NBA Opening 2015-2016 Highlights: the ring ceremony, an upset and a rivalry game
Opening night in the NBA is always highlighted by the league’s defending champions celebrating their championship in front of their home fans with the raising of the team banner to the rafters. Every player, coaching staff, front office management and franchise’s owners recieve their championship rings to symbolise what the team accomplished last season. Turner Network Television (TNT) gets broadcasting rights for opening night and it showcases two games: one with the Champions and the other a highly contested and competitive game between two other teams.
Here are the analysis of all games on opening night of the NBA, as season 2015-16 officially tipped off:
Game 1: Detroit Pistons vs Atlanta Hawks [Detroit won 104-96]
The only non-nationally televised game on opening night was last year’s 60 win team in the Atlanta Hawks facing up against the young and upcoming Detroit Pistons. The Hawks’ 60 wins was a surprise last season so nobody was sure how they would show up this season yet it wouldn’t be fair if we don’t call the 104-96 Detroit win an upset. Yes, the Pistons were a team that roster wise improved over the summer but nobody would have put their money on them defeating the Hawks.
Losing Greg Monroe to the Milwaukee Bucks over the summer actually helped the Detroit Pistons play basketball with more space. Having one legitimate center surrounded long and versatile shooters, the Pistons finally have an imprint of Stan Van Gundy on their roster. With the paint declogged of size, Center Andre Drummond made his presence felt with 18 points, 19 boards and 2 blocks.
It wasn’t just Drummond, as all five of the Pistons’ starters finished with double figure points with new signings Reggie Jackson (15 points, 8 rebounds) and Marcus Morris (18 points, 10 rebounds) shining the brightest. As good as Detroit played, Atlanta put up no fight. Outrebounded 59-40 for the game, a similar weakness from last season had a huge part to play in the Hawks’ loss on Tuesday night.
To make matters worse for the Hawks, their back-up big man Mike Muscala had to leave the game, grimacing over a possible right ankle injury. Is this how the Hawks’ are gonna play this seaosn? Or is it too early to make predictions? They did start 1-3 in their first four games last season before they began hitting their stride.
Atlanta will have a chance to bounce back when both teams face each other again at the Philips Arena on 24th December.
Game 2: Chicago Bulls vs Cleveland Cavaliers [Chicago won 97-95]
This season, the league utilized the ever growing rivalry between the Chicago Bulls and LeBron James as an entree dish before Golden State tipped off their quest to repeat. And wow what an entree it was! Cleveland playing without Kyrie Irving, Iman Shumpert and Andersen Varejao put up quite a challenge to the Bulls but Chicago held their nerve and came through to clinch the game, their first win under debut NBA Head Coach Fred Hoiberg.
The rivalry between both teams and in particular LeBron and the Bulls is so well documented, that the President of United States of America Barrack Obama, a huge Bulls fan, couldn’t help himself and decided to watch the game with courtside seats.Although the Bulls came away with a close victory, off of Gasol’s clutch game winning block on James, there were a lot of positives for the tea,.
Chicago won this game off of five guys excluding Pau Gasol scoring in double figures. Jimmy Butler (17 points), Derrick Rose (18 points), new starter Nikola Mirotic with 19 points however the most impressive scorers were Tony Snell and Etwaun Moore, both finished with 11 points. Under former Coach Tom Thibodeau Snell and Moore didn’t recieve enough minutes to make a good impression on the coaching staff. Having contributed to a teamw in, the Bulls look like a deep team ready to share the minutes over the course of this long regular season.
Meanwhile for Cleveland, this loss is just the beginning of a slow start everybody predict them to have this season. Despite 25 points, 10 rebounds and 5 dimes from James, the Cavs fell apart in the closing seconds and failed to win the game. Nonetheless they had many positives as well, the instrumental play of Mo Williams (19 points and 7 assists) gives the team more depth at the point guard once Irving returns. Kevin Love played a solid night of 34 minutes registering only 8 points along with 8 rebounds.
These two teams play each other again on 24th January 2016.
Game 3: Golden State Warriors vs New Orleans Pelicans
You can read the game review here.
With 14 games sceduled for Day 2 of the NBA 2015-16 regular season, 3 games is quite few. They didn’t however lack highlight plays, here are the top 10 plays from the NBA’s opening night.