There's Nothing Quite Like The First True Ball Night Of The NBA Season

Jesse D. Garrabrant. Getty Images.

While last night's Opening Night may have been incredible (for some), only having two games on the schedule was such a tease. For those of us who have been waiting four months for this part of the sports calendar to arrive, it wasn't nearly enough basketball for my liking.

Thankfully, the majority of the NBA kicked things off tonight and we had our first true full NBA slate. 10 total games, hours and hours of the best basketball on the planet and our first opportunity to completely overreact based on what we see. It also served as a nice reminder that after waiting 100+ days in the offseason, every night from here on out for the next 8 months just got a whole lot better

I understand I may be in the minority here, but I don't care what game is taking place, if the sport of basketball is being played I will be there to watch it. The beauty of tonight is we're at the very beginning of the NBA season sandwich with hundreds of games ahead of us. Nights of flipping on League Pass and doing nothing but watching basketball until you ultimately fall asleep on the couch and then wake up at 2am with your contacts still in and you're all disoriented while the TV that is somehow the brightest a TV has ever been blinds you with the "THIS GAME HAS ENDED" spinning graphic is back in our lives again, and frankly I could not be more excited.

There's nothing better than basketball season, and that includes college that's on the horizon as well. 

With that in mind, given that it is Opening Night for 20 teams, here's what I've noticed so far watching the full slate:

- The Pistons may not win a whole lot, but they could potentially be feisty. They played the Pacers pretty tough despite the 115-109 loss, and we continue to see Cade Cunningham play well which is noteworthy

The issue once again seems to be the Pistons lack of shooting/spacing. Not only does that make it tough to win in today's NBA, but it also limits what Cade can do because teams can just sag off shooters and clog the paint when he has the ball. A brutal 9-33 in a 5 point loss is tough, but I'd say overall they put up an acceptable League Pass product. That's a start!

- It really sucks that MIL/PHI was such a dud given who missed the game. No Embiid, no George, no Middleton, this was the one matchup where you maybe hoped to learn something that you immediately have to mostly throw away because one side didn't have their two main guys. As a basketball fan, that was a bummer.

On the plus side for the Bucks, at least both Giannis and Dame played well

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which is something that the entire Bucks season depends on. I'd also say their offseason depth additions did exactly what the Bucks are going to need when it came to knocking down threes and defending. It wasn't always pretty, but it was certainly good enough against a shorthanded Sixers team. Getting 27 points and 6 3PM with OK defense from Trent Jr/Prince is certainly better than what they were getting from Jae Crowder & Co last year, and those things plus a healthy Dame is essentially what the Bucks formula is going to be this year.

- Early season statement win by the Magic to go on the road and beat the fully healthy Heat by 19. Jimmy Butler in a contract year while supposedly locked in and taking everything seriously finished with just 3 points on 1-8, the Heat's inability to shoot showed up again with 39/32% splits, and offensively Paolo pretty much got whatever he wanted

Sure, this is the first game of the year. But it's also a division H2H matchup, and given how tight the Eastern Conference Standings may end up being when it comes to seeds 2-7, this win could end up mattering down the road. Division games ALWAYS matter, regardless of when they happen. 

- I'm starting to think Trae Young might be the most underrated star in the league. This isn't to say I would want my favorite team to pay big money for a player who will be targeted defensively in a playoff series, but there's no denying his talent. Another 32/12, he also paid tribute to Rajon Rondo which is going to earn you points with me every single time

I don't know what to make of the Hawks. I've seen enough to know that they're most likely going to float around .500 and be in the Play In. But at the same time, I do like some of their pieces. Okungwu is probably the best young big nobody talks about

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Jalen Johnson, Dyson Daniels, there's talent there. Will they ever defend at an acceptable level? Will there be enough shooting threats outside of Trae? Who knows (probably not).

- Is this the year we can finally buy that there will be some sort of progress with the Hornets? Going into Houston and walking out with a road win when they were down pretty big most of the night after winning just 10 road games last year was pretty damn impressive. They're another one of those teams where the young talent is super intriguing, but they almost never put it together. Hopefully Charles Lee is the difference because they're a fun League Pass team to watch as long as LaMelo is healthy. 

For the Rockets, welcome to the world of expectations. Everyone and their mother has been hyping them up all offseason as the team in the West that's going to crash the party. How they have one of the most talented young rosters in the league, everyone just got paid, Ime is this great coach, well now you don't have any excuses, there's really pressure to perform. That's what is going to make their season so interesting to follow, because not every team is ready for that jump. 

Now we move into the West Coast games for the next few hours. I'm telling you, there's nothing better than Ball Night being back in our lives.