Ladies and gentlemen, what a day we had yesterday which was none other than Christmas day. For the first time perhaps in the history of NBA opening day, we were treated to five NBA games to open the season.
It all began at 12:00 p.m. Eastern with the Knicks hosting the Celtics who were without Paul Pierce. The Knicks were missing new pg acquisition Baron Davis. However, the absentees of the match were not sorely missed as we were all treated to a wonderful game.
Both teams started out well. New acquisition Brandon Bass had scored 8 points in less than 4 game time minutes within the second quarter while Carmelo Anthony led the way for the Knicks with 20 of his own throughout the first three quarters. The fourth quarter is where the excitement jumped to another level.
The Celtics scored just 17 points in the 4th quarter and Melo alone had that many for his Knicks. The Celtics had the chance to tie the game with a jumper by the shot rimmed out and the Knicks controlled possession to hold onto a 106-104 lead for the victory. Kevin Garnett took out his frustration as he pushed Bill Walker after the final whistle. We wait to see what his punishment may be if he even receives one.
If Paul Pierce were to play in this game, the Celtics may have performed better or even worse. Being the only life time member of that Celtics team, his team mates would have looked to him for guidance the same way the Knicks kept giving Melo the ball to keep on scoring. Tony Douglass played decently as a starting point guard but the absence of Mike Bibby and Baron Davis certainly did not take the pressure off of him. When Davis returns from injury, he most likely will be the starter for NY as he certainly does carry more experience than Douglass while Bibby simply does not have what it takes to start and succeed for a team of the Knick’s caliber.
The next game was supposed to be a bit more special for Dallas as they hosted last year’s finalists, the Miami Heat. The Mavs put up their championship banner and by doing that, the Heat must have been angered by their failed attempt to lift the NBA championship trophy. Well, the Mavs had it coming.
With new players such as Lamar Odom and Vince Carter, the Mavs had to learn how to play with one another. Since players such as Brandon Bass, Jose Juan Barea left, the Mavs did not have the extra youth they had a season ago. Therefore, the match didn’t go the way as planned.
The big three in Miami took over from the start of the match. Lebron James, Dwayne Wade, and Chris Bosh gelled even better than they did a year ago on the champions’ court in Dallas. Dirk Nowitzki quietly had a quiet game with 21 points but the star of the match was none other than LBJ himself who had 37 points, 10 rebounds, and 6 assists. The amount of points he scored was the highest ever scored by anyone in Miami’s history on opening day.
The Heat had a 35 point lead at one point, but after resting their starters, the Mavericks cut the lead down to 11 with the final score of that one being 105-94 in Miami’s favor.
The Mavericks winning in front of their home fans against last year’s finalists would have been the perfect way to begin the defense of their title, but Miami were simply too strong on that day.
The third game brought us Chicago visiting the Staples center to play the might Los Angeles Lakers. Kobe Bryant was playing with an injured arm while Josh McRoberts and Devin Ebanks both received the nod to start from coach Mike Brown.
The Lakers received the support from their beloved home crowd as they held a ten point lead going into the 4th quarter. However, the Bulls’ Luol Deng hustled on the defensive end to take the ball away from Kobe Bryant and created the magical opportunity for reigning MVP Derrick Rose.
With less than 10 seconds remaining, Rose orchestrated his team mates then dribbled to the top of the free throw line and sent a floater of the outstretched arm of Paul Gasol into the bucket to give the Bulls an 88-87 lead. How were the Lakers going to attempt to win the game? Brown ordered his team give the ball into the “Black Mamba’s” hands.
Kobe received the ball, dribbled toward the bucket, jumped, then released only to see Luol Deng come up big again and send the ball out of bounds at the buzzer, giving the Bulls the opening day victory on the road against the Los Angeles Lakers.
The top two players on the Bulls were none other than Luol Deng and of course MVP Derrick Rose. Kobe Bryant led his Lakers with 28 points.
The 4th game was played between the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Orlando Magic. With trade rumors floating all around the league, Dwight Howard did try to focus on playing hard for his Magic but it seemed as if his mind was elsewhere. He made the simplest mistakes and lacked his normal dominance near the hole. However for OKC, Kevin Durant took charge as usual.
The best player for the Magic was surprise starter Ryan Anderson who booked 25 points and added 10 rebounds. He was 6-12 from behind the 3 point line and outshone the rest of his team mates. Dwight Howard added 11 points and 15 rebounds.
OKC were led by Kevin Durant who drained 30 points and added 5 rebounds and 6 assists. He is the 2 time reigning NBA scoring champion and will look to become the first to win 3 straight since the legendary Michael Jordan accomplished that feat back in the mid-1990’s.
OKC trailed early but went up big but ended up winning by 8 points at 97-89.
The fifth and final game brought us an exciting match-up between the Golden State Warriors and Los Angeles Clippers. Former announcer Marc Jackson brought out an improved defensive side in Golden State but the offense of the Clippers proved to be a bit too strong in the end.
The game was a back and forth battle between the sides who both took leads then lost them as well but in the end, L.A.’s new acquisition Chris Paul simply took over.
Paul nailed three jumpers in succession which led to the Warriors putting their hard work to rest and losing by an unlikely 19 points at 105-86 in front of their home crowd.
Paul had 20 points and 9 assists for the Clips while David Lee recorded his first double double of the year with 21 points and 12 rebounds. The game was truly exciting and in the end, the better team won by a large margin.
These five games began what is to be a 66 game regular season with every team having to play 3 games in 3 days some time throughout the season. The first team to do so will be the Lakers who played last night at home against the Bulls. Tonight, they will play at the Sacramento Kings and will then host the Utah Jazz tomorrow night.
My prediction for the Western Conference Finals sees the Los Angeles Clippers facing the Los Angeles Lakers or the Oklahoma City Thunder. Chris Paul is the leader of this talented Clippers team who finally found their winning mentality with these new additions. The Lakers will be led by Kobe Bryant while the Thunder will be led by two-time scoring champ Kevin Durant. The Dallas Mavericks will make the Western Semi’s but will not make the WCF’s. Last year, they played admirably in the Finals against the Heat. Yesterday, they didn’t want any part of them.
In the East, the Miami Heat will play the Chicago Bulls or the NY Knicks. The Bulls have a chance of making it due to Derrick Rose being their hero with back-up from offensive and defensive minded Luol Deng. Their back up in Carlos Boozer and Joachim Noah is better than average. However, new addition Richard Hamilton needs to improve from his sub-par performance from the shooting guard position. The Bulls added him for a reason, because no one lived up to that position a year ago.
In the finals, the Miami Heat will play the Los Angeles Clippers with Miami winning it all. Miami have instilled defensive and offensive dominance inside their minds. The Clippers have a new and improved team, but they cannot defeat Miami for an NBA championship as of yet.
Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for reading my piece on the opening day of the NBA. Hopefully you will all enjoy the season as much as I already am.
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