NBA Matchups: January 29

BKN @ CHA | DET @ IND | TOR @ WAS | CHI @ BOS | CLE @ MIA | DEN @ NYK | SAC @ PHI | DAL @ NOP | LAC @ SAS | MIN @ PHX | OKC @ GSW

Brooklyn Nets at Charlotte Hornets

Team Totals: Nets 101.5, Hornets 104

Injury Report: Noah Clowney (O, ankle), Cam Johnson (O, ankle), LaMelo Ball (O, ankle), Josh Green (O, tanking), Cody Martin (O, tanking), Tidjane Salaun (O, G League), Mark Williams (O, tanking)

Nets projected starters: D’Angelo Russell, Keon Johnson, Jalen Wilson, Ziaire Williams, Nic Claxton

Hornets projected starters: Vasa Micic, Nick Smith Jr., Josh Okogie, Miles Bridges, Taj Gibson

Jordi quotes: Said they turned it over way too much in the second half, said he didn’t have an update on Clowney (rolled his ankle and needed help off the court), said they didn’t lose the game from the FT line, said they were trying to double Fox and it didn’t work.

Lee quotes: Said Okogie and Green are two of the better defenders in the NBA and they are growing offensively, said “I think we were OK” against AD despite him scoring 42, said LaMelo was engaging guys after the game and he was still being evaluated, said Vasa, NSJ, and Okogie can step up with LaMelo out, said they were just trying to take away stuff from LeBron and it was generally working.

Stats and Notes: 

*The Nets just can’t score, and the Brooklyn under points bet has been a go-to bet these days. The Hornets continue to play some strong defense and remain a top-three defense since Christmas. The Hornets have been just OK with their transition defense and they have been solid on the ball. Although, they are running extremely hot on C&S 3P% at 34.4%. I’d still expect the Hornets to keep them below/near 100. For the Hornets on offense, it should look quite gross without LaMelo Ball. The Hornets have a brutal 102.2 O rating in the minutes without Ball (112.8 with). The Nets are a terrible transition defense as they allow the fourth-most transition points, and they allow the eighth-most C&S points. It should be easy money for the wings on the Hornets here — the Nets are still a very good PNR handler D and lead the league there at just 10.0 points (12.7 OKC ranks second).

*D’Angelo Russell is armed with a really strong role right now, as he’s just running the offense on every possession. The Nets will likely reintroduce Ben Simmons into the mix, but I’m fairly confident that D-Lo will only overlap with him for 5-10 minutes. There are no shot creators on this team, but the matchup isn’t great as he’ll have to deal with Josh Okogie for all of his minutes.

*Nic Claxton likely will have his minutes cut as usual, but the matchup is so good against old Taj and Moussa Diabate. 

*Miles Bridges didn’t get tagged today, so it looks like the Hornets will let him roll out there. He just played 37 minutes on Monday with 26 points against the Lakers. Bridges has played off the ball for much of the season, but we saw last year he can take on a massive scoring workload. It should be a massive night for him against Ziaire Williams. I would still be a little nervous on a rug-pull here, so it’s more of a DFS play than an overs bet play.

*Vasa Micic and Nick Smith Jr. should pick up most of the handling in the first unit. In the tank game last week without LaMelo (Miles was out, too), Micic was the lead handler at 6.3 minutes of touch time while NSJ wasn’t too far off at 4.6 minutes. NSJ did play off the ball with six spot-up chances and only four PNR handler possessions, but that’s not a bad thing for him with the Nets giving up the spot-up stuff more. I’d expect massive minutes for NSJ, so I like him a lot more than Micic.

*Josh Okogie is certainly in play here. Charles Lee loves him, and the Hornets really cut out their on-ball D bucket with Martin and Green out. The Nets will likely leave him open, he’s had a tremendous O rebound rate for his size, and Brooklyn being terrible in transition helps him more than anyone on the Hornets. I love Okogie.

*Moussa Diabate should come off the bench, but the minutes will be there. It’s not exactly a smash with most of his minutes matching up against Day’Ron Sharpe, but there will be a lot of misses in this game. He’s a pretty good bet for a double-double here.

Great matchups: Miles Bridges, Josh Okogie, Nic Claxton (minutes concerns) 

Good matchups: Nick Smith Jr., D’Angelo Russell

Bad matchups: Vasa Micic

Detroit Pistons at Indiana Pacers