LeBron James’ 0-3 Start, Two OT Thrillers, And An Ugly Celtics Loss Headline A Wacky NBA Evening

Some nights of the NBA season are just wackier than others. When every team plays 82 games and the season lasts from October to June there are just going to be evenings that are more exciting. They’ll create that feeling of missing out for fans that decided to take the night off and go have a social life away from basketball. Those fans made a mistake on Monday, October 22 because this night was full of all kinds of the insanity that NBA fans crave.

Here, we’ll take a look back at a wild first Monday of the season, that saw LeBron James lose in an overtime thriller to DeMar DeRozan and the Spurs, Washington and Portland play in the most exciting game of the night few saw, the Celtics offense shutting down in a home loss to Orlando, the Raptors continue rolling along, and the Bucks getting huge nights from their stars when they needed them.

LeBron James Starts 0-3 For The First Time Since 2004-05

We knew James and the Lakers might struggle early on, but an 0-3 start from James is still very surprising to witness. This is the first time he’s started 0-3 since the second year of his career. It’s not like he hasn’t he hasn’t gotten close to that first win in a Lakers uniform though. He really tried late to steal one for Los Angeles in the closing moments against the Spurs.

James looked disengaged and lackadaisical in moments, but he flipped that switch he’s known for so well late in the game. His ho-hum performance turned into a 32 points, 14 assists, and eight rebound kind of night. He also hit the game tying shot to send the Lakers to overtime in the first place.

Of course, James didn’t do absolutely everything by himself. Kyle Kuzma was arguably the chief reason the Lakers were in the game to begin with. He finished with 37 points and hit some humongous 3-pointers at the end. Josh Hart poured in a 20-point performance of his own along with 10 rebounds. Lonzo Ball had 14 points and six assists. The Lakers may have lost, but fans of the young Lakers have to be reasonably pleased with the performance they got out of them.

DeMar DeRozan’s Historic Night

It probably would have been enough if DeMar DeRozan and LaMarcus Aldridge hadn’t spent the entire game eating the Los Angeles defense for lunch. DeRozan had 32 points, 14 assists, and eight rebounds reminding everybody that while, yes he’s a scorer, there is just so much more to his game than mid-range jump shots. He’s an excellent creator for others and he’s getting a chance to put that on display in San Antonio. So much so that 14 assists turned out to be his career high. He’s the first non-point guard to have a 30+ points and 10+ assists game in a Spurs uniform since Manu Ginobili did it in 2008. The only other guards do it period were Patty Mills and Tony Parker since 2000. Let’s just say that DeRozan is in impressive company.

A Heavyweight Guard Battle In Portland Goes To OT (Plus ‘Keef And Sauce)

The Lakers and Spurs may have gotten all the headlines, but the best game of the night happened in the Northwest. The Trail Blazers and Wizards teamed up to play one of the most entertaining games of this young season. It featured everything fans could want. Overtime, bundles of scoring, clutch shooting, and role players stepping up in big ways.

The usual suspects were, of course, having an impact, but once again, Nik Stauskas, aka Sauce Castillo, made his presence felt with some clutch buckets. No game in Portland can be seen without Damian Lillard making his impact felt. He simultaneously was the hero and the goat on Monday when he hit a game-tying shot late in the fourth, but he was also twice rejected at the rim while trying to win the game. First in regulation and then again at the end overtime.

The Wizards had multiple heroes carry them to victory in this one. They had a ridiculous 28-point performance from Markieff Morris, which should never be wasted, and Bradley Beal had the two biggest plays of the night with a clutch three-pointer to tie it and the rejection on Lillard to force overtime.

Then John Wall took the Wizards all the way home, but first he had to make a stop at the bank and make a deposit.

League pass die hards need to go give Blazers-Wizards a watch if they missed it. It will still be exciting to watch even with knowledge of how the game will finish.

Who Broke The Celtics’ Offense?

Alright, so the Magic are better than they were given credit for in the offseason, but the Celtics are supposed to be a conference title contender. It’s still early, and in the grand scheme of an 82 game season it’s really not that big a deal, but Boston really did lose to the Magic in a home game in which Boston never held the lead.

Nikola Vucevic followed up his triple-double performance against the 76ers with 24 points and 12 rebounds in Boston. He’s been a force for the Magic early in the season, but the show was stolen from him by a young Jonathan Isaac. The sophomore out of Florida State had his first career double-double with 18 points, 12 rebounds, and a thunderous putback dunk.

Isaac also made the clutch basket needed to seal the deal for Orlando late. The Magic are going to be feisty this year and they’re showing that early on in the season, but the story here is that the Celtics’ offense looks more disjointed and discombobulated than anyone anticipated, even factoring in the return of Kyrie Irving and Gordon Hayward.

Understanding this small sample size theater we’re witnessing, Boston and its collection of talent have no business ranking 28th in the NBA in field goal percentage (41.2%), only ahead of the Grizzlies and the Thunder (woof). The Celtics are 26th in the league in three-point percentage at 31.2 percent, and it’s hard to find any offensive metric right now, traditional or advanced, that offers much in the way of positives for this offense (and remember, this is including their strong opener against Philly). No one expects Boston to look like this all year, but they certainly can’t be considered locks in the East anymore.

Surprise! Kawhi Leonard’s Still Really Good And So Are The Raptors

The Raptors were always considered the closest contender to the Celtics in the East, but all offseason everyone included the caveat that would only be the case if Kawhi Leonard was still Kawhi. Through four games it’s fairly safe to say he’s back to being his old self, averaging 25.7 points, 8.7 rebounds, 2.7 assists, and 2.0 blocks per game with a 45.9/46.7/93.3 shooting split. That efficiency likely won’t hold that high all season, but when he’s in the lineup, Toronto is just eating teams alive on both ends.

When Leonard’s on the floor, the Raptors have an ORtg of 127.1 and a DRtg of 101.9 (in 104 minutes this season). When he’s off the court, they have an ORtg of 101.6 and a DRtg of 106.8 (in 88 minutes), but they do have a win without him, as they beat the Wizards on the road when he rested on a back-to-back. We all knew Toronto would be deep and they’d be good defensively, but the questions were how good would Leonard be and how good would he make them. The answer to both seems to be “great” and that’s going to make the East very interesting at the top this season.

Giannis And Middleton Do Just Enough

Usually, when Giannis Antetokounmpo and Khris Middleton combine for 61 points it means the Bucks won handily. That wasn’t the case Monday, however. The Knicks refused to go away despite how much the Bucks pushed back against them. It took an Antetokounmpo dunk late in the game to seal it for the Bucks, who would go on to pull away by 11 points in one of those games where the final score isn’t indicative of how competitive the game was in the second half.

The Bucks are now 3-0 and, while it’s not perfect, they’ve looked pretty great in flashes. Mike Budenzholzer’s system is putting life into a roster that last season was just disappointing to watch. Seeing Antetokounmpo and Middleton thrive on a nightly basis is fun to see, and Eric Bledsoe even seems to be playing with a purpose this season. If they can figure out how to produce consistency and not go through the lulls we’ve seen in games against Charlotte and New York this year, Milwaukee can find their way into the conversation at the top of the East.