Sports News With The Start Of The NBA Season

If you hadn’t thought about the NBA much since the Golden State Warriors won another championship in June, rest easy. They will probably win another.

The NBA season began on Tuesday night with a pair of marquee games, one in the Western Conference and one in the Eastern Conference, where the Boston Celtics topped the Philadelphia 76ers 105-87. The Warriors, after receiving their championship rings, put on an uneven display in beating the Oklahoma City Thunder (minus injured Russell Westbrook) 108-100.

The Warriors kept pulling away in the first half, only to get sloppy (not a new theme) and let the Thunder close in. Same in the third quarter, only moreso. A Stephen Curry jumper (32 points) with a little less than two minutes gave the Warriors they cushion they needed.

If the Warriors had a weakness last year, it was that they could be pushed around underneath and beaten in the rebounding game. Now they’ve got more big men contributing in Damian Jones and Kevon Looney, with DeMarcus Cousins – still recovering from surgery – to be a late-season add.

The full NBA slate begins on Wednesday night. ESPN will show the New Orleans Pelicans vs. Houston Rockets at 8 p.m. ET in a match-up of theoretical contenders and Dallas Mavericks-Phoenix Suns at 10:30 p.m. in a race to the bottom (where they were last year).

 
 
Post By: Larry Weisman, a longtime sportswriter for USA TODAY, blogs for Twistity.com. Follow him on Twitter @MrLarryWeisman