Preview: Hornets face off with Spurs for the first time this season

What: Charlotte Hornets (15-14) at San Antonio Spurs (10-16)

When: 8:30 PM ET

Where: AT&T Center; San Antonio, Texas

How to watch: Bally Sports Southeast, NBA League Pass

Short preview for this one. Apologies on the publishing delay.

The Hornets have mostly recovered from the COVID outbreak that hit the team early in the month. The only players remaining out as a result of health and safety protocols are LaMelo Ball and Ish Smith, who have been assigned to the Greensboro Swarm for practice and conditioning after over a week off.

Plumlee would be a big help against Jakob Poeltl, but like the Hornets the Spurs play pretty small outside of their big man in the middle, so if his rib contusion holds him out it’s not a massive disadvantage in terms of matchups.

Dejounte Murray is somewhat-quietly putting together an All-Star worthy campaign in San Antonio this season; 18 points, 8.4 rebounds, 8.3 assists and 2 steals per game are all career-highs and he’s improved as a finisher, shooting 66 percent at the rim (85th percentile) per Cleaning The Glass.

San Antonio isn’t a “good” team record-wise but they’re led by one of the greatest coaches in basketball history in Gregg Popovich, and they’ve actually won six of their last nine games with the seventh-ranked defense over that stretch.

Let’s see if a healthy-ish Hornets team can get back on the right track tonight.