NBA upsets on opening nights

If opening night’s games weren’t exciting enough, day 2 of the NBA couldn’t be missed. 28 teams battled it out on a night which saw many old faces debut for their new teams. Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett for the Brooklyn Nets, Dwight Howard for the Houston Rockets and Jrue Holiday for the New Orleans Pelicans were few of the many.

Not many nights pass in the NBA when there isn’t an upset and these first two days were no different.

Los Angeles Lakers bench stun the Los Angeles Clippers

The Lakers bench came to the party on opening night!

Seventy-six points.

That’s how much the Lakers bench totaled against the Clippers, outscoring their counterparts by a huge margin of 42 points. Xavier Henry, Jordan Farmar and Jordan Hill rose to the occasion and were key contributors among the Lakers bench that went on a 33-20 run in the fourth quarter.

Henry finished with figures of 22 points and 6 rebounds, Farmar chipped in with 16 points and dished 6 dimes while Hill finished with 12 points and 8 boards rebounds, of which 7 were off the offensive glass. None of the Lakers starters had a great game barring Pau Gasol. In just 24 minutes played he had 15 points and 13 rebounds.

Clippers started this encounter at Staples Center as favorites, yet the game was a close match all through the first 39 minutes till the Lakers bench made that run in the fourth. Although they lost the match by a decent margin of 13 points, by no means was this a bad performance by the Clippers.

Chris Paul and DeAndre Jordan both finished with double-doubles with Paul having 15 points and 11 assists while Jordan had 17 points and 11 rebounds for the night. 3 other players for the Clippers in Jamal Crawford, Blake Griffin and J.J. Reddick finished in double figures.

The Lakers bench might not come up with such a performance again but they certainly bought their A-game on home floor to stun not just the Clippers but many supporters across the globe.