NBA Matchups: November 10

Philadelphia 76ers at Detroit Pistons

Team Totals: 76ers 116.5, Pistons 108

Injury Report: Nicolas Batum (P, finger), Alec Burks (O, forearm), Jaden Ivey (O, illness)

76ers projected starters: Tyrese Maxey, De’Anthony Melton, Kelly Oubre, Tobias Harris, Joel Embiid

Pistons projected starters: Cade Cunningham, Killian Hayes, Ausar Thompson, Isaiah Stewart, Jalen Duren

Nurse quotes: Said he loved the rebounding but they still need to fix some of their switch screening, said they were great at guarding Brown and Tatum, said they have five “above-average” defenders and not one lockdown defender (sounds like he’s talking OG), said Batum was so good that he played him over Oubre a bit, said this team has a lot of athletes and it’s a fun team to coach, said Batum is “probably like a starter” and a “big bench guy”, said RoCo/Morris are the tough guys to bring off the bench.

Monty quotes: Said the FTA difference killed them, said he played Cade and Stewart “way too many minutes” because they have so many guys out, said he was proud of Sasser and Ausar’s defense was awesome, said he loves Ausar out there and he’s a great communicator.

Stats and Notes: 

*The 76ers have been good on the defensive end at sixth overall and fourth in the halfcourt. They’ve been good basically everywhere and those transition bugaboos from the Doc teams are not too apparent so far. Philly has been in the good, not great range for most stat categories, which makes them a tough team to attack, but teams do get decent volume on them down low as Nurse will just let Embiid protect the paint — they’ve been great per possession at 1.15 PPP for fourth best. The Pistons on D continue their rim-funnel ways a bit, and Monty just hates teams getting 3-pointers off them with just 29.2% of FGAs coming from beyond the arc for second lowest. With Duren back in the last game, they were able to keep the Bucks in check around the basket, and the Duren games have taken dunks away from teams. Offensively, the 76ers are smashing at 120.3 points per 100, and they’re turning up the heat in transition at 76.2% of possessions coming in the halfcourt for the second-lowest mark in the league. The Nurse effect is going great.

*We’ll find out just how good Jalen Duren is this year, as he gets his toughest test of the season against Joel Embiid. While the Pistons have been a pretty good rim D with Duren out there, they’ve actually been one of the worst defenses against post-ups with the fifth-most points and the second-highest PPP. Embiid should be in a slightly favorable spot today, and obviously his league-leading usage rate puts him in prime position for one of the biggest upsides on the slate.

*Tyrese Maxey gets a difficult matchup in Ausar Thompson here. Maxey is likely going to play a ton with his 37.5 minutes per game ranking second in the league, and Maxey running more offense should add to his ceiling if he can take it to the rookie. He’s second among starters in AST:TO ratio at 6.13 (Mike Conley 30.00!!), and it’s low-key helpful that Nicolas Batum getting more minutes could add usage to him compared to Kelly Oubre’s higher-volume offensive role. I like Embiid more, but I could see Maxey crushing against a system that is built to let on-ball guys beat them.

*Tobias Harris is basically fine. He is likely going to see some Beef Stew to make it tougher on him, but we know the minutes will be there.

*Jalen Duren isn’t in a great spot against Embiid. Obviously there’s the foul risk, but it’s going to be too tough for centers to put up stats with the way the 76ers are structuring their defense under Nurse.

*Cade Cunningham’s role has been consistently massive with the third-most halfcourt possessions used in the league, and he is still first in the NBA in PNR handler possessions per game. Cade is second in the NBA in drives and he’s fifth in touch time, so a huge line is possible if he has his mid-range J working. The matchup isn’t all that great with De’Anthony Melton set to guard him, and there are some blowout concerns with Philly’s defense off to a good start.

Great matchups: Tyrese Maxey

Good matchups: Joel Embiid, Tobias Harris, Ausar Thompson

Bad matchups: Jalen Duren

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Charlotte Hornets at Washington Wizards

Team Totals: Hornets 118.8, Wizards 121.8

Injury Report: Gordon Hayward (P, hamstring strain)

Hornets projected starters: LaMelo Ball, Brandon Miller, Gordon Hayward, P.J. Washington, Mark Williams

Wizards projected starters: Tyus Jones, Jordan Poole, Deni Avdija, Kyle Kuzma, Daniel Gafford

Clifford quotes: Said playing small is a problem for them, said they have to be consistent with their big lineups.

Unseld quotes: Said the back-end rotation players really stepped up, said Kuzma’s activity makes it tough on the defense, said he expects the Hornets to make adjustments.

Stats and Notes: 

*These teams just played on Wednesday and it went very well for the Wizards, while it was a catastrophe for the Hornets. The Hornets were flying in this game at 13.0 seconds per possession, and that should happen again. Their offense was pretty good, but the Wizards terrorized them with an ungodly 1.48 PPP after a Hornets make on the other end. The Hornets did go small in the second half because of Mark Williams fouling (noted in Clifford quotes). The Wizards are getting killed everywhere on D while the Hornets have been a pretty big rim funnel this year. Expect a ton of points again.

*We just did this matchup stuff on Wednesday, so you can check out what I wrote here. It still applies. As expected, they didn’t cross-match.

Matchups with Washington offense: LaMelo on Tyus, Miller on Poole, Hayward on Deni, Washington on Kuz, Williams on Gafford.

Charlotte offense: Tyus on LaMelo, Poole on Miller, Deni on Hayward, Kuz on Washington, Gafford on Williams.

*The Hornets were able to get plenty of rim points and LaMelo led a PNR-handler approach, as well. Basically, we can expect a much better game from the Hornets overall.

*The Wizards killed the Hornets with shooting while they had their best rim game of the year at 53 points. I’d expect them to score a bunch, and the inside should be even more open if Clifford wants to play small.

*I would note that Gordon Hayward is listed with a hammy strain, so I would treat that P tag as a probable tag. The Hornets have thrown out a lot of BS probable tags over the years, so there could be a chance to get some stale lines for the #28After gang.

Great matchups: LaMelo Ball, Mark Williams

Good matchups: Jordan Poole, Kyle Kuzma, the rest of the Hornets, Daniel Gafford

Bad matchups: Nobody

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Brooklyn Nets at Boston Celtics (front end)