NBA Matchups: November 11

CLE @ CHI | WAS @ HOU | BKN @ NOP | LAC @ OKC | SAC @ SAS

Cleveland Cavaliers at Chicago Bulls

Team Totals: Bulls 114.8, Cavs 122.8

Injury Report: Zach LaVine (P, groin)

Bulls projected starters: Josh Giddey, Coby White, Zach LaVine, Patrick Williams, Nikola Vucevic

Cavs projected starters: Darius Garland, Donovan Mitchell, Isaac Okoro, Evan Mobley, Jarrett Allen

Donovan quotes: Said they didn’t have great pace in spots, said they were communicating better and we “got to hit people” on defense, said there are situations where they should be trapping more and they’re not, said they need to mix up coverages more and it’s going to take time to integrate those looks more, said LaVine’s conditioning was fine after the time off and he was “very good” in his return.

Atkinson quotes: Said he went super small to give Mobley a blow even though everyone was telling him not to (Garland, Merrill, Jerome, Wade, and Niang), said they were trying to match the speed of the Nets and that’s why they went with Caris at the 4, said they have to look at the third-quarter struggles, said Mobley “controlled the game” at the end, said Mitchell was a decoy and he’s “willing to share the spotlight”, Mitchell was saying that he should keep Jerome in over him, said Allen has been arguably their best player and he just didn’t have it on Saturday.

Stats and Notes: 

*Lots of pace here with the Bulls ranking first in offensive pace (first overall) and the Cavs in sixth for offensive pace (11th overall). Both of these teams are in the top five for transition points per game, but the huge difference is the Bulls give up the sixth-most points while the Cavs give up the sixth fewest. The Bulls continue to just bleed rim points with the most points and possessions (fifth most per possession). The Cavs aren’t too heavy with their rim scoring (pace adjusted), and they’re also just mediocre with their rim defense compared to what we’re used to. For the Bulls’ defense, we’ve really seen their C&S D spike lately to drop them to just 12th in possessions against and even the sixth fewest in C&S points on the year. We look to have a flip, as the Bulls have been a huge rim funnel while limiting C&S treys.