NBA Matchups: January 12

UTA @ CLE | BOS @ IND | PHI @ TOR | BKN @ DAL | LAL @ SAC | CHA @ LAC

Utah Jazz at Cleveland Cavaliers

Team Totals: Jazz 118.8, Cavs 131.3

Injury Report: Ace Bailey (Q, hip), Jusuf Nurkic (P, toe)

Jazz projected starters: Keyonte George, Brice Sensabaugh, Cody Williams, Lauri Markanen, Jusuf Nurkic

Cavs projected starters: Darius Garland, Donovan Mitchell, Sam Merrill, Evan Mobley, Jarrett Allen

Hardy quotes: Said “if you want a picture of what everything going wrong looks like, that’s what it looks like,” said the 3-point shooting and rebounding killed them (41 second-chance points), said he knew they were going to be small because of the guys that were out, said his guys need earlier contact to rebound better, said the Hornets were crashing some guys and they just needed a “collective effort” to be better there, said his team has a “long way to go” and “there’s a lot of work left to be done.”

Atkinson quotes: Said the starters were great for them, said Tyson did a great job on Ant Edwards, said Garland “is our motor, is our electricity,” said Garland was the “old DG,” said he’s got to keep pushing Evan Mobley and get him in the paint, said the win vs. the Wolves and the win vs. the Suns are two of their best wins of the season, said they need Garland to be “all star-level” to make a leap on offense, said Garland is getting the bigs going and “we got to reward [the bigs].”

Stats and Notes: 

*What a beating from the Hornets on the Jazz. It moved the Jazz from 26th to 28th in net rating, and they’re creating a gap as the league’s worst defense. They are also getting killed in transition again and continue to get wrecked on C&S stuff. The Cavs have been all over the place on both ends, but they have some ceiling more often (put up 146 vs. MIN on Saturday). Their defense had been running hotter before the two MIN games, and they’re holding at No. 2 for PNR handler defense now that Mobley is healthier. This should be another blowout, and maybe Cody Williams is -60 again.