Charlotte's whole season changed in the summer when it traded LaMelo Ball to Minnesota. That made Knueppel and White the center of the offense before either one played a game. Knueppel missed all of preseason with a left hamstring injury. White strained his left calf on October 5 and hasn't played since. Both have resumed individual on-court work, along with Williams, but the team hasn't given a return date for any of them. Whoever suits up Friday decides what kind of game this is.
Atlanta has its own depth problem, and it's up front. Mouhamed Gueye just had surgery on a fractured left foot, and Henri Veesaar tore his right ACL and is expected to miss the season. That leaves the Hawks thin behind their starting bigs. It didn't hurt them in Orlando, where the game turned into a track meet: 257 combined points and a 38-point Magic third quarter that erased a 10-point Hawks halftime lead.
Those Orlando numbers are the most interesting thing Atlanta brings into this one. The Hawks scored 132 and won the fourth 33-25, but they also gave up 125 and let a 72-62 halftime lead turn into a 100-99 deficit in 12 minutes. Charlotte went the other way in Brooklyn. It gave up a 33-point third quarter, then held the Nets to 22 in the fourth and never trailed after a quarter. One team won by outscoring its opponent, and the other won by getting stops late.
It's 1 game each, so read the form card with that in mind. The real things to watch are whether Charlotte's late defense holds up against a Hawks team with 3 guys who can get 20, and whether Atlanta's thin frontcourt shows once the game slows down. If Knueppel or White plays, this is a different Hornets team from the one that won in Brooklyn, and probably a better one.