Preview: Hornets try to take down Hawks without Brandon Miller – At The Hive

What: Charlotte Hornets (1-0) (1-0 away) at Atlanta Hawks (1-0) (1-0 home)

When: 7:30pm Eastern

Where: State Farm Arena; Atlanta, GA

How to watch: FanDuel Sports Network, NBA League Pass

Game Lines: Hornets +5.5, O/U 227.5

Injuries:
Hornets: Brandon Miller-out (glute), Mark Williams-out (foot), DaQuan Jeffries-out (hand), Josh Green-questionable (achilles), Tidjane Salaun-questionable (finger)

Hawks: Bogdan Bogdanovic-out (hamstring), Kobe Bufkin-out (shoulder), Cody Zeller-out (away from team)

The Hornets start their season with two straight road games. They got off on the right foot against the Rockets and will have a chance to fly home with a 2-0 record. They take on an Atlanta Hawks team that snagged a hard fought win over the Brooklyn Nets.

The Hornets will have to do that without Brandon Miller, who left Wednesday’s opener with what the team is calling a glute strain. It seems like a minor issue, and he’s going to reevaluated in one week. It’d be nice to see the Hornets mostly healthy for once though. It’s quite cumbersome to type out such a long list of injuries.

If it’s any consolation, the Hawks will be without one of their key pieces as well. Bogdan Bogdanovic is dealing with hamstring tendinopathy. He played in the opener but was ineffective. Sophomore Kobe Bufkin partially dislocated his shoulder in practice last week.

The Hawks are powered by their star point guard Trae Young. He had 30 points in the season opener, nearly half of which came from the free throw line. The Hornets guards need to be disciplined in restraining themselves from Young’s foul baiting. They’ve historically done pretty well containing Young, who has had some real stinkers against the Hornets in recent seasons.

Jalen Johnson is probably the second banana right now. He was a bit of a breakout star last year and followed that up with a strong preseason. He’s an aggressive, athletic forward that found himself a passable 3-point shot last season. Dyson Daniels, who was acquired as part of the Dejounte Murray trade, is expected to be a sort of dialed back version of Murray. De’Andre Hunter plays D and shoots threes. Clint Capela and Onyeka Okongwu provide a relentless duo of bigs. Okongwu is coming off his best game as a pro after scoring a career high 28 points against the Nets.

If the Hornets can put Trae Young in a blender like they have in several of their recent meetings, they have a good chance to come out of their season opening road trip 2-0.