Last night marked the beginning of the 2012-13 NBA season, and it started pretty much the same way that I assume next season will begin – with the Miami Heat raising a banner. But I’ll save my season predictions for tomorrow and just stick to the highlights of what we saw in last night’s three games starting with the obvious – Steve Nash, WTF?
The Los Angeles Lakers point guard showed up to the Staples Center looking rather geeked up for his Hollywood debut, and he did not disappoint. Wait, yes he did. In fact, everyone on the Lakers except for Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol disappointed in one way or another. Scores, thoughts and bright, shining moments after the jump.
Dallas Mavericks 99, L.A. Lakers 91
The Mavericks had a lot of us laughing yesterday when it was announced that Eddy Curry would be the team’s starting center, because that’s hilarious. However, the big man only played 17 minutes and the Mavs – who are without Dirk Nowitzki for a while – were led by Darren Collison’s 17 points. Honestly, this is already the strangest paragraph that I’ll write this season.
Meanwhile, the Lakers got a horrendous performance out of Metta World Peace and new center Dwight Howard didn’t help the cause, as he went 3-for-14 from the free throw line. Lakers fans, I know you’re happy that you got such a sweet deal on Howard, but get used to this. He will not get better, he won’t take the time to get better, he will miss a ton of free throws, and you will long for the days of Shaquille O’Neal’s “F*ck it” line drive free throws.
That said, the Miami Heat wasn’t built in a day, and it will take time for these new Lakers to get used to each other. This loss means very little other than Mark Cuban is probably still patting himself on his back.
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Miami Heat 120, Boston Celtics 107
Not much of a surprise here. The Heat’s core is more comfortable than ever, which is horrifying for every other team, and the Celtics have new pieces they’re trying to get used to. That the Heat didn’t win by more or there wasn’t a huge brawl is the real surprise. Obviously, Kevin Garnett was a dick to his old friend and former teammate Ray Allen, and that was petty but expected. I guarantee if he were in Allen’s shoes, Garnett would have also joined the Heat in a heartbeat. But he wasn’t, so he’s just the KG that we all know and hide from.
Also, everyone should be terrified of LeBron James this season.
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Cleveland Cavaliers 94, Washington Wizards 84
Anderson Varejao and his stupid hair had 23 rebounds in 37 minutes, which had everyone on the Tweeters freaking out. But the more impressive performance was turned in by Kyrie Irving, who scored 29 points and is on his way to super duper stardom. This is great news for Cavs fans, as they finalize their plans to tie Dan Gilbert up in a closet when it comes time to sign Irving’s new contract.
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