Wemby Wednesday

Good Morning! We finished with day 2 of the NBA season, we had some big numbers put up last night and of course, we’ve got DRAMA! Mix in a little NFL and we’ve got ourselves a nice Thursday.

We’re not going to deep dive into each story too much today(that’s probably a little untrue). We’re keeping it light today because we’ve got the World Series starting tomorrow and you know we’re talking football through Monday.

NBA Day 2

Boston Celtics _^(1-0) 108 | NY Knicks _^(0-1) 104

🏀 The Boston Celtics came out hot in their season opener in New York while the Knicks struggled to make some interior shots on their home court at MSG

🏀 The Celtics had the lead for most of the game and at some points, the lead was as high as 12. The Knicks made a good effort in the 4th and led 101-95 with 3:39 to go. The Celtics would go on a 13-3 run to close out the game and spoil the Knicks home opener.

📈 Kristaps Porzingis had a memorable night against the team that drafted him. Porzingis had 30 points, 8 rebounds, and 4 blocks. He was 5-9 from 3-point land. Jayson Tatum jumped right back in where he left off last year scoring 34 points and grabbing 11 boards.

📈RJ Barrett led the Knicks with 24 points and Immanuel Quickly came off the bench for 24. Julius Randle(14 pts) and Jalen Brunson (15 pts) both struggled to finish at the rim.

Dallas Mavericks 126 _^(1-0) | San Antonio Spurs _^(0-1) 119

🏀 It was Victor Wembanyama’s NBA debut last night for the San Antonio Spurs and things went pretty much how we expected. Wembanyama showed off his shooting range by hitting three 3-pointers. He grabbed 5 rebounds and blocked a shot. He finished with 15 points but he only played 23 minutes. It wasn’t a load management keeping him on the bench, it was foul trouble. Wembanyama apparently put on 18 pounds since he was drafted but you can tell he was still getting used to the speed and physicality in the opener. Many of his fouls came when was trying to defend drives to the rim and he was slightly out of position. Wemby did lead a run late in the 4th quarter but it ultimately came up short. Overall, it was a promising opener for the 19-year-old.

📈The Spurs had a good team effort last night with 7 guys scoring double-digit points.

📈 Luka Doncic led the Mavs with a triple-double (33 points, 10 assists, 13 reb) and had some clutch shots at the end of the game. Kyrie Irving scored 22 and Tim Hardaway Jr. came off the bench and scored 17.

Trouble In Chicago_^(Already) 

Oklahoma City Thunder _^(1-0) 124 | Chicago Bulls _^(0-1) 104

🏀 Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, a top 5 scorer in the league last year, came to play in the first game of the season. SGA was 12-18 from the field and finished with 31 points in a routing of the Chicago Bulls. Chet Holmgren played in his first NBA game after sitting out last year with a football injury. Holmgren finished with 11 points.

📈The Thunder had double-digit points from 6 dudes and were able to spread out some minutes

📉 Demar DeRozan was the leading scorer for the Bulls with 20 points but it was enough. The Bulls led 35-33 at the end of the first but would only double their point total over the next 3 periods. Once the Thunder’s SGA started rolling, the Bulls didn’t have an answer. Chicago held a players-only meeting in the locker room to discuss their opening game failures. The Bulls brought back their top players from last year with the expectation of winning so I guess it’s a good thing that the players care and didn’t just write it off as a first-game snafu.

Check out the full scoreboard from last night.

Thursday Night Football

Tampa Bay Buccaneers @ Buffalo Bills

📺️ Gametime 8:15 pm ET on PRIME Video

🏈I’m not sure if this is a good TNF game or not. The Bucs have lost two in a row, the Bills are a shell of the team they could be. Are we going to Josh Allen or his twin brother tonight? Who knows!

👀 The Bills offense hasn’t been great since putting up 48 points on the Dolphins. They looked abysmal against the NY Giants and the same against the Pats last week. The Bucs’ defense is letting up the 6th fewest points per game and they are #1 in preventing red zone touchdowns. Of course, the only two good offenses the Bucs have played are the Eagles and the Lions.

👀 Bucs QB Baker Mayfield has been playing decent and is connecting with Mike Evans and Chris Godwin but the Bucs’ redzone offense is suffering, only scoring TDs on 37.5% of its trips to the redzone. Is that going to change this week? The Bills are dealing with a lot of injuries on defense and Mac Jones torched them last week. If the Patriots can move the ball and score on the Bills, I think the Bucs can too.

💰️ The Bills are giving -8.5 and the O/U is 42.5 Maybe I’m an idiot but the Bills haven’t done enough in the last few weeks to make me think they’ll cover the spread here. I’ll take the Bucs and the over.

What Else Is On Tonight?

College Football

• Syracuse @ Virginia Tech, 7:30 pm ET on ESPN

• Georgia State @ Georgia Southern, 7:30 pm ET on ESPN2

NBA

• Philadelphia 76ers @ Milwaukee Bucks, 7:30 pm ET on TNT

• Phoenix Suns @ LA Lakers, 10 pm ET on TNT

NHL

• Various games on ESPN+, check out the schedule here.

We’ll be back tomorrow with a college football talk and a World Series preview.

Have a day!

-The Daily Breakroom