I definitely remembered he was on the Phoenix Suns
In other news: the Jazz?
Good morning. This email is pretty long and has a lot of clips, so if you’re reading this in Gmail or your Mail app, you probably want to click on the headline to open it in a browser. Otherwise it might cut off before the incredible Collin Sexton highlight, and you don’t want to miss the incredible Collin Sexton highlight.
Let’s basketball.
Scores
Magic 109, Pistons 113 — Good win for the superior Pistons but a helluva debut for Paolo Banchero with 27-9-5 plus 2 blocks. And, uh, an entry in the Dunk of the Year procession.
The rare dunk that is way, way better on first watch than with alternate angles. Here’s the full Banchero reel. Phenomenal debut.
Meanwhile, Isaiah Stewart wore the Breanna Stewart (no relation) signature shoes.
Wizards 114, Pacers 107 — Myles Turner hurt his ankle landing on a ballboy’s foot during warm-ups. Unreal.
Rockets 107, Hawks 117 — Josh Christopher, sir, get on up.
Pelicans 130, Nets 108 — Uh, we might need to talk about the Pelicans folks. Zion Williamson isn’t back. Zion Williamson is BACK. So good to see him on the court, shredding in the paint.
Ben Simmons fouled out with a stat line of 4 points, 5 rebounds, 5 assists. Something not getting discussed much in the aftermath: Draymond Green had an identical stat line in the Warriors’ opener on Tuesday. FOOD FOR THOUGHT. Meanwhile, Kyrie Irving needed 19 shots to get 15 points. Just saying.
Let’s leave you with one more piece of Pelicans hype: Herb Jones rotating off of Kevin Durant from the weakside corner to show on a pick and roll dive, then rotating back to block a Kevin Durant corner three. TO BLOCK A KEVIN DURANT CORNER THREE, I said.
And to balance the Pelicans hype, some Nets anti-hype.
“We need him out there.” DOES KYRIE IRVING HEAR HIMSELF? ARE YOU KIDDING ME? Also, this seems more aggressive than anything Joel Embiid said in public.
Bulls 116, Heat 108 — So it would appear that DeMar DeRozan is picking right up where he left off here in Year 14. An absurd box score for the 33-year-old against a very good Miami team playing close to full strength: 37 points on 14/22 shooting, 6 rebounds, 9 assists, 1 turnovers, 2 steals, 1 block. As a great prominent Chicagoan once said: you know I’m not dead.
Cavaliers 105, Raptors 108 — Really close game, encouraging for Cleveland since Darius Garland left early with an EYE injury (this team loves a flukey injury, don’t they?) and the Cavaliers were on the road. Big debut for Donovan Mitchell (31 and 9) but solid balance for the smallball Raptors, starting Pascal Siakam at center. As the Basketball Gods intended.
Knicks 112, Grizzlies 115 (OT) — Outrageous stuff. Ja Morant having a spot of fun.
Cam Reddish to send it to overtime. Take it away, Mike Breen.
Reddish had a great game overall. Morant’s game-winning layup was waved off because Jalen Brunson slid in for the game-saving Drawn Charge. I’m happy for you, Knicks, but BAN THE CHARGE.
Memphis still got it in OT. Worth noting that after Julius Randle fouled out, Tom Thibodeau closed out OT with Reddish, RJ Barrett, Brunson, Isaiah Hartenstein and Evan Fournier. Eager to see how Reddish’s minutes track.
Can I offer one more clip from this game?
Incredible sport.
Thunder 108, Timberwolves 115 — Can we change Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s name to “Shai ‘32 In The Loss’ Gilgeous-Alexander”?
Hornets 129, Spurs 102 — Losing by 27 at home to the crisis-engulfed Hornets in Game 1 is an incredible opening salvo in the Chase for Wembanyama. Kudos, San Antonio.
Nuggets 102, Jazz 123 — Denver shot 5/22 on threes. That’s bad, and smells of fluke, so you can excuse it. You can’t excuse giving up 123 points in 102 possessions to the UTAH JAZZ. Horrifying defensive performance for the Nuggets.
Collin Sexton with no fear, no compunction, no care in the earthly world. Straight up against the two-time MVP, embarrassing a title contender in the opener, make sure the spotlight is focused center stage, grand finale.
Mavericks 105, Suns 107 — Hey, here’s some weird stuff about this game.
Remember these teams playing a pretty notable, historic, all-time WEIRD game last spring? Yeah, they remember too.
Along the lines of that prior weird game, the Mavericks went up 22 in the third, in Phoenix, in front of a continually shellshocked crowd.
The Suns came back to get within one in the third.
The Mavericks rebuilt their lead to 15 in the fourth.
The Suns came back AGAIN and WON in regulation on a fading baseline jumper by … who else? … Damion Lee. Who I, uh, definitely recalled had joined the Suns.
Lee’s brother-in-law Steph Curry got so hyped he woke up his 4-year-old screaming for clout. You gotta love it.
Mavericks-Suns is the weirdest new rivalry in the league. I can’t decide if I want more or much, much less.
Blazers 115, Kings 108 — Heartbreaking loss in an important first game for the Kings. These teams are expected to be fighting for a play-in slot.
Sacramento went up 106-104 on a thunderous Terence Davis III putback with 2:18 remaining, but Courtney Kirkland called an absurd taunting tech for a lil’ flex and glare so it became 106-105. Sacramento had two good chances to extend their lead thanks to a couple of stops, but Domantas Sabonis got a wee bit indecisive and was called for a travel the first time down, and an aggressive-all-night De’Aaron Fox got hit with an iffy charge call the next time. Portland capitalized and got the win. Good, competitive game. Worth noting: Chauncey Billups closed the game with Justise Winslow as a de facto center, and it worked. Winslow played more minutes than Jusuf Nurkic.
Schedule
Both times Eastern.
Bucks at Sixers, 7:30, TNT
Clippers at Lakers, 10, TNT
Be excellent to each other.
I know what you meant on 4-5-5 but Draymond had one foul and was +12. Ben Simmons had 6 fouls and was -26. Those are not identical stat lines.
Hidden highlight for me: seeing Tayshaun Prince on the sideline of that Steven Adams clip. Prince was the last basketball player my Papa and I ever talked about before he passed in '99. My Papa lived in Lexington and was a Kentucky season ticket holder. He told me all kinds of crazy stories from back in the day, including once having a conversation with a scouting Jerry West and telling him that Dominique Wilkins was the best player in the SEC that year, and West agreed. Anyway, back in '99 Prince was finishing his freshman season and my Papa told me " We have a freshman named Prince who drove me nuts this year, but it will be worth it. I can tell he's gonna be a special player, keep your eye on him." I just did, Papa. *room gets dusty, etc*