NBA Matchups: February 4

Lots of news this morning! Excuse any stuff that may be stale here while I was writing. Thanks!

Cleveland Cavaliers at Charlotte Hornets

Team Totals: Cavs 106, Hornets

Injury Report: Gordon Hayward (Q, conditioning), Jalen McDaniels (O, ankle), Darius Garland (O, back), Lauri Markkanen (Q, ankle)

Cavaliers projected starters: Brandon Goodwin, Cedi Osman, Isaac Okoro, Evan Mobley, Jarrett Allen

Hornets projected starters: LaMelo Ball, Terry Rozier, Gordon Hayward, Miles Bridges, Mason Plumlee (Note: Would not be surprised if P.J. Washington starts for Hayward to keep his minutes down)

Bickerstaff quotes: Said they didn’t play well because they were “playing outside ourselves” against the Rockets, said they knew what the Rockets were going to do and they didn’t execute the game plan, said Evan Mobley knew they needed him to score in the matchup.

Borrego quotes: Said they have some aggressive defenses coming, said “it’s something we’ll look at” on P.J. Washington as a starter and they trust him in the starting lineup.

Stats and Notes:

*The Cavs’ offense is certainly slipping a bit without Darius Garland, and they’re still playing pretty slow even against fast teams in the last couple. The Hornets have been a pretty solid defense overall, so I’d expect some struggles on the Cleveland offense. The Hornets have been strong on the offensive side while the Cavs’ defense shouldn’t be quite as good with some missing pieces there, so the Hornets may have a decent edge in this spot.

*Brandon Goodwin and Terry Rozier will likely match up against each other. That’s not necessarily the best spot for Goodwin, but his role was excellent against the Rockets with 6.5 minutes of touch time and 12 potential assists. His minutes should be pretty safe, so he’s in play again if he’s too cheap.

*The Cavs were not messing around on getting Mobley the rock in the last game, giving him an Embiid-like 53 frontcourt touches (averages 33 on year). It’s a pretty good matchup here as he’ll run into a size advantage against either Miles Bridges or P.J. Washington. The Hornets do get wrecked inside at times, so I could see Mobley being fed again to flirt with his 29/12/2 performance last game.

*Cedi’s role completely changed in his last game compared to two games ago. He only drove it six times in the last one compared to 17 times when he got the PG start. Osman was still able to rack up stats in the second half as a SG two games ago, but this will be a tougher matchup here. I’d lean to a fade.

*LaMelo is going to get a ton of attention after his career-high scoring night against a tough Celtics defense. He drove it a whopping 20 times, and going against another sound team defense here should cause him to turn up the aggressiveness. He should have no problem with Isaac Okoro in this spot.

*It’s a bad matchup on paper for Terry Rozier, but I could really see him taking advantage of his 1-on-1 matchup in this spot.

Boston Celtics at Detroit Pistons (back end)