A HISTORIC first day of the new NBA season

The 2024/2025 NBA season is here and off to an incredible start. Two incredible individual performances, the No. 18 banner raised by Boston and the first father/son duo to participate in the same NBA game. Among those were two impressive victories for the two winningest teams in NBA history.

Just when the NBA world thought the Celtics weren’t going to be that good this year, they quickly shut down all that noise. From the very first play of the game, the Celtics were on fire at the TD Garden.

Both teams got off to a strong start in the first few minutes, hitting hard shots hard shots. Boston continued its blazing start, hitting 10 3-pointers in the first quarter alone.

Tatum finished the period with 15 points as the home team took an early lead. Jalen Brunson was outstanding in the first half scoring 15 on 6/7 shooting, and Karl-Anthony Towns scored his first basket as a Knick with a beautiful left-handed push shot. However, the Celtics refused to stop hitting shots and had a 19-point lead midway through the second quarter. Miles McBride came off the bench for New York and was their only source of offense in the second, scoring 14 points on 5/5 shooting.

The second half was more of the same, as Tatum (37 PTS, 8 3PM) in particular continued to light up the Knicks. Derrick White (24 PTS, 6 3PM) and Jaylen Brown (23 PTS, 5 3PM) were the next leading scorers for Boston as the team hit 29 3-pointers with more than 8 minutes left in the fourth quarter. With just one more needed for an NBA record, the Celtics missed 13 straight attempts from downtown. Regardless, this was a statement performance from Boston, blowing away what many considered their biggest competition of the season.

New York fell offensively behind Brunson (22 PTS) and McBride (22 PTS). His next opportunity comes against Indiana in New York. Boston moves to Washington in two days.

This was always going to be a huge night for the James family, with the possibility of LeBron and Bronny James checking in together for the first time in an NBA game. It happened midway through the second quarter, to a standing ovation from the Staples Center crowd.

JJ Redick also picked up his first win as an NBA head coach as his Lakers eliminated the Minnesota Timberwolves 110-103.

Despite Bronny’s highly anticipated debut, Anthony Davis was the star of the show. He put up a monster stat line of 36 points, 16 rebounds and 3 blocks in an MVP level performance. The Laker faithful will be praying that Davis can have another injury-free season as he looked dominant against the 2023/24 Defensive Player of the Year.

The new look Timberwolves looked relatively disorganized, which was to be expected after recent roster changes. Anthony Edwards scored the ball well, scoring 27 points, but his teammates didn’t offer much support. Although the Lakers shot just 5-30 (16.7%) from three, they forced 15 Minnesota turnovers, which they took advantage of.

Julius Randle finished with 16 points and 9 rebounds in his debut with the Wolves, and Donte DiVincenzo scored 10. Their next game is Thursday in Sacramento, as the Lakers face Kevin Durant and the Phoenix Suns in same day return to Staples.