte Hornets (7-17) (5-7 home) vs Chicago Bulls (9-14) (3-9 away)
When: 7:00pm Eastern
Where: Spectrum Center; Charlotte, NC
How to watch: FanDuel Sports Network, NBA League Pass
Outfitting: Hornets–Statement (purple), Bulls–Association (white)
Game Lines: Hornets +1.5, Hornets money line +120, O/U 234.5
Injuries:
Hornets: Josh Green-available, Moussa Diabate-questionable (knee), LaMelo Ball-out (ankle), Tre Mann-out (knee), Collin Sexton-out (quad), Pat Connaughton-out (calf), Grant Williams-out (knee)
Bulls: Coby White-probable (calf), Isaac Okoro-probable (back), Tre Jones-probable (ankle), Jalen Smith-probable (hamstring), Zach Collins-probable (wrist), Kevin Huerter-out (adductor), Ayo Dosunmu-out (thumb), Noa Essengue-out (shoulder)
Neither team has played since Sunday, so they should theoretically both be fresh and rejuvenated even though like half of their collective roster is on the injury report. The Hornets will still be without all three of their nominal point guards. Josh Green has been removed from the injury report after getting back to practice last week. He’ll replace Liam McNeeley in the rotation while the rookie heads to the Greensboro Swarm for assignment. Meanwhile, the Bulls have apparently asked everyone on the team what hurts them the most and then listed them on the injury report with a probable designation due to that ailment.
The Bulls were the surprise of the first couple weeks of the season. They won their first five games and were 6-1 when the season turned two weeks old. They started sputtering after that point and went on to completely fall apart. They are 1-8 in their last nine with the one win coming by a single point over the lowly Wizards. They’ve lost seven in a row since that win even though it’s been a relatively easy stretch of the schedule. They’ve lost to the Pelicans, Hornets, Pacers (twice), and the Nets. In their last game, they were thoroughly beaten in a wire to wire loss to a Warriors team missing both Steph Curry and Draymond Green.
All of that to say is they’re bad, and they’re susceptible to losing to bad teams. The Hornets are a pretty bad team, so this game should be right up their alley. After all, they did beat the Bulls during this losing streak. The triumvirate of Coby White, Josh Giddey, and Nikola Vucevic are the main threats on offense. There aren’t really any other difference makers otherwise. The Bulls are bad on both ends of the floor, but I can’t quite figure out why. They don’t have any glaring weaknesses on offense; they’re just kind of average at everything. But on the whole, they have a bottom 10 offense. Outside of their big three, most of the rest of the roster are supposed to be defensive specialists, but that hasn’t helped the defense at all. They’re in the bottom 10 there as well.
The Hornets will have Kon Knueppel and Brandon Miller in the starting lineup. I’d like to see both of them put forth good showings against a beatable team.
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