Here are five takeaways from the three-game opening night of the NBA season:
1. The defending champs look even better.
Yes, it’s been one game, and there are still 3,888 minutes to be played in the regular season, but so far it’s looking like the Miami Heat can comfortably return to the NBA Finals, which will make them the first team to appear in four straight Finals since Magic Johnson’s Lakers of the ’80s.
Miami’s proven ability to convert turnovers into demoralizing fast-break dunks, alley oops, or wide-open transition threes means you simply can’t make any mistakes against this team. Like, any. Add in a typically LeBron-like performance from LeBron (17/6/8, plus seven of nine from the line), a healthy Wade and an established rotation of guys with defined roles (only two of the nine players who saw court time for the Heat failed to score in double-digits), and the Heat should continue to add to their legacy.
2. If you’re in the NBA, you’re a damn good basketball player.
On one hand, I think everybody was shocked to see the likes of Xavier Henry (22 points, six rebounds, three threes) and Jordan Farmar (16 points on six-of-10 shooting) lead the Los Angeles Lakers to a double-digit win over the Clippers. After all, Henry has averaged just 4.6 points per game over a short and disappointing career since coming out of Kansas, and Farmar wasn’t even in the NBA last season.
But as last night proved, all of these guys are supremely talented basketball players, almost always the best guy on the court growing up and in college (if they got there). So when you looked at the Lakers roster before their debut last night and expected them to get blown out, Henry & Co. reminded everybody that, history be damned, the NBA is all about opportunity—recognizing when one comes, and then seizing it.
3. We may be sleeping on DeAndre Jordan.
It’s hard to believe all the hype on summer workouts, pre-season success, and the like. But last night Clippers center DeAndre Jordan made believers out of all of us, posting 17 points on eight-of-10 shooting, 11 rebounds, three steals and three blocks while fulfilling his destiny as a freak athlete born to run alongside Chris Paul. If the Clippers can get that kind of performance from Jordan throughout the season, he’ll quiet the critics saying the Clips can’t win with him starting at center.
What? The Clippers lost anyway? Oh, okay—nevermind then.
4. Nobody wants to see another Danny Granger injury, but nobody benefits from one like Lance Stephenson. Also, Roy Hibbert for DPOY.
Last season with Granger sidelined, New York high school legend Lance Stephenson was able to seize his first starting gig since arriving in the NBA four years ago. Granger’s return this season, it seemed, would stall Stephenson’s development, or at the very least relegate him to a new role off the bench. But when Granger strained his calf and it was announced before last night’s game that he would miss three weeks, Stephenson took full advantage, putting up 19 points, seven rebounds and five assists in 35 minutes in the Pacers’ win over Orlando.
A bigger, badder Roy Hibbert, meanwhile, started his season off with a seven-block, 16-rebound outing. Pretty good, I guess.
5. Looks like Andrew Nicholson came down with that “Northern Touch.”
Andrew Nicholson continued from where he left off for Team Canada this summer, leading the Orlando Magic in scoring with 18 points, including two of two from deep. More impressive? Those points came in only 19 minutes off the bench. As the season progresses, look for the Mississauga native to take on an even bigger role for his team, establishing himself as a go-to scorer.
