Daniel Waddleton
Oct 23, 2024
IF YOU ARE a Knicks or Timberwolves fan, you probably are going to sleep right now a little on edge. That was not necessarily what you wanted to see for either team, and there will certainly be some figuring out to do going forward.
The good news? It's just game one of 82, so there's tons of time! We will try not to overreact too hard from the results tonight. However, I think there were some things going on tonight that are at least worth having a chat about.
Let's start on the East Coast with a matchup between the two Eastern Conference favorites according to Vegas.
New York Knicks @ Boston Celtics
Ring Night! It’s always great watching the championship ring ceremony for the previous season’s champions. Regardless of opinions on Boston’s path to the Finals, there’s no denying they were the best team by the numbers all regular season long. Then following that with a 16-3 playoff record is no easy feat, no matter who you face.
Clearly, the Celtics heard the offseason noise. They didn’t look even a little bit relaxed after capturing their first championship as a core last season; instead, they came out determined to prove that not only was last season no fluke, but they’re still the best team this season.
One of the biggest offseason stories in Boston was the questions surrounding Jayson Tatum’s jump shot. After missing out on Finals MVP and spending a lot of time on the bench in the Olympics, Tatum looked as good as ever tonight.
His jumper was silky smooth, cashing in multiple pull-up threes when Karl-Anthony Towns played him to a drop in pick-and-roll coverage. Tatum finished the game 14-of-18 from the field and a stunning 8-of-11 from beyond the arc. He also added 10 assists, including this absolute dime with his off-hand coming off a screen.
Jaylen Brown, who also felt he received his fair share of disrespect after being left off Team USA, looked just as sharp as he did in June. He poured in 23 points and continued to be a force as a point of attack defender for Boston.
The Knicks were absolutely no match tonight for Boston’s relentless five-out, drive-and-kick offense. The Celtics' starters shot an incredible 26-of-41 from deep, a scorching 63%. While some of these threes were tough shots that we’ve come to expect from Boston, many were relatively open looks generated seamlessly by their offensive system.
Before diving into the Knicks' side of this game, it’s worth highlighting just how efficient Boston is playing offense at this point. Everyone on the floor has a high basketball IQ, and can not only shooting the three at a high clip, but also has the ability to attack the basket and finish at the rim or kick out for another open three.
Boston’s barrage of three-pointers has turned their games into a math equation—and sometimes, as we saw tonight, it makes the game almost as boring as math. This post is only going to be about the games tonight, but at some point I will have a separate post diving into this offensive philosophy in deeper detail and what Boston could do to NBA offense going forward.
Getting back to tonight's contest, heading into this season New York was anticipated to have the perfect defensive personnel to challenge Boston's elite guards and wings. While I'd be premature to draw definitive conclusions from a single game, the Celtics seemed to operate on a different level than the Knicks tonight.
One of the biggest disappointments for New York on opening night was newly acquired wing Mikal Bridges. The Knicks gave up significant assets in the offseason to bring in Jalen Brunson and Josh Hart’s former college buddy from Brooklyn, though most fans didn’t seem concerned with the haul. Bridges had been one of the league’s most effective 3&D wings on a Suns team that reached the NBA Finals and Conference Semifinals in back-to-back seasons. Then after being traded to Brooklyn, he appeared to blossom into at the least a secondary creator who can shoulder offensive primacy.
However, Bridges decided to retool his jump shot over the offseason, despite being a career 37% shooter from beyond the arc. Through the preseason and tonight’s game, he has struggled, missing 22 of his last 24 three-point attempts. He also looked uncomfortable shooting off the bounce in the mid-range, and the Knicks’ need for a secondary creator to spell Brunson was evident while Bridges struggled. It’s crucial for Bridges to sort out his shooting issues soon, as the Knicks will be counting on him to provide a scoring punch with the departures of Julius Randle and Donte DiVincenzo.
In a game with few bright spots for New York, Miles McBride looked primed for a breakout season in his expanded role as the sixth man. McBride finished the game shooting 8-of-10 for 22 points and seems poised to contend for the Sixth Man of the Year award this season.
It was an up-and-down debut for Karl-Anthony Towns, who, on the bright side, clearly had a significant offensive impact. In just the first few possessions it was evident how much space Jalen Brunson and Josh Hart had to drive to the basket, thanks to Towns' shooting gravity. He also shot efficiently from the field and seemed to fit well in the offensive role assigned to him.
On the defensive end, however, Towns’ first attempt as a defensive anchor in a couple of seasons looked reminiscent of his pre-Rudy Gobert days in Minnesota. Boston’s game plan was to put Towns in constant pick-and-roll situations, forcing New York to decide whether to drop him back or bring him up to the level of the screen. New York initially tried drop coverage, hoping Mikal Bridges and OG Anunoby could navigate the screens well enough to contest pull-up shots, but this strategy fell short.
When Towns moved to the level of the screen, Boston was able to exploit him a couple times with drives that led to kick-out threes. New York also experimented with doubling at the level, but once again it just didn't appear to be the answer.
To be fair to Towns, not all of these threes from high pick-and-rolls are due to poor defense on his part—Boston, as we mentioned, is a well-oiled machine offensively. Take this clip, for example: Bridges and Towns double Tatum as he comes off the screen. Derrick White times his flash cut perfectly when Anunoby shifts up to cover the popping Al Horford. Tatum, with his size, easily sees over the double team and finds White, who knows exactly where Jaylen Brown will be, quickly firing it to the corner for yet another clean look.
I wonder if against lesser outside shooting teams the Knicks consider assigning OG Anunoby to guard centers, creating easier switches in pick-and-roll situations. This strategy would also allow Towns to hang off non-shooters, where he can roam the paint for rebounds (which was also an issue for the team tonight) and shot-blocking opportunities.
Main takeaway from this one? Boston has no business not being the title favorite to kick off the season.
Minnesota Timberwolves @ Los Angeles Lakers
The biggest media story of the night will undoubtedly be LeBron James and his son Bronny sharing the court, making them the first father-son duo to ever play together in the NBA. But the biggest pure basketball story from should be the play of Anthony Davis.
I ranked Anthony Davis sixth in my preseason NBA Top 100, and I got some pushback from my inner circle. I believe the Lakers’ first-round exit to Denver last year overshadowed what was an incredible season for Davis, while also playing a career-high 76 games. I had big expectations for him to build on his excellent 2023-24 campaign.
On opening night, he didn’t disappoint, giving the Timberwolves everything they could handle. Davis finished with 36 points, 16 rebounds, 4 assists, and 4 blocks, putting on a two-way masterclass. His mid-range jumper looked as pure as it has since the bubble, and he was relentless on the glass. He went to the line 15 times and I promise their was no “foul-baiting” involved, but rather the Wolves just simply had no answer for him.
Defensively, Davis looked like his usual dominant self, making it tough for the Timberwolves to find any rhythm. He protected the rim at an elite level, highlighted by an ultra impressive block on a Rudy Gobert dunk attempt. Davis is still as sharp as ever when switching onto smaller players and defending in space. I genuinely believe that between the end of last season and the start of this one, Anthony Davis might be peaking defensively.
New Lakers Coach JJ Redick (who we’ll get into in a moment) deployed an unorthodox zone defense at times throughout the game as well, positioning Davis at the middle top of a 3-2 zone, with Jaxson Hayes and LeBron as the two low men. From this spot, Davis used his length and versatility to disrupt actions at the top of the key without risking getting beat off the dribble.
Redick is the other big story from the Lakers’ front tonight, as his “basketball sicko” reputation held up on opening night. To just scratch the surface of his impact so far, the Lakers’ organized offense rate was 79% last night, according to @Tim_NBA on Twitter. Last season, one of the main criticisms of Darvin Ham was his tendency to let players freelance too much, straying from structured sets. The Lakers were 20-3 last season when they hit an organized offense rate of at least 55%. Needless to say, organized offense is a key factor in this team’s success, and Ham often fell short of these benchmarks.
The more fluent and organized offense starts with Anthony Davis, who it appears Redick is attempting to make the focal point of the offense. However, it's also made players like Austin Reaves, Rui Hachimura, and even rookie Dalton Knecht look much more effective. Redick has incorporated these players into familiar actions that suit their skill sets, allowing them to capitalize on their strengths. Reaves and Rui both looked like completely different players from last season in tonight's game.
I dropped two of my favorite sets from opening night below. Redick being a former movement shooter himself, has an idea for the kinds of sets to free up this archetype of player into comfortable shots. On this play Knecht sets a flare screen for LeBron to begin the action and then Jaxson Hayes sets a quick down screen for Knecht to curl off for an open three as Gobert is slow to react.
This set was a doozy. The play starts with Reaves coming across an Iverson screen to the left wing, where then Davis turns around and cross screens for LeBron, which flows into a empty side Reaves-James pick and roll, Reaves executes the pocket pass, James draws in Gobert's help which sets up the lob to Davis before the Wolves even know what hit them.
To wrap up the Lakers, as much as I hate to say it, LeBron looked just a tad bit old yesterday, especially on his drives. However, if he can stay within the top 15 NBA players this season—which I believe is more than possible—the Lakers have a real chance to be a fun and dangerous team.
Transitioning to our final team of the night, the Minnesota Timberwolves, they are a team worth monitoring this season. Their struggles tonight seemed more concerning than those of New York’s. Los Angeles didn’t exactly light it up from three and Minnesota could’ve been in this game had they played a little better. Right off the bat, it was clear Minnesota was focused on getting Julius Randle involved with frequent touches on offense. Some of these possessions looked better than others, but overall, the offense often felt very "your turn, my turn".
If you know me, you know Julius Randle isn’t exactly my favorite player, so I was all for the Knicks moving on from him. With Jalen Brunson’s playstyle and the Knicks' approach centered heavily around his drives and high pick-and-roll action, Randle’s skill set wasn’t exactly additive to that scheme. Similarly, the Timberwolves played through Anthony Edwards in a similar way last season, so I had the same concerns when they brought in Randle.
Throughout the night, those concerns seemed validated by the way the Wolves' offense played out. Aside from a few possessions, their offense felt disjointed. Edwards, still not the greatest passer, was either running a high pick-and-roll looking to score or stationed in the corner while Randle or Naz Reid took turns with their own offensive possessions.
As expected, Minnesota’s on-ball defense was solid, but they lacked intensity in long stretches throughout the game. The Lakers absolutely dominated them on the offensive glass, and it wasn’t just on plays where the defense had to collapse after drives. Too often, players simply weren’t aggressive in attacking the ball off the rim.
While LeBron looked a little old tonight, Mike Conley looked a lot of old. In just 20 minutes of play, he shot 1-for-7 from the field and posted a -22 plus-minus for the game. The team noticeably improved when new addition Donte DiVincenzo was on the court for him. However, with Anthony Edwards serving as the de facto point guard in those lineups, the offense lacks an elite playmaker. Conley was crucial to Minnesota's success last year, and if he's over the hill, that could spell trouble.
Overall, this is a different team from the one that reached the conference finals last year. While it's premature to overreact, I'm intrigued to watch this team over the first 25 or so games to see how this roster takes shape.
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