The San Antonio Spurs will travel to take on the Charlotte Hornets on Saturday, and it should be a challenging matchup.
I've been covering the NBA for six seasons now, and I'm going to write a totally new sentence, one I've never typed before: The Charlotte Hornets are good and scary.
Wow.
Winners of five in a row, they're red-hot, and the San Antonio Spurs will look to put an end to their win streak on Saturday night. The Spurs are coming off a comeback win over the Houston Rockets and had two days of rest, so momentum should be at an all-time high, although the Hornets had an excellent win of their own in their last game.
Why Spurs Will Struggle to Handle Hornets
The Hornets are 21-28, hardly playoff contenders, but after a years-long rebuild, they finally seem to have put it together.
Brandon Miller and LaMelo Ball, when healthy, are an elite offensive duo. Kon Knueppel is the favorite to win Rookie of the Year, and Collin Sexton is one of Keldon Johnson's rivals in the Sixth Man race. On top of that, Miles Bridges and Moussa Diabaté bring physicality to the table, which the Spurs have struggled with all season long.
In the last five games, the Hornets lead the NBA in points per game, field goal percentage, and 3-point percentage.
The Spurs boast the third-best defense in the league this season, and the best when Victor Wembanyama is on the floor, but the Hornets are finally playing like a well-oiled machine.
Since the New Year, LaMelo Ball is averaging 6.6 assists per game and is shooting well and getting to the rim with ease. During that same span, Brandon Miller has missed only one game and is shooting 44.3% from deep, and Kon Knueppel is rivaling Cooper Flagg as the best rookie and is third in the entire league in 3-pointers made.
Does this game have playoff implications? Not really. Is it a possible Finals preview? Nope! Is it a bigger deal for the Hornets than the Spurs? Absolutely, although the Spurs need to prove that they can hang with the best teams in the league. The Hornets aren't there yet, but if San Antonio can snap their hot streak, it should cement them as one of the most dangerous teams in the league and prove that they can overcome their physicality issues.