NBA Matchups: December 13

All of these teams have been off for at least three days and some of them five to six days, so there’s a chance that some of these struggling teams could change their starting lineup. I’ll be talking about this more on the Injury Show.

WAS @ CLE | IND @ PHI | LAL @ MIN | BKN @ MEM | CHA @ CHI | LAC @ DEN | PHX @ UTA | SAS @ POR

Washington Wizards at Cleveland Cavaliers

Team Totals: Wizards 107.5, Cavs 125

Injury Report: Malcolm Brogdon (O, hamstring), Corey Kispert (O, ankle), Kyshawn George (O, ankle), Evan Mobley (Q, ankle), Max Strus (O, ankle), Isaac Okoro (P, ankle)

Wizards projected starters: Jordan Poole, Bub Carrington, Bilal Coulibaly, Alex Sarr, Jonas Valanciunas

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

Keefe quotes: Said they really embraced the challenge to get a win, said Champagnie has played a lot of minutes in the G League, said Bilal has been awesome on defense and it’s getting even better, said he doesn’t think about how they break the streak, said he’s “not worried about [Bilal’s] shot at all”, said the Grizzlies really tried to take Poole out of it, said the “rhythm of the game” is changing for Bilal and he’s getting better as an offensive player, said JoVal “gave everything he had against Joker and in the B2B, said they are going to spend more time in practice.

Atkinson quotes: Said they really want Mobley to be aggressive with his 3-pointers and they’re even OK with him taking “bad” ones, said Mobley is so humble and works extremely hard, said Mobley being selfish is the next step for him, said they just let Robinson and Herro loose, said they mixed in some Wade at the 5 without Mobley, said Mobley’s injury wasn’t bad, said they talked to Mobley about his ankle and to let them know if it was still bothering him.

Stats and Notes: 

*This should be ugly and we are almost certainly getting garbage time. These teams just played earlier this month and it was 118-87 Cavs, as Cleveland scored 31 points in transition. The Cavs also shot it terrible in that game at 1.00 PPP on their C&S, and they actually didn’t get to the rim too much. We know the Cavs are probably scoring 120 here with their excellent transition offense. Can the Wizards score enough? The Cleveland defense was really on track prior to the dud they had in a B2B at Miami. Their transition defense has been a little worse recently, as they’re now just 12th in transition points allowed, but their rim defense has been excellent at fifth in the NBA even with their pace (fifth in PPP). It’s likely a huge blowout here.

*Jordan Poole has been extremely inconsistent, as he’s put up two 30-point games and two single-digit games over his last six (13 and 11 in the other two). The Grizzlies really sent some bodies to him on Sunday and the Cavs will likely do that again. He had just nine FGAs against the Cavs earlier this year, and Cleveland has been excellent against lead handlers most of the time this year (sixth in PPP, seventh in points). If you wanted to go to Poole today, you probably want a Cav on the other side.

*The Wizards are still really banged up to basically lock in their young guys. Alex Sarr is back in action, and he was showing more minutes ceiling as he finally hit 36 minutes on Nov. 30. Of course, his matchup will be heavily tied to Evan Mobley’s availability, and the Cavs may opt to start Georges Niang on him to keep Dean Wade in there as their small-ball C2. He was OK in the matchup earlier this month at 10/9/2 in 27 minutes (Mobley played), but either way it’s a tough sell.

*Bub Carrington is getting some heavy minutes at 33 and 34 in the last two, and he should be locked into them again. Bub did not get garbage time in the last game because they were down huge to the Grizzlies, and he did play the full fourth in a close win over the Nuggets. His matchup isn’t great, but he could do enough stuff to have value in all that playing time.

*Bilal Coulibaly is going to be on Donovan Mitchell to give him plenty of foul risk, but the Wizards really want to see him have his offensive role grow. The obvious concern is that he’s really struggled as a shooter, as he’s dropped to just 26.6% on C&S attempts to rank second worst in the NBA (Alex Sarr worst, Kyshawn George third worst). He could get enough minutes to really get it going, and maybe the Wizards do get him more involved. It’s still quite gross.

*It’ll be interesting to see how the Wizards play it with their starting lineup. Maybe they start Jonas Valanciunas next to Sarr again, but I think they just go with Sarr at the 5 and keep Justin Champagnie in the first unit. Either way, I wouldn’t want to mess with JoVal.

*Evan Mobley’s Q tag is one of the largest on the slate. He didn’t practice yesterday and it’s the Wizards, so you’d think he’s got a very good chance to sit this one out. That would make this a mega-smash for Jarrett Allen against a horrific rim defense.

*Donovan Mitchell gets the toughest matchup on the Cavs, as he’ll certainly run into Bilal Coulibaly. He scored just 19 points in 28 minutes against the Wizards earlier this month, and you’d think the Cavs will keep him in check on minutes. I don’t really like him too much today, and it’s a credit to Bilal’s defense lately. That said, losing Mobley’s usage would certainly help his case.

*Darius Garland gets a terrific matchup, as he likely gets Bub on him. I would expect the offense to funnel through Garland more in the softer matchup and a larger creation role sans Mobley. Besides the garbage-time risk, there’s a lot to love here.

Great matchups: Darius Garland, Jarrett Allen (especially without Mobley)

Good matchups: Donovan Mitchell, Bub Carrington

Bad matchups: Alex Sarr (if Mobley goes), Jordan Poole

Indiana Pacers at Philadelphia 76ers