Matchup history · 2025-26

Evan Mobley vs Scottie Barnes

Across 10 meetings and 182 matchup possessions, Mobley scored 40% below his own rate across the tracked data against Barnes. He shot 52.2% from the field in the matchup against 54.1% overall. Treat it as a pattern worth checking on film rather than proof the defender caused it.

The numbers

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

Points per matchup possession

0.16vs 0.27 season

40% below his season rate.

Field goal percentage

52.2%vs 54.1% season

-1.9 points of field goal percentage, on 23 shots in the matchup.

10
Meetings
182.4
Matchup poss.
30
Points
12/23
FG
6
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: 2025-10-31 to 2026-05-03

This ledger covers 10 tracked meetings, starting with TOR at CLE on 2025-10-31 and ending with TOR at CLE on 2026-05-03. 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.

Evan Mobley scoring while matched with Scottie Barnes — 2025–26
Date / NBA gameFinal score (away–home)CompetitionPartial poss.PointsFGTO
2025-10-310022500022TOR 112 – CLE 101Regular Season30.494/51
2025-11-130022500225TOR 126 – CLE 113Regular Season42.100/31
2025-11-240022500284CLE 99 – TOR 110Regular Season40.452/23
2026-04-180042500131TOR 113 – CLE 126Playoffs22.942/31
2026-04-200042500132TOR 105 – CLE 115Playoffs1063/40
2026-04-230042500133CLE 104 – TOR 126Playoffs4.640/20
2026-04-260042500134CLE 89 – TOR 93Playoffs4.700/10
2026-04-290042500135TOR 120 – CLE 125Playoffs7.421/30
2026-05-010042500136CLE 110 – TOR 112Playoffs13.700/00
2026-05-030042500137TOR 102 – CLE 114Playoffs6.200/00
Total10 recorded meetings182.43012/236

Competition context

Regular Season: 3 meetings, 112.9 partial possessions, 14 points and 10 shots; 0.12 points per partial possession.

Playoffs: 7 meetings, 69.5 partial possessions, 16 points and 13 shots; 0.23 points per partial possession.

The pooled figure combines different competition settings. Compare the phase rates before using the overall number: repeated playoff assignments can dominate a season-long pairing.

Does one game drive the result?

The largest assignment was TOR at CLE on 2025-11-13: 42.1 partial possessions, 0 points and 0/3 shooting. It supplies 23.1% of this pairing’s recorded exposure and 13.0% of its shots.

Removing that game leaves 9 meetings and 140.3 partial possessions. The scoring rate changes from 0.16 to 0.21, against the same complete season baseline of 0.27.

Both versions remain below baseline. The direction survives this one-game removal, but that does not establish a defensive effect or statistical significance. The 10% band is an editorial description, not a confidence interval or a prediction.

Baseline and film-review plan

Evan Mobley’s full 2025–26 tracked baseline contains 5,428.2 partial matchup possessions, 1490 points and 623/1152 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 3.4% of that tracked exposure. Its shooting rate is 52.2% versus 54.1% in the baseline. Read the shooting and scoring figures together, then inspect the possessions that produced them; neither records the coverage call or help responsibility.

  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: CLE at TOR on 2026-04-23, 4.6 partial possessions and 4 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 10 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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