The NBA’s opening day delivered exactly what the league wanted: three competitive games, a matinee that actually made sense, and a few early storylines that already feel worth tracking.
That 3 p.m. ET start in Detroit looked strange when the schedule came out.
After one day, the logic is a lot clearer. The league wanted to reach fans in Europe, and it also gave U.S. viewers a strong lead-in before the night games.
Instead of the usual opener setup - defending champions in the first prime-time slot, then another big game at 10 p.m. - the NBA added an afternoon showcase that felt like an undercard before the main event. It let two East Coast teams get the spotlight without getting buried in a late-night window.
The Celtics-Pistons crowd, according to SI’s Blake Silverman, delivered the kind of energy the league was hoping for. It could be the start of something new.
Philadelphia’s starting five wasted no time making its case, either. With LeBron James, Joel Embiid, Jaylen Brown, Tyrese Maxey and VJ Edgecombe, the Sixers looked every bit as loaded as they do on paper.
They backed it up in a comeback win over the Knicks, spoiling the defending champions’ celebration. Embiid made life harder for Karl-Anthony Towns, LeBron kept the ball moving and kept directing traffic on defense, and Maxey put up 28 points to lead all scorers.
The big question with Philadelphia isn’t talent. It’s whether the rest of the roster can hold up over the grind of a season.
Nick Nurse kept the bench fairly tight on opening night. Kentavious Caldwell-Pope logged 26 minutes, Anfernee Simons played 25, and then the drop-off came fast: Adem Bona was under 10 minutes, and Jabari Walker barely played at all.
A team built around a 41-year-old LeBron and an often-injured Embiid is going to need more reliable minutes beyond the top seven. That picture should improve when Dean Wade returns from an ankle injury, but the rotation situation is still something to watch.
Out West, Chet Holmgren got his revenge. The last time he matched up with Victor Wembanyama, Wemby got the better of him in the Western Conference finals.
This time, Holmgren helped flip the script in a 116-104 Thunder win over the Spurs. He scored 14 points, grabbed seven rebounds and blocked four shots, but the real damage came on the defensive end.
Wembanyama went 1-for-13 from the field, the worst shooting night of his career, and finished with 12 points, 10 of them at the line. His first field goal didn’t come until the buzzer sounded to end the third quarter.
Holmgren wasn’t working alone. Rookie Aday Mara, a 7-foot-2 center drafted 12th this year, gave Oklahoma City more help in the same mission.
He played 12 minutes off the bench and had his own standout moment in the third quarter when he turned away a Wembanyama lob at the rim. The Thunder-Spurs matchup already looks like one of the season’s defining Western Conference threads, and San Antonio left opening night with a fresh set of problems to solve.
A few plays from the opener stood out above the rest: back-to-back blocks by Chet Holmgren and Isaiah Hartenstein, Javonte Green’s three-pointer that pushed Detroit’s run to 23 straight points, Tyrese Maxey’s block on Landry Shamet, Jaylen Brown’s leaning three at the third-quarter buzzer to cap an 11-0 run, and Mara’s block on Wembanyama.
Elsewhere on tonight’s slate, the Valkyries visit the Dream at 8 p.m. ET on USA Network. Atlanta is coming off its first WNBA Finals win in franchise history, and Angel Reese powered the Dream to a Game 2 victory with 30 points and 16 rebounds.
The Timberwolves take on the Heat at 7:30 p.m. ET on ESPN, where Giannis Antetokounmpo makes his Miami debut while Minnesota shows off its new backcourt pairing of LaMelo Ball and Anthony Edwards.
At 10 p.m. ET on ESPN, the Warriors meet the Lakers as Stephen Curry begins his 18th season and Golden State faces a remade Lakers team now led by Luka Dončić.
And in NHL action, the Flyers visit the Sabres at 7:30 p.m. ET on TNT. After dropping nine straight to start the season, Philadelphia has now won two in a row, both against teams that made the 2026 playoffs.
In Other News...
Knicks Let A Struggling Rival Expose A Problem Fans Feared
Philadelphia finally got off the schneid with a 106-100 win over the Knicks, and the result carried a little more weight than an ordinary early-season loss. The 76ers were able to survive their own shooting issues because Tyrese Maxey kept pushing the pace and Philadelphia's defense and ball movement held up when it mattered, a reminder that the Knicks still have work to do even against a team that had been searching for its first victory.
Karl-Anthony Towns and Jalen Brunson were the main sources of offense for New York, but the bigger concern was how often Philadelphia was able to make the game uncomfortable on the other end. For a Knicks group trying to establish itself early, letting a struggling rival dictate stretches of the game is the kind of lapse that tends to linger, especially when the other side finds enough edge to cover its own flaws. [Read more 🡒]
Knicks Title Night Had One Ring Moment Fans Didn't See Coming
The Knicks made Opening Night feel like a celebration before the ball even tipped, with championship rings handed out and the new banner rising at Madison Square Garden on Oct. 20. It was the kind of scene New York has waited a long time to see, a reward for a run that ended with the franchises first title in 53 years and Jalen Brunson taking home NBA Finals MVP honors.
Some of the buzz around the night spilled well beyond the arena, too, when Danhausen jumped onto social media and publicly asked for a championship ring of his own. He even singled out Karl-Anthony Towns in the request, jokingly asking to borrow one, a reminder that once a team reaches that level of spotlight, the attention can turn playful fast and the victory lap can wind up reaching places nobody expected. [Read more 🡒]
Knicks Fans Sent LeBron A Message He Couldnt Ignore At MSG
Madison Square Garden was already buzzing for the season opener, but the loudest moment came when LeBron James stepped to the free-throw line and Knicks fans made their message impossible to miss. The chants were pointed and immediate, with the crowd letting James know, in no uncertain terms, that he was not wanted in New York.
It made for a sharp reminder of how much the Garden can still turn into a referendum on star power, especially when James has long talked about the idea of playing and even finishing his career there. But this is also a fan base that has grown more attached to its own team after recent championship success, and the nights hostility did not stop with James, as Philadelphia center Joel Embiid also drew chants from the crowd. [Read more 🡒]