Charlotte Hornets vs. Miami Heat preview, live stream, odds

The Charlotte Hornets and Miami Heat will play for the first time this season on Friday night. However, both could be missing key players.

The Charlotte Hornets travel to Miami to play the Heat on Friday night, but both of the teams could be playing shorthanded. The Heat will be without their talented center, Hassan Whiteside. The Hornets could be missing Kemba Walker for the second game in a row and Jeremy Lamb.

Lamb and Walker are both listed as questionable, Lamb with a knee and Walker with a shoulder. Walker did not sound optimistic on Thursday.

Normally a preseason game would hold zero weight in your handicapping of a regular season game. However, their Oct. 9 game holds some significance. Whiteside did not play in that game either and Walker only played 16 minutes and took four shots. Malik Monk got more playing time and played like he did at Kentucky on a bad night. He led the team with 19 points on 22 shots. The Heat won 109-106

The Hornets have been atrociously bad on the road this season. Thus far they are just 1-9 away from the Spectrum Center.

As a Hornets fan, I could see rooting against Hassan Whiteside playing because they are chasing the Heat. But as a fan of basketball, you want him to play. Whiteside is a freakishly talented athlete, and he takes one-on-one matchups personally. It is a part of his personality and partly due to so many teams passing on him repeatedly. Seeing him and Dwight Howard go at it inside would be worth your time alone.

Unfortunately, it seems Whiteside will miss a week or two with a bone bruise in his left knee. It happened Oct. 18, but it has continued to plague him. Now, they are shutting him down to rehab it.

Here’s how you can watch Friday’s Charlotte Hornets vs. Miami Heat (10-11) game:

Date: Friday, Dec. 1
Time: 8:00 p.m. ET
Location: Miami, Florida
Venue: AmericanAirlines Arena
TV: Fox Sports Southeast
Live Stream: FoxSportsGo

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This post will be updated when the sportsbooks begin putting out the spread and odds for this game. It will most likely be one of the last NBA games on Friday to be put on the board. While Whiteside’s status is now known, Walker’s presence, or lack thereof, could move the line a point or two.