The Chicago Bulls look to break the 1-1 regular season series tie with the Charlotte Hornets. Here's everything you need to know ahead of Saturday night:
The Chicago Bulls are extremely banged up, but they haven't let injuries to some of their key players stop them from putting together back-to-back wins. Chicago comes into Saturday night 3-2 over their last five games, with two of those wins coming without their starting backcourt of Josh Giddey and Coby White.
This will be the third time the Bulls take on the Charlotte Hornets this season, with the season series being split at 1-1.
In the last Bulls-Hornets matchup--a three-point Bulls win--Chicago withstood a 33-point explosion from stellar Charlotte rookie Kon Knueppel. In that game, Knueppel also led the Ball-less Hornets with 9 assists and only 2 turnovers. Simply put, the rookie out of Duke looked and played like a 10-year NBA veteran.
The Bulls will have to slow down Knueppel's scoring if they want to take down the Hornets on Saturday, a task that will be even harder now that LaMelo Ball is available.
Ball took somewhat of a backseat in the Hornets last matchup--a one-point loss to Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Milwaukee Bucks--something that would be a positive development for Charlotte and scary for their opponents if he commits to that play style. Ball had seven assists, while Knueppel led with 26 points, Miles Bridges had 25 points, and Brandon Miller scored 19.
Generating great looks on offense to keep up with Charlotte's will be big for Chicago on Saturday night. The Bulls had 31 assists in Friday night's win, and repeating that unselfish play is key, but if the defense doesn't show up early, this game could get ugly quickly. The Bulls went down 10-points to Orlando after the first on Friday, and eventually locked-in and used a 30-19 4th quarter to sink them. I don't believe Chicago's defense will be able to hold Charlotte to a 19-point quarter at all, so a consistent effort on closeouts and avoiding disadvantageous switches on the perimeter will be the key to Chicago picking up their third-striaght win.
Here's how you can watch the Bulls take on the Hornets in each team's second contest of 2026:
How to Watch
Charlotte Hornets (11-23) @ Chicago Bulls (17-17)
Location: United Center | Chicago, Illinois
Tipoff: Friday, Jan. 3, 2026, at 7:00 p.m. CT
TV: Chicago Sports Network | Announcers: Kylen Mills, Stacey King
Radio: WSCR AM 670 | Announcers: Chuck Swirsky, Bill Wennington
Bulls Spanish Radio: WRTO 1200 AM | Announcers: Miguel Esparza, Elio Benitez
Line: Bulls -1.5 (-110)
Over/Under: 238.5
Injury Report
Chicago Bulls:
- Zach Collins: Out (Sprained Right Big Toe)
- Noa Essengue: Out (Left Shoulder Surgery)
- Trentyn Flowers: GTD (Right Knee Sprain)
- Josh Giddey: Out (Left Hamstring Strain)
- Lachlan Olbrich: GTD (Left Ankle Sprain)
- Coby White: Out (Right Calf Tightness)
Charlotte Hornets:
- Moussa Diabate: GTD (Right Wrist Sprain)
- Ryan Kalkbrenner: GTD (Elbow)
- Mason Plumlee: OUT (Right Groin Surgery)
- Grant Williams: OUT (Knee)
Last Game Starters
Chicago Bulls vs. Orlando Magic (Jan. 2)
- G Tre Jones
- F Isaac Okoro
- F Matas Buzelis
- C Jalen Smith
- C Nikola Vucevic
Charlotte Hornets at Milwaukee Bucks (Jan. 2)
- G LaMelo Ball
- G Kon Knueppel
- F Brandon Miller
- F Miles Bridges
- F PJ Hall