- 1 Brooklyn Nets vs Charlotte Hornets: Charlotte open without LaMelo Ball and probably without Kon Knueppel
- 2 Brooklyn Nets: Randle and Porter Jr. added to the league’s lowest-scoring attack
- 3 Charlotte Hornets: never past 100 in three preseason defeats
- 4 Free NBA Prediction: Brooklyn Nets vs Charlotte Hornets
- 5 About our free predictions
- 6 No commitment from us
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Brooklyn Nets vs Charlotte Hornets: Charlotte open without LaMelo Ball and probably without Kon Knueppel 
Kon Knueppel averaged 18.5 points as a rookie last season, shot 42.5% from three and finished runner-up to Cooper Flagg for Rookie of the Year. He hasn’t played a minute this autumn. A hamstring injury picked up in offseason work kept him out of the whole preseason, and the Hornets will only re-evaluate him during the first week of the regular season.
Grant Williams is on the same timeline with his own hamstring problem. Coby White, re-signed on a three-year, $74 million deal this summer, strained his left calf in a preseason game on 6 October. No update on his status for Wednesday has been given.
LaMelo Ball is gone too, traded to Minnesota for Naz Reid. That’s a lot of Charlotte’s backcourt missing on the same night, and the spread still has the Hornets as 1.5-point favourites at Barclays Center, with the total at 221.
Brooklyn were the league’s lowest-scoring side last season at 105.9 points per game and went 20-62. They’ve since added Julius Randle from Minnesota in a four-team trade and Mikel Brown Jr. with the No. 6 pick, and they beat Charlotte in Charlotte on 6 October.
Tip-off is 7:30pm ET on Wednesday 21 October in Brooklyn. I don’t see why Charlotte should be giving points here.
Brooklyn Nets: Randle and Porter Jr. added to the league’s lowest-scoring attack 
The Nets lost 29 of their 41 home games last season. They ranked 26th in defensive efficiency, allowing just under 116 points per game, and no team scored fewer.
The preseason pointed somewhere better. Brooklyn went 3-1, with wins over the 76ers (114-108), the Wizards and the Hornets, and the only defeat was a 144-128 loss at Miami. Michael Porter Jr. scored 27 on 9-of-17 shooting that night, even though Miami shot 59% and won the rebounding 50-37.
Randle gives them a second creator alongside Porter Jr. The starting five in the win at Charlotte was Nolan Traore, Egor Demin, Porter Jr., Randle and Day’Ron Sharpe.
Brown Jr. is the question mark. The rookie tweaked his ankle in late September and missed the preseason opener, and there’s been no confirmation of his status for Wednesday. Joshua Jefferson also sat out the 6 October game with lower-back stiffness.
Charlotte won two of the three meetings last season. Those games were played by a Hornets roster with Ball and Knueppel in it.
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Charlotte Hornets: never past 100 in three preseason defeats 
The Hornets lost three of four preseason games and didn’t reach 100 points in any of the defeats. Their one win came with 105 points. The last outing was a 116-98 loss at Memphis with 24 turnovers.
Hannes Steinbach, the No. 14 pick, was the bright spot in Memphis with 19 points and 10 rebounds. Brandon Miller managed 15 on 4-of-12, and he’s now the senior scorer in a side without Ball and possibly without Knueppel.
Last season’s Hornets reached the Play-In and were beaten 121-90 at Orlando. They ranked ninth in offensive efficiency and allowed 111.2 points per game, but they also turned the ball over a lot, a problem that showed up again in Memphis.
Charlotte haven’t reached the playoffs in ten seasons and haven’t won a series since 2002. Reid is the main addition, and Dennis Schroder started at point guard in the preseason game against Brooklyn.
That 6 October starting five was Schroder, Grayson Allen, Miller, Reid and Moussa Diabate. Brooklyn won that game in Charlotte, and the Hornets’ rotation has only got thinner since.
Probable lineup Brooklyn Nets: Nolan Traore, Egor Demin, Michael Porter Jr., Julius Randle, Day’Ron Sharpe
Probable lineup Charlotte Hornets: Dennis Schroder, Grayson Allen, Brandon Miller, Naz Reid, Moussa Diabate
Free NBA Prediction: Brooklyn Nets vs Charlotte Hornets
Our prediction: Brooklyn Nets +1.5
I’d take the Nets with the point and a half. Charlotte are favourites on the strength of last season’s Play-In finish, but that team had Ball, Knueppel and White, and none of the three is a sure starter on Wednesday.
Brooklyn have already beaten this Hornets group on its own floor this month. Randle and Porter Jr. give the Nets two players who can score 20, while Charlotte couldn’t reach 100 points in three preseason defeats and turned it over 24 times in their last game.
Brooklyn’s home record last season, 12-29, is the obvious concern. With Randle in the lineup and Charlotte this short in the backcourt, I’m happy to back the home side to win or lose by one.
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