The first game on Friday night in the NBA is going to be between Charlotte Hornets and Washington Wizards. After 21 games played, Charlotte is the 3rd-worst team in the Eastern Conference with 6 wins and 15 losses. Washington is playing much better as they have 11 wins and 11 losses which gives them the 9th position in the standings.

In this game, I'm picking Washington with the handicap. Out of the last six games, the Hornets have won two but those have been against the 76ers who were without Joel Embiid and the Timberwolves. Charlotte is the 3rd-worst home team in the league with just three wins in nine games. Interesting that the team hasn't played since November 28th and so big rest couldn't be a good thing. The Wizards have won just one out of the last five games. The only victory was against Minnesota but their other opponents were very good - twice Miami, Boston and Brooklyn.

Let's compare the last five game statistics. Washington has the 5th-best offense (117.6) and only the 26th-best defense (119.8) with the 18th-best net rating (-2.2). During this five-game stretch, Charlotte has shown the worst offense (103.2) and the 13th-best defense (111.6) with the 27th-best net rating (-8.4). The adjusted net rating for the Wizards is -0.8 but for the Hornets, it is -5.9.

It is going to be a tough task for Charlotte to guard Kristaps Porzingis. Against the Timberwolves, he scored career-high 41 points but in the next game, he scored 27 points and grabbed 19 rebounds versus Brooklyn. Overall, I like the Wizards better as they are more talented and recent results have shown that they are able to compete against anybody. This season, both teams have already met two times. In the first matchup, Washington won by eight points but in the next game, the Wizards won by four points.

本译文使用有道机器翻译，仅供参考：

周五晚上的NBA第一场比赛将在夏洛特黄蜂队和华盛顿奇才队之间展开。在21场比赛后，夏洛特以6胜15负的成绩排名东部第三。华盛顿打得好多了，他们11胜11负，这使他们在积分榜上排名第九。

在这场比赛中，我选择了华盛顿队。在过去的六场比赛中，黄蜂赢了两场，但那是对阵没有乔尔-恩比德和森林狼的76人。夏洛特是联盟第三差的主场球队，9场比赛只赢了3场。有趣的是，球队自从11月28日以来就没有比赛了，所以大的休息不是一件好事。奇才在过去的五场比赛中只赢了一场。唯一的胜利是对阵森林狼，但他们的其他对手都非常出色——两次都是迈阿密、波士顿和布鲁克林。

让我们来比较一下最近五场比赛的数据。华盛顿的进攻(117.6分)排名第五，防守(119.8分)排名第26，净效率(-2.2分)排名第18。在这五场比赛中，夏洛特的进攻最差(103.2分)，防守排在第13位(111.6分)，净得分排在第27位(-8.4分)。奇才调整后的净收视率是-0.8，而黄蜂的净收视率是-5.9。

对于夏洛特来说，防守波尔津吉斯将是一项艰巨的任务。对阵森林狼，他砍下职业生涯最高的41分，但在下一场对阵布鲁克林的比赛中，他砍下27分和19个篮板。总的来说，我更喜欢奇才，因为他们更有天赋，而且最近的成绩表明他们能够与任何人竞争。本赛季，两队已经交手两次。在第一场比赛中，奇才队赢了8分，但在第二场比赛中，奇才队赢了4分。