Opening Night Collects Old Debts
Both of June's finalists lose at home to open the season, the crown gets heavy fast.
Opening Night: both Finals teams fall at home.
THE MOMENT
The rings were barely cold.
Hours after the Knicks took their championship jewelry and raised a banner at Madison Square Garden, the franchise's first title in 53 years, won over San Antonio in June, Jalen Brunson's last three missed, and LeBron James pulled down the rebound in the building that had booed him all night.
He walked to the line, sank both free throws, and sealed it: 76ers 106, Knicks 100.
Out in San Antonio, at nearly the same hour, the other finalist was learning the same lesson. Oklahoma City, beaten by the Spurs in Game 7 of the conference finals last spring, walked into the Frost Bank Center and took the Spurs apart, 116-104.
Opening night is supposed to be a coronation. This year it was a collection agency.
THE FREEZE
Last season is over. The league made sure both finalists knew it before midnight.
THE HUMAN
Start with the old wonder.
LeBron James is 41 years old, in his 24th season, wearing the fourth jersey of his career because the first three stops did not finish the story. He came to Philadelphia in the summer for exactly one thing: a fifth championship ring, and to drag the 76ers back to the NBA Finals for the first time since 2001. The Garden crowd greeted him with a memory of its own, "We didn't want you," they chanted, at a man who once considered New York and chose elsewhere.
He did not dominate. He conducted. Fourteen points, nine rebounds, seven assists in 34 minutes, while Tyrese Maxey ran the show and the defense strangled the champions' offense. And when the game needed closing, it was James at the line, in the noise, unbothered.
In Oklahoma City's locker room the human story is younger and colder: a team that spent an entire summer remembering one night in San Antonio. Game 7. Their building emptied by somebody else. Their defense spent the off-season building a cage for Victor Wembanyama, and on opening night, it held him to 1-of-13 shooting.
THE SACRIFICE
Philadelphia's win cost sweat, not shine: the Sixers shot 41.9 percent and 27.5 percent from three and won anyway, with defense, transition, and a 41-year-old's legs logging 34 minutes in October because the moment asked for them.
Oklahoma City's sacrifice was a summer. You do not hold the most unguardable player alive to one made field goal by accident; Holmgren shadowed Wembanyama possession after possession, rejecting switches, choosing the hardest assignment in basketball every trip down the floor.
And the defeated paid the champion's tax. New York's price was the party: rings in the afternoon, humility by midnight. San Antonio's was the memory of June, the Spurs learned that the team they eliminated has been circling this date for months.
THE RECEIPT
- Both finalists lose
- Ring night spoiled at MSG
- OKC repays a spring debt
SCOREBOARD
Philadelphia trailed at halftime, 58-54, then closed the third quarter on an 11-0 run capped by Maxey's three at the horn. Maxey finished with 28 points, five assists, three steals and three blocks. Jaylen Brown, in his Sixers debut, added 19 points, eight rebounds and six assists; Joel Embiid had 13 points, 11 rebounds and six assists.
NOTE 1
New York shot 37.2 percent. Brunson scored 21 but made only 6 of 19. Karl-Anthony Towns managed 19 points in just 24 minutes, buried in foul trouble in the first half, though he scored 10 in the fourth as the Knicks cut it to four late. Philadelphia outran them: 24 fast-break points.
NOTE 2
In San Antonio, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, the two-time reigning MVP, scored a game-high 32 as the Thunder led by 21 at halftime, 65-44. The Spurs stormed the third quarter 36-28 and made it a fight, but the hole was the story. Wembanyama: 12 points, 13 rebounds, six blocks, and that 1-of-13 from the field, 0-of-4 from three. Jared McCain hit six threes off the Thunder bench. The second quarter turned chippy: De'Aaron Fox drew a flagrant for throwing Chet Holmgren to the floor, and four technicals followed, including one on Wembanyama.
THE VOICES
Yeah, I do. It's pretty special.
I'm really happy to come here and get a win. They're a hell of a team, and when I wake up tomorrow, I'll probably forget about it.
All throughout game we looked like we were running in the mud.
76ers coach Nick Nurse kept it dry.
"It's encouraging," Nurse said. "I'm really happy to come here and get a win. They're a hell of a team, and when I wake up tomorrow, I'll probably forget about it."
Knicks coach Mike Brown was blunter about the champions.
"All throughout game we looked like we were running in the mud," Brown said. "You can't shoot 42% from the paint while turning ball over and getting beat in transition."
Then the old wonder, asked on the broadcast if he enjoys winning on an opponent's ring night.
"Yeah, I do," James said. "It's pretty special."
And later: "It's about winning, just trying to make plays to win. I'm very familiar with every scenario that this game has offered. Blessed to be able to play still at this level, and blessed to be able to play in this building, too. This building is so special, so it's fun."
THE TAKE
FINAL VERDICTOne October night does not dethrone anybody, and both losers will be standing in May. But opening night told the truth about what a championship actually buys you: nothing portable. The banner hangs; the target paints itself.
The Knicks and Spurs spent June as the last two teams standing. They spent opening night as the two teams everybody circled, a 41-year-old chasing history in a new jersey, and a young empire in Oklahoma City repaying a debt with interest. And here is the part worth carrying: what beat the champions was not talent. It was preparation meeting memory. Philadelphia and Oklahoma City played like teams that had been thinking about this night for months. The champions played like teams still thinking about June.
The season is 82 games long. The crown, it turns out, has to be re-earned on every single one of them.
Andre D. Williams
More than the final score. DRE'S TAKE: the story behind the performance.
Credits: Quotes, LeBron James via USA TODAY, New York Post, and NBC Sports; Nick Nurse via CNN; Mike Brown via USA TODAY. Knicks 106-100 loss and box via Sportradar and NBC Sports; Thunder 116-104 win and Wembanyama line via Sportradar, theScore, and Bleacher Report. Ring night and Finals frame via People, CNN, and New York Post. WCF Game 7 context via Bleacher Report, SI, and The Oklahoman.
Share
Related stories
See all →
The DRE'S TAKE Newsletter
More than the final score.
Get the stories, interviews, and perspectives behind the performance.