The NBA’s in-season tournament was a novel idea in 2023 that turned into a smash hit. The Los Angeles Lakers took home the inaugural trophy, winning the championship game over Tyrese Haliburton and the upstart Indiana Pacers, in a packed out arena in Las Vegas. The hype around the final proved that Adam Silver’s idea to spice up the early weeks of the NBA season was a rousing success.
The 2024 edition of the tournament, now branded the Emirates NBA Cup, tipped off on Tuesday, November 12th, and the Charlotte Hornets were in action. Charlotte is in the Eastern Conference’s Group A, competing with the Brooklyn Nets, the New York Knicks, the Orlando Magic, and the Philadelphia 76ers. Four of the teams in Group A kicked off their NBA Cup campaign in night one of group play, the Hornets included. Charlotte fell to the Orlando Magic by the score of 114 – 89, making their path to advancing out of their group much steeper. A key tiebreaker in group play is point differential, and the Hornets dug themselves one heck of a hole by losing to Orlando by a whopping 25 points in their NBA Cup opener.
Here’s where Charlotte stands following the first round of games.
1. Orlando Magic – 1-0 (+25 point differential)
2. New York Knicks – 1-0 (+12 point differential)
3. Brooklyn Nets 0-0 (0 point differential)
4. Philadelphia 76ers (-12 point differential)
5. Charlotte Hornets (-25 point differential)
Charlotte’s next NBA Cup action will come on Tuesday, November 19th when they travel to Brooklyn to take on the Nets.
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