Home|Sports|Bahamian NBA players to face each other in seven gamesSports

Simba FrenchSend an emailAugust 18, 2022 114 2 minute readFacebookTwitterLinkedInShare via Email

There will be seven games that will feature Bahamians going head-to-head against each other in the 2022-2023 National Basketball Association (NBA) regular season as the full regular season schedule dropped yesterday.

Chavano ‘Buddy’ Hield will begin a full season with his new team the Indiana Pacers. He and Charlotte Hornets’ forward Kai Jones will be the first to play against each other when they meet on Wednesday November 19 at 7 p.m. Jones and the Hornets will host the Pacers at the Spectrum Center in Charlotte, North Carolina. This game will be the first of three regular season matchups that features those two Bahamians.

The second matchup between Hield and Jones is set for Sunday January 8 at 5 p.m. at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, Indiana. The final meeting between these two is on Monday March 20 at 7 p.m. at the Spectrum Center.

Hield and the Pacers will face DeAndre Ayton and the Phoenix Suns in just two games this season. Both will be in 2023. The first matchup gets underway at the Footprint Center in Phoenix, Arizona, on Saturday January 21 at 9 p.m. Less than a month later, the two will play each other on February 10 at 7 p.m. at the Gainbridge Fieldhouse.

Ayton and Jones will go against each other for the first time in the new season on Tuesday January 24, 2023, at the Footprint Center. That game kicks off at 9 p.m. Their final matchup on the season is set for Wednesday March 1, 2023, at 7 p.m. at the Spectrum Center.

Hield started the 2021-2022 season with the Sacramento Kings and ended it playing for the Pacers via a trade. Overall, for both teams, he averaged 15.6 points per game in 81 games. He also averaged 30.9 minutes on the floor. Hield shot at a 40 percent clip from the field.

Ayton and the Suns reached the Western Conference semifinals but were knocked out the playoffs by the Dallas Mavericks. In the regular season, the big man averaged a double-double at 17.2 points and 10.2 rebounds per game. He shot a blistering 63.4 percent from the field.

Jones will look to get more playing time as he enters his sophomore season in the NBA. He was featured in 21 games last season for the Hornets and averaged just three minutes per game. He averaged one point per game and shot 64.3 percent from the field. He spent some time in the NBA G-League, playing 24 games and averaging 31.7 minutes per game. He averaged a double-double at 18.3 points and 11 rebounds per game in the G-League.

All three players are anticipating more productive seasons in 2022-2023.