With a bit of a time crunch I’ll have to be fast and furious (I just mean short and sweet, but I say that every time so…), let’s try to pack in as much useful information in as few words as possible.

Injury Report

To stay up-to-date on all of the injury news with up-to-the-minute updates, make sure to check out our LIVE Injury Report!

Note that teams have until 1 p.m. local time on the day of a game to submit their report for the second leg of a back-to-back, so look out for updates throughout the day as appropriate.

Teams that have a Friday-Saturday B2B:

Hornets, Heat, Raptors

Mark WIlliams sat on Friday for injury management.

Kel’el Ware, Andrew Wiggins and Alec Burks were out on Friday.

Jakob Poeltl and RJ Barrett sat for rest on Friday with Chris Boucher (wisdom tooth extraction) also out.

Ja’Kobe Walter exited Friday’s game with a right quad strain and we already know Immanuel Quickley will rest on Saturday thanks to a postgame comment from head coach Darko Rajakovic.

Brooklyn Nets @ Charlotte Hornets

Game Time: 6:00 pm ET

DraftKings Lines

BKN (-), CHA (-)
Game Total:

Key Storylines

Noah Clowney Returns: The young forward/big will return and I think it will put a dampener on fill-in Day’Ron Sharpe hopes. In the past, the Nets have started Clowney at center when Claxton was out and I would be worried that they do that again. Clowney is more of a PF with shot-blocking upside (we haven’t gotten the blocks much this season) but the stretch-five potential is likely what they want to develop.

Clowney should be be eased in over the next week-plus though.

Double injury management: The Hornets report dropped while I was writing this and it seems they will sit Mark Williams for both legs of the back-to-back… tanking shenanigans are here folks. LaMelo Ball is also out while Jusuf Nurkic is doubtful.

Stream of the Game

Keon Johnson: Cam Johnson is out so there is extra usage to go around and Johnson might be a schedule stream with a five-game Nets week coming up.  

Alternatives:

Ziaire Williams
Nick Smith Jr.
Moussa Diabate – no Mark Will, Nurk doubtful
If you get word that KJ Simpson is starting, he is a low-end option

–deep league line–
Day’Ron Sharpe
Trendon Watford
Noah Clowney
Josh Green
Seth Curry
Tyrese Martin
Jalen Wilson
Tidjane Salaun
Damion Baugh
DaQuan Jeffries

New Orleans Pelicans @ Houston Rockets

Game Time: 7:00 pm ET

DraftKings Lines

NOP (-), HOU (-)
Game Total:

Key Storylines

Pels Sat-Sun B2B: Jose Alvarado has been cleared to play after being listed as questionable, but at the time of writing only Bruce Brown has been ruled out on Saturday. Last time, Kelly Olynyk and Brown rested one leg while Zion Williamson and CJ McCollum rested the second leg, giving Karlo Matkovic some run. This seems a little less ideal for Matkovic at the moment with just Brown out.

No FVV: The Rockets have referred to VanVleet as “game-to-game” but he keeps being ruled out in advance after aggravating his right ankle strain in his return last Saturday. I guess we just have to see what happens. Reed Sheppard is also dealing with a thumb injury.

Stream of the Game

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