NBA Matchups: November 10

Washington Wizards at Cleveland Cavaliers

Team Totals: Wizards 106, Cavs 103

Injury Report: Davis Bertans (O, ankle), Isaac Okoro (Q, hamstring), Kevin Love (O, protocols), Lauri Markkanen (O, protocols), Collin Sexton (O, knee)

Wizards projected starters: Spencer Dinwiddie, Bradley Beal, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Kyle Kuzma, Daniel Gafford

Cavaliers projected starters: Darius Garland, Ricky Rubio, Isaac Okoro, Evan Mobley, Jarrett Allen

Unseld quotes: Said he liked Deni and Trezz over KCP and Gafford, said Kuz did a great job on Giannis, said Deni had like 5-6 great plays on Sunday and his play could help him earn minutes going forward, said the team is executing the game plan on both ends, said they’ll try to figure out how to match up against Cleveland’s size, said they’re not switching as much right now.

Bickerstaff quotes: Said the games they win it’s because they win “in the scrap” and hustling, talked about big play from Rubio and Mobley (not much else).

Stats and Notes: 

*The Wizards’ defense has been excellent at allowing bad shot diets, ranking first in location eFG% against, a league-low 30.3% of FGAs coming from three, and even sixth in at-rim frequency this season. Plus, the Wizards have been ridiculously good in transition, keeping teams to just a 0.918 PPP on live rebound possessions to lead the league. The Cavs have been beat up inside despite their size with a 29th-ranked 35.9% of shots allowed at the rim. The Cavs also continue to get run on as they allow the lowest rate of halfcourt possessions, so expect the Wizards to run a ton.

*No Collin Sexton obviously changes this rotation in a big way, and we saw the Rubio upside with his 37-point double-double. On the season, we have a 102-minute sample of Rubio and Garland together without Sexton, and Rubio outproduced Garland in that time with Rubio’s per-36 line of 18/5/9 while Garland wasn’t far behind at 16/3/8. Garland likely gets KCP in a tougher matchup and Rubio can generate value in several areas while Garland likely needs 3-point shooting to pop off, so I’d go to Rubio if I wanted to attack this backcourt.

*The Cavs should really try to get the ball inside to their bigs, which could put Jarrett Allen and Evan Mobley in good spots. Mobley gets an undersized Kyle Kuzma while Allen will see minutes against an overzealous Gafford and Harrell with his defensive issues. We’ve seen a dual-C lineup smash on these guys with Myles Turner (40 points) and Domantas Sabonis (28) light them up earlier this year. I love them both, but I think Allen offers a little more upside with how often he’ll be setting screens to initiate action.

*The reverse is true for the Cavs’ defense as they’ve seen Ja Morant (37), Devin Booker (27), and Dame Lillard (26) turn in solid scoring games against them. Beal has been steadily improving this season and has increased his TS% in each of his last seven games (starting at 32.3, up to 66.8 in his last one), and his scoring output on drives has increased lately. We could see a big deal from Beal. I’m not too into the other Wizards here, though.

Brooklyn Nets at Orlando Magic