Matchup history · 2025-26

CJ McCollum vs Naji Marshall

Across 4 meetings and 28 matchup possessions, McCollum scored 32% below his own rate across the tracked data against Marshall. He shot 75% from the field in the matchup against 45.5% overall. Treat it as a pattern worth checking on film rather than proof the defender caused it.

The numbers

Each figure sits next to McCollum's own rate against every defender he faced, which is the only fair comparison for this unit.

Points per matchup possession

0.21vs 0.31 season

32% below his season rate.

Field goal percentage

75%vs 45.5% season

+29.5 points of field goal percentage, on 4 shots in the matchup.

4
Meetings
28.4
Matchup poss.
6
Points
3/4
FG
2
Turnovers

Possessions here are partial matchup possessions, only the stretches these two were actually matched up, so points per possession runs far below the roughly 1.1 a full team scores. Every figure is meant to be read against the same player's own season rate in the same unit.

Recorded games: 2025-10-24 to 2026-03-18

This ledger covers 4 tracked meetings, starting with WAS at DAL on 2025-10-24 and ending with ATL at DAL on 2026-03-18. It includes only per-game assignments with at least two partial matchup possessions; meetings or brief assignments absent from the feed are not treated as zero.

CJ McCollum scoring while matched with Naji Marshall — 2025–26
Date / NBA gameFinal score (away–home)CompetitionPartial poss.PointsFGTO
2025-10-240022500096WAS 117 – DAL 107Regular Season7.700/00
2025-11-080022500183DAL 111 – WAS 105Regular Season5.400/00
2026-03-100022500939DAL 112 – ATL 124Regular Season7.642/31
2026-03-180022501006ATL 135 – DAL 120Regular Season7.721/11
Total4 recorded meetings28.463/42

Competition context

Regular Season: 4 meetings, 28.4 partial possessions, 6 points and 4 shots; 0.21 points per partial possession.

All recorded meetings here come from one competition type. That removes a regular-season/playoff mix from this comparison, but lineup, coverage and shot-quality differences remain.

Does one game drive the result?

The largest assignment was WAS at DAL on 2025-10-24: 7.7 partial possessions, 0 points and 0/0 shooting. It supplies 27.1% of this pairing’s recorded exposure and 0.0% of its shots.

Removing that game leaves 3 meetings and 20.7 partial possessions. The scoring rate changes from 0.21 to 0.29, against the same complete season baseline of 0.31.

The descriptive comparison changes from below baseline to within 10% of baseline. Start the film review with that largest game; the overall headline depends on which meetings you include. The 10% band is an editorial description, not a confidence interval or a prediction.

Baseline and film-review plan

CJ McCollum’s full 2025–26 tracked baseline contains 4,927.2 partial matchup possessions, 1522 points and 583/1280 field goals against all recorded defenders. It includes this pairing. The baseline uses the same two-possession per-game floor and combines the same competition types; it is not a team offensive rating.

The pairing accounts for 0.6% of that tracked exposure. Its shooting rate is 75% versus 45.5% in the baseline. Shooting and scoring move in different directions here. Review shot mix, free throws and the tracking denominator before treating either figure as a single explanation.

  1. Review the largest assignment above. Tag the first action, initial defender, help, shot location and result separately.
  2. Compare with the smallest recorded assignment: DAL at WAS on 2025-11-08, 5.4 partial possessions and 0 points. Check whether the same action appears before calling it a repeatable tendency.
  3. Write one coverage question to verify in another game. The tracking table cannot identify a scheme, isolate switches, or show unrecorded meetings.

Sources and publication checks

NBA player-matchup tracking, distributed in the SportsDataverse matchup release; dates, teams and final scores from its NBA calendar release. Individual game links identify the source event; they do not promise free video. HoopBrief calculates the totals, exposure shares and one-game removal above.

This report does not yet pass the publication gate: 6 recorded games, 150 partial possessions, 25 shots, complete dated game context, a usable complete scorer baseline, and exact reconciliation of game totals with the summary. Passing the gate makes a report auditable, not causal. These historical figures are not 2026–27 statistics. Open Matchup Lab and choose a season for current coverage.

How to read this

These are the possessions the two were matched up, not a clean isolation of one defender against one scorer. Help, coverage calls, foul trouble, rest, and shot luck all live inside the same numbers, and 4 meetings is a small sample for any of them.

So a gap here is a reason to pull the film on these possessions, not evidence that the defender caused it. The useful question is what the offense tried in this matchup and what it stopped trying.

Both scouting reports

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Aggregated from NBA player-matchup tracking for 2025-26, across all competition types. Possessions are partial matchup possessions and retain up to one decimal place here. Figures describe what happened while these two were matched up and do not isolate one player's effect on the other.

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