NBA Matchups: November 3

Portland Trail Blazers at Cleveland Cavaliers

Team Totals: Blazers 112, Cavs 107.5

Injury Report: Kevin Love (O, protocols), Isaac Okoro (O, hamstring)

Blazers projected starters: Damian Lillard, C.J. McCollum, Norman Powell, Robert Covington, Jusuf Nurkic

Cavaliers projected starters: Darius Garland, Collin Sexton, Cedi Osman, Evan Mobley, Jarrett Allen

Billups quotes: Said he’s not concerned at all about Dame’s slow start, said they didn’t have it against the 76ers, said Tony Snell doesn’t know all of their stuff but he’ll fine, said he wants to try to keep it at a 10-man rotation.

Bickerstaff quotes: Said they were in a great rhythm late as they piled on some good shots, said Jarrett Allen dominated the paint and he’s shown he can lead by example, said Allen’s leadership has helped his teammates look for him, said Cedi makes big shots for the team and he said it’s going to be different guys on different nights (basically it means Cedi may not stay in the rotation), said his big lineups should dominate the paint, said his guards need to continue to attack the paint and that’ll open up 3-pointers.

Stats and Notes:

UPDATE: Lauri Markkanen is out, so the Cavs are going to be super thin. Cedi Osman should play a ton while we get more Dean Wade and Lamar Stevens in the second unit. Osman is certainly an option in what’s basically a dream spot for him against a Blazers defense that gives up a lot of what he does well (more below).

*The Blazers’ defense has been slipping a ton, as they’ve fallen to the 28th-worst halfcourt defense in the NBA, and we know the Cavs want to run things in those sets. Meanwhile, teams continue to try to run on the Cavs, and they’re getting beat up on the glass, too. This should be a great environment.

*Dame continues to say he knows he’s going to get his shot to fall because he’s not skipping steps and he knows he has to make shots for the Blazers to be a good team. He also added that his shots don’t feel wrong when they leave his hand, and that’s even more frustrating. Pullup efficiency is just killing him at a 33.3 eFG% from 52.3 last year, and his elite catch-and-shoot eFG% is down from 67.4 to 42.3. He’s getting decent volume at the rim and this is his worst FG% there since 2013-14. Just everything is going wrong and his shot diet is great. It feels like he can bust out any day now. It’s a solid matchup, too.