The NBA season is underway.
The Celtics have questions to answer.
The Lakers may have found their missing piece, and Jerry Jones is looking to make moves in Dallas.
Let's get into it.
I'm Rachel Nichols, and this is the story.
You know how every class reunion seems to have that one person who shows up with a hot spouse or a big new job title, making everyone else jealous?
Well, tonight, the Celtics are hosting their home opener, and look who's about to stroll in the New York Knicks, who just earned some extremely shiny championship rings.
That gives them a lot more to brag about than the Celtics , whose past six months have been much more up and down.
In May, you'll remember the Celtics blew a 3 to 1 lead to Philadelphia in the first round of the playoffs.
Then this summer they made the curious decision to trade Jalen Brown to the very same Sixers team that knocked them out.
I mean, it's one thing to have made a deal.
There was obviously growing friction between Brown and the franchise, but to have made that deal to a division rival.
Without waiting to see what other offers might come in.
Well, didn't go over great with the Celtics faithful .
Much more popular was the decision to sign center Mitchell Robinson, especially signing him away from New York.
But when it came time to show off their new look under the bright lights of the season opener earlier this week, Robinson struggled.
Jayson Tatum struggled, and.
Boston, which had at one point led Detroit by 22, lost by 8.
Now one game is just one game, but the loss exposed a couple of things that the Celtics do need to fix fast, starting with cleaning up the glass.
Detroit outrebounded the Celtics 49 to 39, and Mitchell only had 3 of those boards as he also finished with just 4 points in 18 minutes.
Now at practice yesterday, Mitchell didn't run from his performance.
He put the blame squarely on himself.
And tonight he gets to make amends against the team that drafted him, won a title with him in June, and then let him walk.
But another bad outing could send Boston Garden into a tailspin.
Then there's Paul George, who was fabulous the other night.
He scored 38.
Most ever by a Celtic in his debut.
But Paul is 36 years old now, and the last time he made an all defensive team was 7 years ago.
He can still jump a passing lane.
He had 5 steals against Detroit, but what he really isn't anymore is the guy you stick on the other team's best scorer every night.
That, of course, is exactly the job Jalen, who's 7 years younger, used to do.
And where that hurts the most is late in games, which is indeed where Boston fell apart on Tuesday.
Detroit outscored the Celtics 76 to 55 after halftime, including a 23 to 0 run down the stretch.
It's a lot, and the Celtics don't have long to sort it all out, because if you think the Knicks coming in tonight is a test, in November, they played 12 of their 16 games on the road.
Including their first matchup against Jalen in Philadelphia.
By then, Celtics fans will have gotten a sense of whether this group knows how to grab a rebound, get a stop, hold the lead.
After all, it was just 2 years ago that the Celtics were the ones with the shiny new championship rings, the ones who looked better than anyone else at the reunion.
Tonight, well, they just settle for looking better than they did on Tuesday.
All right, let's get to football, where the Dallas Cowboys are 2-4, having lost 3 of their last 4 games.
In most divisions, that's a team that starts taking calls to trade away some of its veterans.
In this year's NFC East, it's a team that sits just a game and a half out of first place, and Jerry Jones knows it.
At this week's league meetings, Jones said he could see being active at the trade deadline if the team can find players who will help them out this year.
Now, normally, I got to say, I'm not a huge fan of Jerry's personnel management.
And yeah, I know his son Steven runs much of the front office, but Jerry is still the GM and clearly still the final vote, and his votes have not always been so great.
But this time, I kind of like it.
The Giants lead the division with a meager 3-2 and 1 record, and their starting quarterback is out injured for the rest of the season.
The Eagles are 2-4, and their starting quarterback is out injured for the rest of the season.
Washington is 1-4-1, and their best defender and their top receiver are out injured for the rest of the season.
Oh, and now their quarterback has a dislocated elbow.
In short, nobody's running away with anything.
And this coming Monday night, the Cowboys play in Philadelphia with a chance to climb right back into a top spot.
So honestly, in this division, standing still isn't really patience, it's wasting an opening.
So let's look at what the Cowboys could do if they do it.
Well, here's The shopping list gets kind of awkward.
A little more than a year ago, Jerry traded premier edge rusher, Micah Parsons to Green Bay for defensive tackle Kenny Clarke, and 21st round picks.
There's a bunch of contract stuff, but Jerry explained it by saying, quote, This was a move to be better on defense, stopping the run.
So, um, how's that going?
Yeah, this season, the Cowboys are dead last in the NFL against the run, giving up almost 150 rushing yards a game.
I will say it's not like Jerry hasn't been working at it.
It just is that not much has worked.
The Cowboys gave up a 1st round pick to the Jets at last year's deadline for Quinnin Williams.
There was a trade for Packers pass rusher Rashaw Garry in March, and the deal for cornerback Joey Porter Jr.
from Pittsburgh about 3 weeks ago.
All that wheeling and dealing has left them with only 4 picks left in next year's draft, and they're still giving up 26.5 points an outing.
Not good.
Now the The name that keeps coming up this time around is Arizona's Josh Sweat, who had 12 sacks last season.
You know, he won a Super Bowl with the Eagles the year before.
Back in August, Arizona's GM did say the team has no interest in trading Josh, but that was before they started the season 2 and 40, and Sweat's also been leaked to Green Bay.
So the Cowboys' best shot at replacing Micah Parsons might mean outbidding the team that has Micah Parsons.
The flashier name is Raiders.
Start Max Crosby, but a deal sending him to Baltimore for two first round picks, well, you guys remember that it fell apart back in March when he failed the Ravens' physical, and Dallas, well, they just don't have that many picks to spend anymore regardless.
One pass rusher, not going to fix the league's worst run defense.
So Jerry needs help on a lot of fronts.
Now he just has to figure out what on his shopping list he can actually buy, what he's got left, and how he can pay for it.
All right, I want to close by talking about the Warriors a little bit because the truth is that for all the 3s that Golden State made during the dynasty years, one of their other big advantages was the all-out in your face swag that often intimidated opponents before anyone even stepped on the court.
I mean, sure, Steph Curry is legit, one of the nicest guys in the league, and yet nobody in the NBA is going to shimmy in your face quite like he does after shooting a dagger.
And you remember Game 6, Clay, he was so lethal and so famous, he.
Fired doppelgangers in the stands.
And then of course, Draymond Green, well, he's never met a bold prediction he didn't like.
But lately, that swagger has been a little harder to find.
Steph is now 38 years old.
Dre is 36, and the betting markets have Golden State winning only about 40 games this season, which is why the other night in Los Angeles caught my attention.
If you missed it, Warriors rookie Jaxel Lundenberg, the 11th pick in this year's draft, got the assignment of guarding Luca in his very first NBA game.
And he held up pretty well actually.
Luca made just one shot with Yaxel as his main defender, but his real performance came afterward in the postgame press conference.
Take a listen to what he had to say when asked about Luca.
I had a lot of respect for him, you know, just because of just watching.
I didn't really watch the NBA much.
I just watched highlights, seeing him, you know, kill people all the time.
But then being in there firsthand and just watching all the whining and complaining, I lost all respect, man.
Like that was awful.
Like Strong words, but the Warriors stars were right there behind him.
Steph said he loves the confidence and he knows Yael will be able to back it up.
Draymond said, everyone is going to spend the next few days telling Yaaxel he shouldn't talk about Luca like that.
But Draymond's advice is to go right back at him next time the two play each other, even harder.
I know you're shocked there.
Of course, all that confidence didn't actually win anything for the Warriors in that game.
The Lakers took it by 22.
Their new center, Walker Kessler went 12 for 12, and Golden State is still without Jimmy Butler and Moses Moody.
To actually contend with title favorites like Oklahoma City and San Antonio, the Warriors are going to need more talent, period.
But the regular season, that is a different animal.
Behind the Thunder and Spurs, the West has some soft spots, guys.
The betting markets have 6 teams out there winning 36 games or fewer, including Sacramento at about 21/82 games, a confident team, a team with some swag, they can go out and steal a lot of nights.
They'll certainly have the chance tonight against Memphis, which won its first game behind an explosion of 45 points from a former Warrior, tied Jerome.
I have a feeling Yavill is gonna let Jerome know pretty early on that Golden State isn't going to let that happen on their court, which after a rough time last season, was quite a lot of fun to see.
After all, the games may end, but the stories don't.
I'm Rachel Nichols.
Thanks for watching the story right here at Sports Illustrated.
See you next time.