{"id":941417,"date":"2026-10-22T00:10:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-22T00:10:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/941417\/"},"modified":"2026-10-22T00:10:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-22T00:10:11","slug":"opening-night-in-the-nba-provided-some-hints-of-what-may-be-to-come-this-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/941417\/","title":{"rendered":"Opening night in the NBA provided some hints of what may be to come this season"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"San Antonio Spurs center Victor Wembanyama (1) shoots against Oklahoma City Thunder center Aday Mara during the first half of an NBA basketball game, Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2026, in San Antonio. (AP Photo\/Darren Abate) <\/p>\n

Opening night in the NBA provided some hints.<\/p>\n

The Philadelphia 76ers had a stat sheet as well-balanced as just about any in LeBron James\u2019 24-year career to beat the New York Knicks. The Detroit Pistons were a No. 1 seed last season and felt a need to remind the league that it wasn\u2019t a fluke. And the Oklahoma City Thunder \u2014 who lost a home Game 7 to San Antonio in last season\u2019s Western Conference finals \u2014 went into Texas and took the fight right to Victor Wembanyama and the Spurs.<\/p>\n

It is way, way too early to make any conclusions. Boston, New York and San Antonio are 0-1. They\u2019ll be fine.<\/p>\n

But there were some things that jumped out after the first three games of the 1,230-game marathon of a regular season:<\/p>\n

\"\"Philadelphia 76ers guard Tyrese Maxey drives past New York Knicks guard Jalen Brunson during the second half of an NBA basketball game Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo\/Frank Franklin II) Philadelphia REALLY shared the ball<\/p>\n

James has played in 1,925 NBA games, including playoffs. The way Philadelphia played in one respect Tuesday was different than 99.2% of all those games \u2014 in that the 76ers, in James\u2019 official debut, showed remarkable offensive balance.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s how: Tyrese Maxey took 19 shots, Joel Embiid took 15 shots, Jaylen Brown took 14 shots, James took 13 shots, and VJ Edgecombe and Anfernee Simons took 10 shots apiece.<\/p>\n

Why is that significant? It was only the 16th time in James\u2019 career that he and five teammates all got at least 10 shots from the floor.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just like the way we played,\u201d James said. \u201cWe were sharing the ball. We got the ball moving from one side to another. Guys felt in a good rhythm.\u201d<\/p>\n

The big question about the 76ers entering this dynamic experiment was whether a bunch of big-time scorers like Maxey, Embiid, Brown and James could share the ball enough to keep everyone happy. After one game, the answer was an emphatic \u201cyes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Aday Mara was a great get for OKC<\/p>\n

Isaiah Hartenstein is a 7-footer. Chet Holmgren is 7-foot-1. And now, Oklahoma City has another towering presence in 7-foot-3 rookie Aday Mara.<\/p>\n

The rookie made an impact.<\/p>\n

Boxscore watchers would only see seven points and two rebounds and likely shrug, as if they were no big deal. But Mara was part of what the Thunder did to keep Spurs center Victor Wembanyama out of sorts all night long.<\/p>\n

Wembanyama missed 12 of his 13 shots; the one make was an alley-oop lob that absolutely nobody else had a chance of reaching on the final play of the third quarter. The NBA\u2019s tracking data said he was 0 for 4 against Mara, who even got a block against the 7-foot-4 French standout.<\/p>\n

Barring an NBA Cup meeting, the Spurs and Thunder \u2014 who got 32 points from two-time reigning MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander \u2014 won\u2019t face off again until Feb. 11. And the only way the Thunder will return to San Antonio this season is either for a Cup game or a playoff contest.<\/p>\n

But they got more than a victory Tuesday. They surely gave Wembanyama something to stew about until he sees OKC again.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis doesn\u2019t prove anything,\u201d Gilgeous-Alexander said in the televised postgame interview. \u201cThis doesn\u2019t mean anything \u2014 besides the fact that we won tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Detroit Pistons guard Cade Cunningham (2) drives on Boston Celtics center Neemias Queta (88) in the second half of an NBA basketball game in Detroit, Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2026. (AP Photo\/Paul Sancya) Pistons send an early message<\/p>\n

Maybe the Pistons thought the game started at 4 p.m.<\/p>\n

Around 3 p.m. Tuesday \u2014 a most unusual start time for the first game of the season, but one that allowed NBC to show an opening-day tripleheader \u2014 Pistons star Cade Cunningham grabbed the microphone and addressed the home Detroit crowd.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe NBA wanted to start the league off in Detroit this season,\u201d Cunningham said. \u201cLet\u2019s start it off right.\u201d<\/p>\n

They then proceeded to get down by 22 points \u2014 72-50 early in the third quarter. Boston was rolling, Paul George was unstoppable in his first game in a Celtics uniform, and the Pistons looked nothing like a team that was the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs.<\/p>\n

The score the rest of the way: Pistons 71, Celtics 41.<\/p>\n

Detroit prevailed 121-113, with Javonte Green and Duncan Robinson combining for 37 points \u2014 and nine 3-pointers \u2014 in that closing 20-minute stretch.<\/p>\n

Just like Cunningham said, the Pistons indeed started things off right.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"San Antonio Spurs center Victor Wembanyama (1) shoots against Oklahoma City Thunder center Aday Mara during the first…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":941418,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[434],"tags":[49,48,459,82],"class_list":["post-941417","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/941417","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=941417"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/941417\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/941418"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=941417"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=941417"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=941417"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}