2024 NBA Opening Night Game Thread

After an offseason that saw Team USA earn gold in Paris, plenty of big names change place in free agency and via the trade market, and the end of Woj bombs, NBA basketball is officially back tonight! While the Philadelphia 76ers begin their season tomorrow, we first have two games on tap tonight to whet our appetites. I’ll highlight those matchups below, and be sure to follow along with everyone here in the comments.

Boston Celtics vs. New York Knicks – 7:30pm ET – TNT

We’re surely living in the worst timeline because I have to refer to this first team as the defending champion Boston Celtics. Cus Crise is trying to make it back-to-back and is once again the favorite in the Eastern Conference. The Celtics will almost certainly stay that way barring injuries, and Kristaps Porzingis will be out tonight due to his rehab from foot surgery. The other possible downfall for Boston is the bad vibes surrounding the Olympics. I mean, this is still a prominent talking point.

Meanwhile, New York recently blew up the good vibes Nova Knicks, spitting in the face of friendship by sending Donte Divincenzo (and Julius Randle) to Minnesota for Karl-Anthony Towns. Towns showed he has another level last postseason and I understand the bet on the talent, but they just traded a boatload of assets to bring Mikal Bridges to the Big Apple and complete Jay Wright Voltron. Curious move, to be sure, and we’ll be watching how it plays out. For now, the Knicks are very thin in the frontcourt with both Mitchell Robinson and Precious Achiuwa sidelined.

Los Angeles Lakers vs. Minnesota Timberwolves – 10:00pm ET – TNT

Out west, the Lakers had the greatest player of this generation still remarkably playing at an All-NBA level approaching 40 years old, and the story of the offseason was “Nepotism is fun!” Seriously, what are we doing here?

Sure, it’s cool for LeBron to get to play with his son, but this should not be the focus of your team if you’re a serious franchise. Los Angeles needed to make some serious tweaks to its roster and having JJ Redick come coach and drafting Dalton Knecht (who I like a lot, that isn’t the point) ain’t it. The ratio of headlines to quality basketball for the Lakers is once again going to be off the charts.

I mentioned the Wolves-Knicks trade above and from Minnesota’s perspective, they were right on the cusp last season. I know there were looming salary cap issues and all, but didn’t you want to see what that group could do with another year of seasoning? I feel like this might be another edition of “When not running it back goes wrong,’ which Sixers fans know all too well from 2019. Still, Anthony Edwards should continue to be awesome and I’m excited to see Rob Dillingham at the NBA level. I guess we’ll find out in time whether the front office made the right decision parting ways with Towns at that juncture.