Banner Night, a Game 7 Rematch and a Tuesday Matinee: NBA Opening Night Preview

The NBA season starts at 2 p.m. Central on a Tuesday, which means a lot of people in Detroit and Boston are about to come down with something.

(I’m not telling you to call in sick. I’m just telling you the Celtics and Pistons tip off at 2.)

It’s a tripleheader on NBC and Peacock: Celtics at Pistons in the afternoon, Sixers at Knicks at 6 Central and Thunder at Spurs at 8:30. All three are worth your time, and one of them is the game everybody’s going to be watching.

Sixers at Knicks

The Knicks are the defending champions. I’m still getting used to typing that. They beat the Spurs in five games in June for the franchise’s first title since 1973, and tonight they raise the banner and get their rings at Madison Square Garden. Then they play LeBron James’s final team. (He’s 41, he’s on a two-year deal and Philadelphia is his fourth NBA city, so I feel comfortable calling it.)

This Sixers roster is loaded. Philadelphia added LeBron and Jaylen Brown, who came over from Boston in the biggest trade of the summer, to a group that already had Tyrese Maxey, Joel Embiid and VJ Edgecombe, who’s only in his second season and already really good. If Embiid can stay healthy, that’s a scary team. They can light up a scoreboard, and a lot of those guys are pretty good defensively, too.

The Knicks still have the clutch man. Jalen Brunson was the Finals MVP, and he’s the guy you want with the ball at the end of a close game. All five starters are back. The loss that matters is Mitchell Robinson, who signed with Boston, and that one stings on defense. Andre Drummond is the replacement. But New York still has Brunson, Karl-Anthony Towns and OG Anunoby, and if it can keep defending at a high level and still put the ball in the hoop, it’s going to be a really good team again.

Thunder at Spurs

Shout out to the NBA for this one. The last time these teams met, San Antonio won Game 7 of the Western Conference finals 111-103 in Oklahoma City, then lost the Finals to the Knicks. The rematch is opening night in San Antonio.

People love to hate on the Thunder, and the go-to line is that Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is a free-throw merchant. Come on. Shai is a bucket getter. Yes, he gets the benefit of some calls. He also averaged 31.1 points a game last season on better than 55 percent shooting, the first guard in NBA history to average 30 that efficiently, and won his second straight MVP. Take three points a night off for the whistle if it makes you feel better. He’s still a 28-point scorer who can get a bucket any time he wants.

This season he’s chasing a third straight MVP, which only Bill Russell, Wilt Chamberlain and Larry Bird have done. The favorite to stop him will be on the other bench tonight.

Victor Wembanyama is the MVP favorite at +210 at DraftKings, with Shai next at +350, and I think this is his year. He’s going to carry the Spurs, and I don’t mean that as a knock on the roster. San Antonio has real players around him in Stephon Castle and Dylan Harper, and it added Tobias Harris this summer. Wemby is just going to be the best player on the floor in every game he plays.

Celtics at Pistons

Don’t sleep on the matinee.

Boston looks totally different. Brown is gone. Paul George, Mitchell Robinson and Mike Conley are in. And Jayson Tatum is back. He returned from his torn Achilles late last season and played 22 games, counting the playoffs, but this is the first season since the injury that he’s good to go from day one.

Detroit is the team I’m watching closest. The Pistons won 60 games last season and took the East’s No. 1 seed. Then the playoffs happened. They had to come back from 3-1 down to beat Orlando in the first round, and they lost Game 7 at home to Cleveland in the second round, 125-94, with Cade Cunningham going 5 of 16. There were stretches all spring where scoring points was tough sledding.

Now there’s a lot of new money in that locker room. Jalen Duren signed a five-year, $200 million deal this month, Ausar Thompson’s extension is reportedly worth about $155 million over five years, Kevin Huerter re-signed and John Collins came over. The Pistons have the playoff experience now, too. This is the year they have to make a push. They need to defend better than they did in May, and they need to get past the dry spells that sank them.

New jerseys

The other big storylines are guys in new uniforms. Giannis Antetokounmpo plays for the Heat now, after 13 seasons in Milwaukee, and it’s going to be strange to see him in that jersey. LaMelo Ball is in Minnesota next to Anthony Edwards, and that’s a dangerous team.

Both teams made good moves. Both got better, and both are going to be a lot more fun to watch. I just don’t know if it gets them over the hump. Put either one in a seven-game series against the Thunder, who are super deep, or the Spurs, who have the best game wrecker in basketball, or this Sixers team with that starting five, and I can’t pick Miami or Minnesota.

The betting market agrees with me. As of last week, the Thunder were +240 to win the title and the Spurs were +270, with the Sixers and Knicks at +1000. Minnesota was +2700 and Miami +3000.

So clear your afternoon. Clear your evening, too. Feel better soon.