Well, it was a nice little vacation from basketball for the All-Star Break.
But thank goodness competitive basketball is back. We return to Wizards basketball with a road game against the Charlotte Hornets on Friday. Odds haven’t been released at the time of writing but we should expect the Hornets to be slight favorites at home —possibly by three points. As the season winds on, have a look at this Sportsbetting Review to compare them to other top NBA outlets.
Washington Wizards vs. Charlotte Hornets
It’s been a rough first half of the season for the Wizards. At 24-34, the team is sub-.500 and some are already calling it a disappointing season. But the schedule has been tough, injuries have been a factor and the season isn’t over. There is still plenty of time to turn it around.
Injuries:
Dwight Howard has been out with back issues. He is going to be back on the court to resume workouts on Wednesday. That said, he still isn’t likely to play just yet. His absence has left the Wizards without a true center, so his return is something we all should be hoping comes sooner rather than later.
John Wall has undergone Achilles repair surgery and is done for the season. Wall’s injury leaves Washington a little shy on backcourt talent.
Tomas Satoransky is day-to-day for personal reasons. Hopefully, he will be back on Friday because he matches up well against Charlotte. The last time he played the Hornets, he put up 20 points in his 33 minutes on the court, which is about 10 points better than his per-game average over the last ten games.
Devin Robinson has been out with a bum hip and is expected to be back after the All-Star Break,.
It’s been hard for the Wizards to get any sort of consistency in their starting lineup, and we shouldn’t expect this to change just yet. We are likely to see, Chasson Randle, Bradley Beal, Trevor Ariza, Jeff Green, and Thomas Bryant on Friday in Charlotte if Satoransky is still out.
Even with a lot of variance in the starting five, scoring hasn’t been an issue. The biggest concern is defense. The Wizards put up 134 in their win against the Bulls and 119 in their win against the Cavs, and most recently they put up 120 on the Raptors. The problem is they allowed 129. While playing the Bucks and Hawks a couple of weeks ago, Washington was able to drop 129 on each … but they allowed 148 and 137 respectively.
The Wizards are averaging 110.87 points while on the road this season, which isn’t bad. But the 119.73 points per game allowed as the visiting team is enough for us to put our faces in the palms of our hands in dismay.
Charlotte’s overall offense is worse than the Wizards, but at home, they are allowing just 107 points per game, so it is the No. 11 home defense against the No. 30 away defense. The differential on average is significant, but these two teams play each other tightly. Over the last ten games, Washington holds a 6-4 win advantage. And in the last three games, the Wizards have won two. But when we tally up the points it is close, 114 to 113.67. So, less than a point difference over the last three. It doesn’t loosen up any over the last ten. The average margin comes down to 111.70 to 111.50 in favor of the Wizards.
So, if the spread is higher than 3 points in favor of Charlotte, take the Wizards to cover the number. Even though, the individual statistic point to a Hornets victory, Washington might very well take a win off of the Hornets in the Spectrum Center.
