What: Charlotte Hornets (7-19) (2-9 away) at Washington Wizards (3-21) (2-11 at home)

When: 7:00 p.m. East Coast

Where: Capital One Arena; Washington D.C

How to watch: FanDuel Sports Network, NBA League Pass

Equipment: Hornets Statement (purple), Wizards Association (white)

Play lines: Hornets -4.5, Hornets moneyline -170, O/U 227.5

Injuries:
Hornets: Brandon Miller – questionable (ankle), Tre Mann – out (back), Grant Williams – out (knee)

Wizards: Carlton Carrington – questionable (illness), Kyle Kuzma – out (ribs), Saddiq Bey – out (knee)

This game makes me nervous. The Wizards are comically bad, but I don’t have confidence in this Hornets team to make enough shots to beat anyone right now. If we use a completely non-random sample of the last 11 games, these two teams have the same record (1-10). However, the Hornets were significantly better in their 1-10 phase. They ranked 28th in offensive rating, 20th in defensive rating and 25th in net rating in those 11 games. The Wizards rank 30th (last) in offensive rating, 25th in defensive rating and 30th (again last) in net rating.

Their problems have been compounded by the absence of Kyle Kuzma, who has been out for a few weeks with a rib injury. Jordan Poole and Malcolm Brogdon were the lead dogs without him. Things are going as well as you would expect for Jordan Poole. Brogdon was as efficient as ever in action, but is on the mend due to a thigh injury. Justin Champagnie happened to be good out of nowhere after barely playing before December.

The Wizards only have three wins, but they have played the Hawks, the Hawks again and the Nuggets. Occasionally they can take off and win a game they weren’t supposed to win. Technically they weren’t supposed to win this game either, but the Hornets were close enough to their level to make that happen.

The Hornets tend to encourage certain opponents to shoot. In return, the Wizards have plenty of targets, which should make defending easier than most nights, assuming someone doesn’t catch fire unexpectedly. In the 11 games we talked about, only two Wizards made more than a third of their threes – Malcolm Brogdon (38.9%) and Alex Sarr (35.9%). Only Jordan Poole was able to maintain a 3-point percentage above 33.3% all season.

Some good news on the Hornets’ injury front is that Brandon Miller is already listed as questionable after leaving Monday’s game with a sprained ankle. Even though he’s not playing tonight, he apparently has a bit of a problem and will be back sooner rather than later.

It would be really nice if the Hornets won. You need to see a couple go in so they can build some confidence that they’ve seemingly been lacking over the last few weeks. They have a pretty grueling schedule ahead of them over the next few weeks, so they need to start picking up wins where they can, and quickly.

Related