What: Charlotte Hornets (1-0) vs Chinese National Team (0-1)
When: 8:00pm Eastern
Where: Golden 1 Center; Sacramento, CA
How to watch: ESPN2, ESPN+
These two teams had completely opposite summer league debuts. The Hornets routed the Spurs in a wire to wire victory that was never really competitive. Meanwhile, the Chinese National Team were on the opposite side of a similarly one-sided affair. They were beaten 101-50 by the Kings.
The Hornets should win this game without much issue. The Chinese National Team was so badly physically overmatched by the Kings, and there’s no reason the Hornets can’t do the same thing, especially if they play with the same defensive intensity they had against the Spurs. The Chinese National Team was outrebounded 47-27, and they only had 20 defensive rebounds to the Kings 12 offensive rebounds. They are not a threat to score from deep, but they don’t have the physicality or quickness to put pressure on the rim or even run a fluid offense. They finished with just nine assists to 16 turnovers and only made two 3-pointers.
The Hornets don’t have a tremendously imposing summer league roster, but if they can suffocate the Spurs, they should be able to do the same thing to Team China. If this game is anything like the Kings vs China game, there won’t be much of anything that we can glean from it. That said, it’s a fun match-up that you’ll only get in the summer league. Hopefully the Hornets make a good time of it.
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