NBA Matchups: January 24

Charlotte Hornets at Detroit Pistons

Team Totals: Hornets 116.5, Pistons 119

Injury Report: Cody Martin (Q, knee), Nick Richards (Q, ankle), Kyle Lowry (O, trade), Cade Cunningham (P, knee), Monte Morris (P, quad)

Hornets projected starters: LaMelo Ball, Brandon Miller, Cody Martin, Miles Bridges, Nick Richards

PIstons projected starters: Cade Cunningham, Jaden Ivey, Bojan Bogdanovic, Isaiah Stewart, Jalen Duren

Clifford quotes: Said he gave Mensah some extra minutes in the fourth with his size against the Wolves, said their fourth-quarter play was the difference, said they were really good with their coverages in the fourth, said Miller is playing great right now and he would’ve had more minutes if not for foul trouble, said Ntilikina is still getting in shape and he needs practice time to get in there.

Monty quotes: Said he liked how they competed against the Bucks but they just struggle to close, said he will look at how to get better shots down the stretch, said Stew was great at giving up his body, said he liked Stew with Alec Burks, said their shot selection wasn’t great, said they wanted to keep Stewart’s minutes in check and that’s why he came off the bench, said Bojan told him he can run the second-unit guys longer to cut into his minutes.

Stats and Notes: 

*The Hornets are going to look quite bad here with Terry Rozier gone. Their defense is going to be just as bad, and their offense is going to get worse. There’s really no need to get too deep into the Hornets’ macro stuff. For the Pistons, they could also get some of their guys back, which could mean their offense might turn it up slightly. Regardless, their defense is still going to be a disaster, so this game environment could be somewhat sneaky.

*LaMelo Ball gets a dream matchup here against Detroit, as they have some of the worst on-ball D in the league. Plus, Terry Rozier’s 26.2 usage rate over 35 MPG this month is now gone with nobody really soaking it up. Ball’s minutes are also back to normal after 35 against the Wolves on Monday. There’s a massive upside on LaMelo today.

*Miles Bridges is going to have a massive role here. Like LaMelo, Bridges is going to pick up a big chunk of usage, and he was already putting up strong usage in January at 24.4 with LaMelo and Rozier available for most of the games this month. His matchup isn’t as good as LaMelo’s with Isaiah Stewart set to pick him up a bunch. Still, the Pistons are just so bad on defense that it feels like a lock that someone is going off on the Hornets.

*Brandon Miller gets his chance now, and the timing couldn’t be better. After topping 23 points just once before his previous three games, he’s done it each of his last three. How is he doing it? It’s been a bit of a mix, but his PNR and isolation scoring is way up over these last three. He’s still getting plenty of spot-up scoring, and his transition scoring hasn’t carried him too much at 4.7 points per game combined in the last three. Plus, the Hornets have a huge allotment of minutes, so we could see Miller climb into the Ball/Bridges level on playing time. His matchup should be quite soft with Bojan probably picking him up a little, so there’s a lot to like about Miller here.

*If he can go, Nick Richards should be in an OK spot here. P.J. Washington didn’t really earn more minutes, and Clifford may want to run Nathan Mensah more. It’s still tough to fire up Richards off an injury. Cody Martin would also be a thin play off injury.

*Cade Cunningham should be back, and we should certainly see a minutes limit on him. It’s tough to go there in his return, and we’ll see if we get a quote out of Monty on his minutes limit. Monty mentioned he doesn’t want to take the ball out of Jaden Ivey’s hands, so I’d expect Monty to stagger them a bit. That said, Monty has been one of the most anti-stagger coaches in the league, so it might be a dicey spot for Ivey. On the plus side, there’s a decent chance that LaMelo is on him. You probably can’t get there on DFS, but I’d be open to firing some overs on Ivey.

*Bojan Bogdanovic lost some minutes in the Milwaukee game, and Monty mentioned that Bojan was good with it. His matchup isn’t as favorable, as he will likely run into Cody Martin, but Martin not playing could make things easier on him.

*Jalen Duren is the obvious guy to go to here. We love centers against the Hornets, so there’s not much to add. Isaiah Stewart should also get the start after Monty capped him on Monday. Stewart’s matchup is just as good, especially after what we saw from Karl-Anthony Towns on Monday.

Great matchups: Jalen Duren, LaMelo Ball

Good matchups: Brandon Miller, Miles Bridges, Isaiah Stewart

Bad matchups: Nobody

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Minnesota Timberwolves (front end) at Washington Wizards (front end)