Opening Night Antics

The NBA is BACK!

NBA opening night did not disappoint. Both games were excellent looks at four teams who stand to win a championship come season’s end. Given that fact, what exactly can fans extrapolate from last night? Let’s talk about it.

Nuggets vs. Lakers (119-107 DEN)

Plain and simple: it looks as if the Nuggets are not going to miss a beat. Last night, they looked just as dominant as they did when they hoisted the championship trophy last season. Their roster is largely the same and their star player is still as unstoppable as he ever was. Shocking no one, the Nuggets are going to be a problem for everyone else.

There was a lot to like from Mike Malone’s squad last night. At no point did the team do anything shocking or surprising. The old saying rings true in Denver: “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” Whenever this team plays, it feels like any given player can draw your attention. Last night, the reigning Finals MVP Nikola Jokic had a triple-double, yet I constantly found myself looking for Aaron Gordon. I love when the Nuggets get out in transition with Gordon on the floor because he always seems to find the weak spaces to attack. Last night, Austin Reaves was the target. There were more than a few instances in which Reaves was picked on, and it felt like Gordon was doing most of it. He showed off his strength and touch throughout the night. I also really like when the Nuggets get him initiating the offense.

Early on, the Nuggs got into an action with Gordon bringing the ball up that involved a Jokic screen for Jamal Murray who then got a dribble handoff (DHO) from Gordon curling toward the middle of the floor. From there, it seems like Murray and Gordon have the option of flipping that screen to allow the former to get to his right hand going downhill. If he takes the initial screen or denies the flip, Murray then dribbles into a screen from Jokic which in this case led to a seemingly open three until it was blocked by Taurean Prince (more on him later). To keep the floor spaced, Denver put Kentavius Caldwell-Pope and Michael Porter Jr. in the corners to provide shooting threats if the defense helped in the middle. It was signature Denver play design.

Denver was able to get a lot of looks from all over the floor due to Jokic’s triple-double. He was dominant from start to finish and it honestly seems hopeless trying to stop this team at full strength. But truthfully, the bigger talking point from this game is the Lakers. The Nuggets are a known quantity and the basketball world understood they were going to pick up where they left off. But the Lakers are a different team than they were last season. So what did we see from the new-look Lakers?

If you are a Lakers fan, you should be excited. While there were some glaring issues, there was a lot to like from the purple and gold, starting with the new personnel. The play we looked at earlier from the Nuggets would have been an excellent look from Murray against most other defenders, but Taurean Prince was not only able to contest the shot but get a block after recovering from the Jokic screen. In fact, Prince had his fingerprints all over the game. To start the contest, he hit back to back threes to showcase the exact reason the Lakers brought him to LA. Gabe Vincent and Christian Wood also gave the Lakers good minutes off the bench and things for LA seem promising.

Their biggest problem is going to be synchronicity. After all, most of this team is new. As head coach Darvin Ham plays with the lineups and minutes distribution, this team is going to come into its own and be dangerous. They already have a tremendous amount of trust in one another, as demonstrated by an awesome sequence of ball movement at the end of the first quarter. The Lakers had some good opportunities hamstrung by being ever so slightly out of sync. But those issues will be resolved with time. The more concerning factors might be troublesome though.

LA rebounded horribly. They gave up 17 second chance points. Unacceptable. There needs to be more urgency on the glass. The Lakers actually won the rebound battle, pulling down 44 boards compared to the Nuggets’ 42, but the second chance opportunities made it feel as if the Lakers were just getting completely outclassed in that aspect of the game. And despite some really good stuff from their newcomers, things definitely stagnated with LeBron off the floor. In fairness, that problem will likely go away as the players carve out their roles throughout the season. Though there is the elephant in the room. Anthony Davis did not score at all in the second half.

Now, this could be a glass half empty or half full situation depending on your disposition. On the one hand, the Lakers brought the game within three points early in the 4th quarter despite lackluster production from their star big man. On the other hand, the man did not score when they needed it most. What happened? Well, AD actually had a really good first half. He shot 6-for-11 and tacked on four free throws and one make from behind the arc. His first bucket was a really nice dunk through contact under the rim and it felt like a tone setter. He missed four of his next five attempts, but some of them were really good looks that just did not fall. He used his quickness and soft touch to really put pressure on the Denver interior.

In the second half, though, Denver packed the paint any time AD put the ball on the floor. It would have been nice to see a post-up shot attempt in response to the adjustment. In the end, Denver did what Denver does: close out the game. Lakers fans, rest easy. You started the season by playing the toughest competition in the league and you hung around the whole time. As the team gets more comfortable with the new pieces, LA will turn into a problem. It will just take some time. As for Denver fans, you already know what to expect. Your team is dominant, and if they remain healthy, may be insurmountable.

Warriors vs. Suns (108-104 PHX)

The other game on opening night was really fun and came down to the wire. The game was tied with 5:10 to play. Unfortunately, neither team was at full strength as the Phoenix Suns were missing Bradley Beal and the Golden State Warriors were without Draymond Green. Still, fans were treated to a nice chess match between the squads.

First, it is important to give Jusuf Nurkic his flowers. He was awesome all night and more than proved he is the right big man for the Suns. Watch the sequence below.

For the whole set, Nurkic remained in the middle as the primary screener for essentially every option. He screened for Grayson Allen to get the ball in the slot to initiate the action. The Suns then got into what appeared to be a shallow veer action, where Nurkic screened for a driving Devin Booker before setting a screen for Kevin Durant to get the ball at the top of the key. Durant’s gravity forced Kevon Looney into a tough spot, and Nurkic got maybe the easiest and-one ever. Nurkic had his hands all over the rest of the game.

This game was important not because it was on opening night, but because it gave us some insight into the way two of the projected best teams in the league are going to approach the rest of the season. As mentioned before, both teams were missing key starters. Obviously, not having these teams at full strength is disappointing, but we learned some things about each of them. We learned that the Warriors are really confident in their young guys, and that confidence is warranted. Both Jonathan Kuminga and Moses Moody played great basketball. Even if Kuminga made some poor decisions, he was a net positive for GSW. Once Draymond comes back into the lineup, the Warriors are going to be a deep team with plenty of experience. We also learned that dumb fouls and lax defense are going to be a sticking point for them, but hopefully Draymond can alleviate some of that when he returns.

What we learned from Phoenix is kind of what we already expected of them. They are really good. Sure, they lost a 15 point lead in the third quarter. But my goodness, they sure closed the game. The team just has so much firepower. Even on the other side of the ball, they were solid enough to beat a high profile Western Conference team. Early on, some of the players seemed confused about their pick and roll coverage, but they recovered well. And it felt like Josh Okogie was taking on Steph Curry as much as anyone can. Curry went 2-for-6 with Okogie as his primary defender. Really, it felt like the Suns did what they were supposed to do. Devin Booker got 32 points, KD constantly drew attention away from his teammates, Josh Okogie did the aforementioned, Nurkic set powerful screens, rebounded, and scored when called on. All this without Bradley Beal? Yeah, it seems as if the Suns are going to be exactly the problem we all thought they would be.