Good morning, I’m Dan Gartland. I probably could have paid closer attention to yesterday’s NBA games if I didn’t have to be checking my phone to see which players were now on new teams. I had no idea Kentavious Caldwell-Pope was on the Sixers until I saw him make a few big plays and looked up who the guy wearing No. 1 was.
In today’s SI:AM:
☀️ Pistons win matinee
🔔 Knicks’ party spoiled
⛈️ Chet gets revenge on Wemby
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Three down, 1,309 to go
The NBA season tipped off yesterday with three competitive games between Finals contenders. It was a fantastic appetizer before the feeding frenzy of 11 games scheduled for tonight. Here are a few things that stuck out to me about the first trio of games.
The matinee opener works
When the NBA announced the schedule, it seemed a little weird that the first game of the season would be played at 3 p.m. ET. Now I understand the vision.
The early tip time was primarily an effort to appeal to fans in Europe, which is something the NHL is also trying this season. (The NHL scheduled several games on Monday afternoons in the U.S. that will air in prime time in Europe, the first of which was played last week.) But the matinee tipoff also works for domestic fans.
SI’s Blake Silverman was in the building in Detroit for the Celtics-Pistons game and wrote that the atmosphere in the arena was everything the league had hoped for. It’s also good for the TV audience. The NBA has followed the same opening night formula for years: the defending champions play the first game of the season at 7:30 p.m. ET, followed by another marquee matchup at 10. Adding the afternoon game is like having an undercard match before a big boxing title fight. It doesn’t take anything away from the honor of giving the defending champions the first prime-time game of the season, and it allows the NBA to put a spotlight on a pair of East Coast teams that wouldn’t be able to play in the traditional 10 p.m. slot. This could be the start of a new formula for the NBA.
The Sixers’ fantastic starting five
The Sixers’ starting lineup is as good in practice as it is on paper. Obviously, when you have a living legend (LeBron James), a former MVP (Joel Embiid) and three explosive scoring threats (Jaylen Brown, Tyrese Maxey and VJ Edgecombe), expectations are going to be high. But they lived up to the hype in a comeback win over the Knicks last night, spoiling the defending champions’ party. Embiid helped limit Karl-Anthony Towns’s offensive contributions, LeBron distributed the ball well and constantly barked out directions on defense and Maxey led all scorers with 28 points.
If you could fast-forward to the playoffs right now, the Sixers would be the favorites to emerge from the Eastern Conference. But do they have the depth to weather a long regular season? Coach Nick Nurse used his bench somewhat sparingly last night. Kentavious Caldwell-Pope played 26 minutes and Anfernee Simons played 25, but Adem Bona played less than 10 minutes and Jabari Walker played less than three. A team led by a 41-year-old LeBron and an oft-injured Embiid needs to have more than two guys playing real minutes off the bench. The depth issue will improve when Dean Wade returns from an ankle injury, but it’ll be interesting to see how Nurse manages his lineup throughout the season.
Chet Holmgren gets revenge
The last time we saw Chet Holmgren, he was getting his teeth kicked in by Victor Wembanyama in the Western Conference finals. Last night was different, though, even if the story can’t be fully told by the box score.
Holmgren finished with 14 points on 3-for-8 shooting, seven rebounds and four blocks in a 116–104 win over the Spurs. But his biggest contribution was stifling Wemby. Wembanyama shot 1-for-13 from the floor, by far the worst field goal percentage of his career, and finished with 12 points (10 of them from the free throw line). His first field goal came as time expired in the third quarter. As you can see from this lowlight reel, most of that was because of how he was hounded by Holmgren.
But Holmgren didn’t do it alone. Rookie Aday Mara also performed well in 12 minutes off the bench. The 7'2" Mara was taken 12th in this year’s draft primarily to do one thing: stymie Wembanyama. And he did, including on one highlight play in the third quarter where he denied a Wemby lob at the rim.
The Thunder-Spurs rivalry will continue to be the dominant narrative in the West this season, and last night’s game gave San Antonio plenty to think about as it attempts to counter OKC’s plans to neutralize Wemby.
The best of Sports Illustrated
The top five…
… plays from the NBA openers:
5.
by Chet Holmgren and Isaiah Hartenstein.
4.
that made it 23 unanswered points for the Pistons. (If I were Joe Mazzulla, I’d spend the entire next film session berating my players for how they didn’t even make an effort to close out on Green in the midst of an embarrassing run.)
3.
on Landry Shamet.
2.
to beat the third quarter buzzer and cap an 11–0 Sixers run.
1.
on Victor Wembanyama.
📺 What we’re watching today …
WNBA
Valkyries at Dream, 8 p.m. ET, USA Network
The Dream are coming off their first WNBA Finals win in franchise history. Angel Reese led Atlanta to a Game 2 victory, scoring 30 points and grabbing 16 rebounds.
NBA
Timberwolves at Heat, 7:30 p.m. ET, ESPN
Giannis Antetokounmpo makes his Miami debut while Minnesota unveils its new backcourt duo of LaMelo Ball and Anthony Edwards.
Warriors at Lakers, 10 p.m. ET, ESPN
Stephen Curry begins his 18th season as he and the Warriors face a remade Lakers squad now led by Luka Dončić.
NHL
Flyers at Sabres, 7:30 p.m., ET, TNT
After nine losses to begin the season, the Flyers have now won two straight, both against teams that made the 2026 playoffs.
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