Injuries cause the ESPN BPI to favor Nets over Hornets

The Charlotte Hornets (12-31) continue their homestand on Wednesday, this time hosting the Brooklyn Nets (14-33). When the two conference foes met in their only prior matchup this season, the Nets narrowly escaped with a 116-115 victory in the NBA Cup’s group stage.

What the BPI says

According to the ESPN Basketball Power Index (BPI) matchup predictor, the Hornets have a 36.6% chance at victory for tonight’s matchup. Although the Nets are just one spot higher in ESPN’s overall BPI rankings, they are expected to perform 1.8 points better than the Hornets versus an average opponent on a neutral court, the largest gap between any two teams next to each other in the rankings.

Charlotte's recent games

The Hornets come into the matchup 1-2 so far on the current nine-game homestand, with a blowout win over the Pelicans sandwiched between close losses to the Trail Blazers and Lakers.

The five wins in January are already the team’s most in any month this season. In fact, a win tonight against the Nets and Friday against the Clippers would move the Hornets to 7-6 on the month which would be the team’s first month with a winning record since March of the 2021-22 season where the team went 10-4.

LaMelo Ball injured his ankle in Monday’s game against the Lakers and is expected to join Mark Williams, Brandon Miller, Josh Green, Cody Martin, Tre Mann, and Grant Williams as out for tonight’s matchup.

Brooklyn's recent games

The Nets enter the matchup on a seven-game losing streak and just 2-13 in the month of January. The month has been so hard for the Nets that they have been outscored by 211 points over those 15 games played, which comes out to a net score of -14.07 points per game. The team’s leading scorer Cameron Johnson has missed the last three games and is also expected to miss tonight’s matchup.

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