At the top of the hour, the Charlotte Hornets will square off with a divisional rival in the Atlanta Hawks for the second time this season. Atlanta eked out a 113-110 win over Charlotte back on November 23rd behind a 28-point game from Jalen Johnson.
Moments ago, head coach Charles Lee submitted his starting lineup for tonight’s game.
G LaMelo Ball
Ball makes his return to the lineup after sitting on the shelf for a couple of weeks with an ankle injury. Any time LaMelo has something pop up with one of his ankles, it leads people to imagine the worst-case scenario. A minutes restriction could be in place to protect him, but the fact that he’s back is huge for the purple and teal.
G Kon Knueppel
The kid has been phenomenal this season and played a big part in Charlotte’s overtime win in Cleveland, chipping in 29 points on 11/19 shooting. If he keeps this up, there’s a good chance he passes up his Duke teammate Cooper Flagg for the Rookie of the Year award. He’s already made some franchise history too, scoring the most points through the first 25 gams of his career.
G Brandon Miller
It’s been a bit of a rough shooting stretch for B-Mill since his return from the shoulder injury that he suffered earlier in the year, but he had a pretty efficient afternoon on Sunday, draining 5/10 shots from range. Overall, he went 8/23, so there’s still room for improvement.
F Miles Bridges
Bridges has been the steady hand for the Hornets’ offense this season, alongside the rookie Kon Knueppel. He’s averaging north of 25 points per game over the last three and had a double-double against Cleveland (20 pts, 10 rebs).
C Ryan Kalkbrenner
The rookie is set to make his 24th start of the season, which is about 24 more than most expected him to make this year. Defensively, he needs to hold up a little better when getting backed down, but for the most part, he’s held his own. In 25.6 minutes per game, he’s averaging 8.9 points and 6.5 boards.
The Hornets and Hawks will get the action underway at approximately 7:10 p.m. ET. You can stream the game live on FanDuel Sports Network Southeast.
