NBA Matchups: April 10

 

The last NBA Matchups of the regular season! This season was just brutal with the tanking, and it was not as much fun writing these over the last two months compared to the first three months of the season. I’ll be skipping all the notes to just hit quotes and great/good/bad matchups. I can’t wait to really dig in for the postseason!

 

DET @ CHA | MIA @ WAS | CLE @ ATL | NOP @ BOS | PHI @ IND | TOR @ NYK | ORL @ CHI | BKN @ MIL | DAL @ SAS | OKC @ DEN | MIN @ HOU | MEM @ UTA | LAC @ POR | GSW @ SAC | PHX @ LAL

 

 

Highly motivated to win

Hornets – They need every win they can get to fall in the 6-10 range, and they potentially have a tough game against the Knicks on Sunday, too.

Hawks – Need to do a little more to hold the No. 5 seed. Tough game against the Cavs today, but they get a Miami team on Sunday that lost a lot of motivation.

76ers – They get the Pacers and should be doing all they can to win this game to move up in the standings.

Raptors – They are in a position to get out of the play-in and should do all they can to win again.

Magic – Things broke nicely for them on Wednesday, but they still have more work to do.

Clippers and Blazers – Massive game against each other for the No. 8 seed.

Lakers – They should be motivated to win for the fourth seed, but they may just punt this game on a B2B because of the risk of injury. LeBron James sounded like he was going to play.

Knicks – The win on Thursday opens the door for them to move up to No. 2, so they should play their guys despite a tough schedule against motivated teams (TOR today, CHA Sunday).

Rockets – Maybe they want to punt it to try to get the Lakers in the 4-5, but I think they really go for the win here to be the 3-4. They do not have the tiebreakers on DEN and LAL.

 

Slightly motivated to win

Heat – They’re pretty dead now with the loss yesterday. They have to win out for sure, and would need either the Hornets or 76ers to drop one to move out of the No. 10 spot (they have the tiebreaker on both).

Celtics – They need to find one win now to lock up the No. 2 seed. They play the Pelicans today, but they will get a motivated Magic team on Sunday. They might just want to take care of things without Jayson Tatum today (JT said he is out).

 

Unclear motivation

Cavs – They could still move up to No. 3 in the standings, but it’s unclear if they want to play the Hawks. The Raptors winning could make them more likely to want to push the Hawks down. Kenny Atkinson said they are trying to decide how to play it on seeding.

Nuggets – They have the tiebreaker over the Rockets, so maybe they want to lose and try to fall to No. 4. Maybe they don’t care about possibly falling to five if it’s against the Lakers.

 

Motivated to lose

Wizards – They still need one more loss to lock up the top lotto position.

Pacers – Their win on Thursday makes them extremely motivated to lose the rest of the way.

Bulls – They should try to lose, but they won’t.

Nets – They are winning too much and are pulling out the big guns to lose.

Bucks – They’ve been sitting their guys to try to get in front of the Bulls, but it looks like they’re going to play their guys today.

Mavs – They are finally pulling out the big tank and actually sat their guys late against the Suns.

Grizzlies – The ridiculous tank continues for these guys. Big time against the Jazz.

Jazz – This might be ridiculous against the Grizzlies.

Kings – Hey, they’re getting in trouble because of their tanking now.

 

No motivation

Pistons – They’re locked into the No. 1 seed.

Pelicans – Other tanking teams want them to win, but they do not have their pick.

Spurs – Locked into the No. 2 seed.

Thunder – Locked into the No. 1 seed.

Wolves – They’re locked into the No. 6 seed.

Warriors – They’re locked into the No. 10 seed.

Suns – They’re locked into the No. 7 seed.

 

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Detroit Pistons at Charlotte Hornets

Team Totals: Pistons 110, Hornets 115.5

Injury Report: Kevin Huerter (Q, illness), Coby White (P, groin)

Pistons projected starters: Cade Cunningham, Duncan Robinson, Ausar Thompson, Tobias Harris, Jalen Duren

Hornets projected starters: LaMelo Ball, Kon Knueppel, Brandon Miller, Miles Bridges, Moussa Diabate

Bickerstaff quotes: Said Cade’s minutes limit will depend on how he feels, said they wanted to get his heart rate up, said that they planned to play Stew in the first half only, said they have to “play to your system” to prepare for the postseason, said they have confidence in their depth (asked about going 8-3 without Cade), said they are focused on execution in the last two games.

Lee quotes: Said they had a great compete level against the Celtics but the Celtics had a strong 3Q to give them enough.

*Maybe the Pistons could run a dress rehearsal against a team that really cares. Cade Cunningham could get close to 30 minutes.

 

Great matchups: Cade Cunningham, Kon Knueppel

Good matchups: Duncan Robinson, Miles Bridges, Ausar Thompson

Bad matchups: Moussa Diabate, LaMelo Ball

 

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Miami Heat (back end) at Washington Wizards (back end)

Team Totals: Heat 132, Wizards 114.5

Injury Report: Both B2B

Heat projected starters: Davion Mitchell, Tyler Herro, Pelle Larsson, Andrew Wiggins, Bam Adebayo

Wizards projected starters: Bub Carrington, Tre Johnson, Will Riley, Bilal Coulibaly, Julian Reese

Spo quotes: Said the Raptors were loading up on their drives, said they’re trying to get their team right, said they intended not to overlap Norm and Herro in Norm’s first game back.

Keefe quotes: Said they turned it over too much against the Bulls and it led to easy baskets for them, said the Bulls were putting two on Will Riley and he’ll learn a lot from that experience, said “we didn’t have our normal pop” against the Bulls, said he’ll talk about what they accomplished after the season, said Juju has a natural skill of rebounding.

 

Great matchups:  Bam “83” Adebayo, Tyler Herro

Good matchups: The rest of the Heat

Bad matchups: Julian Reese

 

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Cleveland Cavaliers at Atlanta Hawks