The NBA Released Their Opening Night Lineup And It's Loaded With Drama

Hell yes. While a delayed start to the 2023-24 NBA season to the end of October definitely stinks, now that we know who's going to end up kicking us off, I think it's fair to say it's absolutely worth the wait. The NBA isn't stupid. They know that drama sells. So what do they do? They take a page out of their WWE playbook and give us a whole bunch of drama on Opening Night. I love everything about it.

I did find it a little strange there's no Eastern Conference game though. I would have bet my life we'd be getting some sort of combo of MIL/BOS/MIA/PHI given the rivalries in the East, but whatever. It's not like they got bumped for some boring matchup out West or anything like that so no biggie. Also with the Sixers and Heat heavily involved in trade nonsense, it was probably too risky to schedule them at this point. 

Let's start off with the first game. I love how the Nuggets are going to be raising their banner and getting their rings right in the Laker's eyeball. Yeah, not only did we sweep you, but now watch us raise this non bubble title banner right in your face. That's tremendous. Not only that, but let's not forget all the shit Michael Malone and everyone associated with the Nuggets rightfully talked after that series/winning the title

I mean these teams clearly have a history from the Lakers bubble run and then last season, so this felt like a no brainer matchup for the defending champs. I'll gladly take a motivated LeBron and AD against Jokic & Co. Everyone should be fully healthy, and the arena is going to be electric after the banner goes up and everyone gets their ring, it's a great way to kick off the new season.

But let's not sleep on the next game either. This will be the first time Kevin Durant will play in GS as a visitor since he left to go to the Nets what feels like a million years ago. That feels crazy, but it's true. That alone would be enough to make the game worth watching, but it's just the tip of the iceberg. We get KD vs Steph as well as Steph vs his brother in law (Damion Lee). We get Chris Paul vs his old team. Both teams fancy themselves title contenders. These guys did play in mid March after the KD trade, but he missed the game so we never saw the new look Suns play this GS team. If you remember, the Suns last year were a disastrous 17-24 on the road, but now with Bradley Beal in the fold that should certainly improve. A test against a team that went 33-8 in their own building is certainly a nice measuring stick.

At first, I wondered why the Warriors were the ones who got to be at home, but KD having to go to GS is way juicier in my opinion. If he had gone there before it's mostly whatever, but now that he's going back to the scene of his previous superteam with a new superteam, I'm in on that. Does he get a tribute video? Do Warriors fans boo him despite how dominant he was in those two Finals wins? 

Now that we know the date, it's time to officially start our countdown. Just 75 days to go and frankly today is mostly over so to my brain it's basically 74. With the FIBA World Cup about two weeks away and then before you know it it'll be training camp and then preseason and boom. Real basketball will be back in our lives again. I cannot wait.