Hornets announce preseason schedule

The Charlotte Hornets have officially announced their preseason schedule.

The slate includes five games over the course of 11 days, beginning with a road tilt against the defending Eastern Conference champion Boston Celtics in a Sunday matinee. Charlotte’s home opener will be on Wednesday, October 5th against the Indiana Pacers.

An interesting wrinkle was added to the schedule a few weeks ago when it was announced that the Hornets would be making the short trip on I-85 to Greensboro for a matchup with the Celtics. This continues Charlotte’s partnership with the city of Greensboro, which has been the home of the G-League affiliate Greensboro Swarm since 2016.

This will be the 10th preseason game that Charlotte has played at the Greensboro Coliseum. It also marks their 13th time playing in the tri-city Triad region, the most recent of which was a contest at Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum on the campus of Wake Forest University in 2019.

Charlotte will then return to the Spectrum Center for a matchup with the division rival Washington Wizards before traveling to the City of Brotherly Love for their preseason finale against the Philadelphia 76ers.

The schedule provides Charlotte with opponents that they have not faced off against in the preseason in some time. The Hornets last played the Celtics and the 76ers in the 2019 preseason, while they have not seen the Pacers or Wizards since 2015 and 2014, respectively.

The NBA preseason is where hope springs eternal

Charlotte will be hoping to snap a seven-game losing streak in home preseason games. Their last victory in a home preseason game came on October 8th, 2018, when Kemba Walker’s 20 points led Charlotte to a win over the Chicago Bulls. Charlotte’s 4-1 mark in the 2018 preseason also represents their most recent winning preseason record, as they notched preseason records of 1-4, 1-3, and 1-3 in 2019, 2020, and 2021, respectively. This year’s slate also marks the first time since 2019 that the Hornets will play a majority of their preseason games as the home team, as the four-game slates of 2020 and 2021 were split evenly between home and road games.

Hornets fans will certainly be intrigued to get their first look at Mark Williams in the purple and teal. Charlotte’s rookies have performed well in their preseason openers over the past few seasons; James Bouknight scored a team-high 20 points in his first preseason game, LaMelo Ball had a team-high 10 rebounds in his debut, and PJ Washington paced Charlotte with 16 points in his first action.

While it has certainly been an up-and-down offseason for the Charlotte faithful, preseason will hopefully be the first step towards a redemptive season.