Game 2 time. We had some foul trouble disrupt some rotations on Monday, and of course the Kristaps Porzingis debacle ruined the Mavs (and my lineups). We learned a lot about which coaches went in certain directions with positional overlaps, so all those details are in the rotation notes. Lots in here!
Brooklyn Nets vs. Toronto Raptors (-11), 1:30 pm ET
Team totals: Nets 107.5, Raptors 118.5
Pace Ranks: Nets 10th, Raptors 12th (second-fastest pace of Monday at 104.5)
Defensive Ranks: Nets 10th, Raptors 2nd
Injury News: Jamal Crawford (hamstring) remains out, the Raptors still don’t have Patrick McCaw (knee) and Oshae Brissett (knee).
Nets Expected Starters: Caris LeVert, Garrett Temple, Joe Harris, Rodions Kurucs, Jarrett Allen
Raptors Expected Starters: Kyle Lowry, Fred VanVleet, O.G. Anunoby, Pascal Siakam, Marc Gasol
Nets Rotation Notes: Donta Hall saw 7.9 minutes as C2 (3.9 garbage time), Kurucs saw 5.6 and Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot saw 0.5 minutes, Tyler Johnson subbing for LeVert (8.8 minutes of overlap).
Raptors Rotation Notes: Only 7.5 first-half minutes for Norman Powell (three fouls), Matt Thomas saw 4.4 first-half minutes and 3.0 in second, Terence Davis II saw 12.1 minutes in second half after zero in the first (three minutes of garbage time), 1.2 minutes of Serge Ibaka with Gasol after zero in the seeding games, only 5.3 minutes of O.G. with Norm (fouls an issue), just seven minutes of O.G. as a four.
*Pascal Siakam has yet to bust out, which is stunning given this matchup and how his minutes are ticketed for a rise. Fred VanVleet was asked about Siakam being quiet after the game, and he was a little annoyed by it. “We’re 8-1,” FVV said. “To be honest with you, I’m tired of answering that question…Pascal’s good. We’re worried about the bottom line, wins and losses.” Siakam somehow shot just 2-of-7 in the paint, and he was really bad in the paint during the seeding games at 22-of-46 (47.8%). Siakam has been wide open on 29 attempts from deep, but made just nine for well below his average. He can’t continue to stay this cold for this long, right?
*FVV is just dumb hot as a shooter. When he’s left wide open since the bubble started, he has an 88.2 eFG% on his 17 jumpers. The Nets have left him wide open a lot in their games against the Raptors with almost two-thirds of his 3PAs coming with no contest (only one of 27 tightly-contested).
*Caris LeVert was about as ball-dominant as he could be with his 97 touches in 35.5 minutes (season leader was Jokic at 97.2). LeVert didn’t have it from an efficiency standpoint on 24 drives at just eight points (3-of-9 from field), but we kind of knew that the Raptors’ interior defense was going to make it really tough for him to be productive per shot.
*Garrett Temple missed all seven of his wide-open treys in the first game (1-of-10 overall). In Game 1 Matchups, I mentioned how the Raptors are first in corner threes allowed on both corners, so maybe Temple makes shots this time.
Matchup Helps: Fred VanVleet, Kyle Lowry, Pascal Siakam, Marc Gasol, Serge Ibaka, Garrett Temple
Matchup Hurts: Jarrett Allen
Utah Jazz vs. Denver Nuggets (-4), 4:00 pm ET
Team totals: Jazz 111.8, Nuggets 115.8
Pace Ranks: Jazz 24th, Nuggets 29th (second-slowest pace on Monday at 96.5)
Defensive Ranks: Jazz 13th, Nuggets 16th
Injury News: Mike Conley (personal) will miss at least this one, Will Barton (knee) is out indefinitely, and Gary Harris (hip) remains out.
Jazz Expected Starters: Donovan Mitchell, Jordan Clarkson, Joe Ingles, Juwan Morgan, Rudy Gobert
Nuggets Expected Starters: Jamal Murray, Torrey Craig, Michael Porter Jr., Paul Millsap, Nikola Jokic
Jazz Rotation Notes: Straight rotation at PG and C (Mudiay backed up Mitchell, Bradley backed up Gobert), Georges Niang and Juwan Morgan saw the vast majority of the PF minutes (12.8 minutes of Jordan Clarkson for Morgan with the other four starters, 4.8 minutes of Niang and Morgan overlap).
Nuggets Rotation Notes: Craig foul trouble derailed rotation plans, Grant had 8.6 minutes at SG and 14.3 minutes at SF, 16.7 minutes of Monte Morris with Jamal Murray, 20.2 of Monte with P.J. Dozier, 9.5 all three PGs.
*The Jazz have the most drives per game in the NBA, and that’s how Donovan Mitchell really smashed in Game 1. He had 33 points off his 25 drives (12-of-14 from field, nine free throws, three assists, no turnovers). Part of the reason Don went off so hard was Torrey Craig getting into big foul trouble, and the matchup stats had Mitchell taking just one two-point shot against Craig (1-of-5 from field). Mitchell made all of his shots when matched up with a guard (Craig is a F on matchup data) and 6-of-8 when switched onto a center. Coach Mike Malone said the Nuggets will try to keep Mitchell from going right all the time, and obviously they’ll be prioritizing Don in their game plan.
*Michael Porter Jr. was really targeted in Game 1, and he was benched in OT. We saw coach Mike Malone blow a gasket after MPJ’s first defensive blunders in the bubble and benched him, but after that Malone really trusted him after MPJ got in touch with him. It sounds like a similar story from Malone here. “[He’s] a rookie, going through this for the first time,” Malone said. “He had 13 points, eight rebounds, did some good things for us. But just being out there, learning and going through it, you can’t put a dollar sign on that.” Malone said MPJ has to take it personally that teams will attack him, and obviously the Nuggets need him as really the only guy that’s a SF with Craig as a SG. If you wanted to bet against MPJ, you might want to fire up Jerami Grant.
*Jamal Murray was way more ball-dominant than usual with a whopping 97 touches, but of course Jokic still got his at 127 (75.7 average on season). His frontcourt touches were way up to 46 (34 in season), and the two-man game was just insane with Jokic passing to Murray 50 times and Murray to Joker 42 times (nobody higher than 10 on Murray’s passes to/from).
*We’ve seen coach Mike Malone sell out on stopping No. 1 options, so if that’s the case we might see more opportunity for Joe Ingles as a secondary ball-handler. Jordan Clarkson should still get his as a scorer, too.
Matchup Helps: Nikola Jokic, Jamal Murray, Jordan Clarkson, Joe Ingles
Matchup Hurts: Michael Porter Jr. (still OK playing him)
Philadelphia 76ers vs. Boston Celtics (-5), 6:30 pm ET
Team totals: 76ers 104.8, Celtics 109.8
Pace Ranks: 76ers 20th, Celtics 17th (slowest pace of Monday at 92.0)
Defensive Ranks: 76ers 8th, Celtics 4th
Injury News: Gordon Hayward (ankle) is out for multiple weeks, Jaylen Brown (quad) is probable, and Glenn Robinson III (hip) remains out along with Ben Simmons (knee).
76ers Expected Starters: Shake Milton, Josh Richardson, Matisse Thybulle, Tobias Harris, Joel Embiid
Celtics Expected Starters: Kemba Walker, Marcus Smart, Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum, Daniel Theis
76ers Rotation Notes: Brett Brown dropped a pretty big hint he’ll be switching up the starting lineup (more below), Al Horford with Embiid had a -42.4 net rating in 21 minutes, Embiid had a +33.1 net rating without Horford in 16.9 minutes, five minutes of Burks and Shake, expected lineup above saw six minutes together in Game 1 after just 10 minutes on season (+14.0).
Celtics Rotation Notes: Pretty much can throw out most of the Game 1 rotation notes with Hayward out; back when Hayward was hurt in November-December Stevens did use some two-center lineups (Time Lord and Kanter at three over a month, three minutes of Lord and Theis), Grant Williams did sub in late after the injury.
*The loss of Gordon Hayward hurts the depth of the Celtics, but we know that it’ll be Marcus Smart sliding into the first unit to get big minutes. Besides Smart, Brad Wanamaker should see most of the remaining guard minutes behind Kemba and Smart, and there should be some Semi Ojeleye or maybe Grant Williams. None of the key guys really get much of a boost without Hayward on the floor besides a slight boost to Jaylen and more dimes for Kemba. We know their starters are going to get massive playing time in this one.
*As mentioned above, coach Brett Brown said “anything is on the table” on a starting lineup now that Hayward is out for the Celtics. There was some buzz that Thybulle was going to start over Horford in Game 1, and Horford’s horrendous performance should seal the deal. Thybulle is going to have to battle foul trouble concerns and he’s probably not scoring more than 10 points, but the playing time should be in the 30s at Horford’s expense. Plus, Alec Burks was outstanding in the second unit and may climb into the 28-30 range. Brown also talked about using a two-man game with Burks and Embiid, so it’s setting up pretty well for Burks.
*Joel Embiid did not get enough touches with just seven post-ups, and an embarrassing six paint touches. Embiid expressed his thoughts on his role after the game. “I got one job to do, carry us,” Embiid said. “ I’m going to need my teammates to help me, but I got to do more. I got to take more shots, be more aggressive.” Brown did kind of push back on just feeding Embiid in the traditional way. “It can be at the nail, it can be pick-and-roll, it can be putting Alec Burks and Joel in a two-man game and getting them out of a roll.” Brown also talked about getting Embiid to pass out more to shooters, so this could also help his assists. Whatever the case, the new lineup and more opportunity should put Embiid in a huge spot.
Matchup Helps: Joel Embiid, Marcus Smart, Jayson Tatum, Matisse Thybulle
Matchup Hurts: Daniel Theis
Dallas Mavericks vs. LA Clippers (-6.5), 9:00 pm ET
Team totals: Mavericks 111.8, Clippers 118.3
Pace Ranks: Mavericks 18th, Clippers 8th (fastest pace of Monday at 104.5)
Defensive Ranks: Mavericks 18th, Clippers 5th
Injury News: Kristaps Porzingis (knee) is questionable and it looked like he went through practice on Tuesday, Trey Burke (ankle) is also probable.
Mavericks Expected Starters: Luka Doncic, Tim Hardaway Jr., Dorian Finney-Smith, Maxi Kleber, Kristaps Porzingis
Clippers Expected Starters: Patrick Beverley, Paul George, Kawhi Leonard, Marcus Morris, Ivica Zubac
Mavericks Rotation Notes: 13 minutes of Kleber-KP overlap, Curry saw 26 minutes with Luka (highest G-G combo, 17 minutes in each half for Curry), Boban only 3.9 first-half minutes, second-half minutes spiked for Kleber (21 minutes), DFS (18) and THJ (19) because of no KP, Delon Wright 6.4 minutes in first half and zero in second, it looked like Kleber was in the first unit at practice on Tuesday.
Clippers Rotation Notes: Lou Williams had 18.5 minutes in first half (12.8 in second), Doc Rivers said Marcus Morris was the “most important player on our team” in Game 1, only 7.2 second-half minutes for Ivica Zubac (15.1 in first half), Montrezl Harrell at 5.7 minutes in first half (9.3 in second half), Morris 6.0 minutes at center (4.7 for JaMychal Green).
*First and foremost, Luka wasn’t concerned about his ankle after the first-half tweak. Besides that, so much for the Clippers taking away Luka’s drives like they did in their seeding game. Luka had an absurd 37 drives in Game 1, which is more than double the 18 he had in the earlier Disney outing. Luka racked up 24 points and seven dimes off his drives. What might be even more surprising than the drive jump was that coach Doc Rivers talked about how the Clippers were over-helping and leaving shooters wide open. Just as a #WatchTheTape guy, the overall strategy wasn’t the same here, and the Clippers didn’t go with bigger guys guarding him as much either. It sets up pretty well for him.
*Maxi Kleber was very good against Kawhi as the main defender on him, keeping him at 6-of-12 from the field in his 19.2 partial possessions. You’d assume he gets a heavy dose of playing time again here. That’s still fine for Seth Curry, who will get some softer defensive matchups against the second unit and he’s also going to get Luka kick outs a bunch just because Luka is going to play a whole lot. The Mavs might really tighten it up in a game they have to have.
*Reggie Jackson was just a lost cause on defense yet again, and Landry Shamet looked a step slow. With Lou getting up there in the first half, the Clippers might really tighten up their guard rotation with PG, Lou and Pat-Bev eating up almost all of those 96 minutes.
Matchup Helps: Maxi Kleber, Kawhi Leonard, Paul George, Seth Curry, apparently Luka Doncic
Matchup Hurts: Clippers bench guards not named Lou Williams
