NBA, Thursday October 24th

Hello, I’m Carlos Andres Segrera, and this is the NBA from the mind of a high schooler.

Last night, Victor Wembanyama—last year's Rookie of the Year and star of the silver-medal French basketball team at the Olympics—played the first game of his sophomore campaign against Luka Doncic and the Dallas Mavericks, last year’s league runners-up. Wemby had an inefficient 17 points paired with 9 rebounds. On the other side, Luka put up an impressive 28 points, 8 rebounds, and 10 assists, while Klay Thompson shot an astounding 6-for-10 from three in his first game as a Maverick. The Mavericks took home the victory, 120-109.

Chet Holmgren, who finished second in Rookie of the Year voting behind Wembanyama, outclassed the Frenchman last night with 25 points, 14 rebounds, 5 assists, and 6 stocks in the Thunder’s 15-point win over the Nuggets. Jokic had a low key triple-double, and all Nuggets starters surpassed 12 points. However, the Thunder’s star duo of Holmgren and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander proved too much for the Mile High City squad’s balanced box score.

In other rookie news, the second overall pick, Alex Sarr, had his career debut against last year’s league champs, the Boston Celtics, who were coming off a dominant win against the Knicks. Sarr struggled offensively with only 2 points on 1-for-7 shooting but showed potential on the defensive end with 2 blocks. Jonas Valanciunas made his District debut, coming off the bench for Sarr, with 18 points and 5 rebounds on 61% shooting. Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown combined for 52 points in a 20-point victory over the Wizards carrying momentum from their dub over the Knicks, Tatum is coming into this season with fire in his eyes, trying to prove the haters wrong. 

The closest game of the night was between the Timberwolves and Kings, with the Wolves squeezing out a 2-point victory in Sac-town. Anthony Edwards scored 32 points, but he followed tonight’s inefficiency trend, shooting 10-for-24 from the field. Newcomer Julius Randle stole the spotlight for Minnesota, posting 33 points on 76% form the field and 83% from behind the arc, along with 5 rebounds and 4 assists. For the Kings, three players surpassed 20 points: Keegan Murray who put on a three point masterclass with 23, the only All NBA player to not be an all star last year and one of the stars of Netflix’s new show “Starting 5” Domantas Sabonis had 24, and another newcomer in Demar Derozan led the team with 26. 

Carlos’ Notes from the Night:

  • Wemby looks uncomfortable
  • Spurs players seem to feel obligated to get the ball to Wemby
  • Jordan Poole can be effective
  • Kuzma appears unpolished with the ball in his hands
  • Poole looks frantic at times and needs to use his speed to his advantage with quick bursts and changes of pace instead of constantly going 1000 miles per hour
  • Tatum taking more catch-and-shoot threes ✅
  • Klay Thompson has a newfound confidence with the Mavs I haven’t seen since the 2019 playoffs
  • Chris Paul is doing an excellent job instilling discipline in the young Spurs team, both on the court and during timeouts

Thank you


Comments

  1. Eric SpolstraOctober 25, 2024 at 1:20 PM

    Hey Carlos, this is NBA head coach Eric Spolstra. You've done a great job breaking down the strengths of key players and identifying teams to watch. Your perspective shows a strong understanding of the game’s dynamics and the strategies that make teams successful. It's refreshing to see this level of thoughtfulness in a young writer. Keep refining your analysis, and I look forward to reading more of your work as the season progresses. I will make sure you keep you on the Miami Heat’s radar.

    ReplyDelete

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