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Top NBA Matchups and Picks for Opening Week
It’s #KiaTipOff17 Week! pic.twitter.com/mBrD5XkA3z
— NBA (@NBA) October 16, 2017
Tuesday, October 17
Boston at Cleveland (8:00pm ET, TNT)
This rematch of the Eastern Conference Finals — which the Cavaliers won by a 4-1 margin — will take place after the two starting point guards have switched teams, as Kyrie Irving will now wear Celtic green, and Isaiah Thomas will take the floor in a Celtics’ uniform. In addition to Thomas, the Cavaliers also picked up Ante Zizic and Jae Crowder in the deal. So even though Thomas’ hip won’t quite be ready for action, the Cavaliers did get more pieces out of the deal. The challenge for Cleveland will be on defense. In 2016-17, they ranked #21 in the NBA in defensive rating (110.3). They also didn’t get much scoring out of their bench (29.1 points per game, good for #28 in the league). Their rebounding (11.5 per game, #29) and assists per game (5.1, #30) also could use some work. So where did that 51-31 record come from? Their offense is dynamic — they scored 110.3 points per game, good for #4 in the NBA, and their offensive rating (113.6) was #3. LeBron James led the team in scoring with 26.4 points per game and despite some injury woes in the pre-season, I expect King James to be ready for that rematch with Boston. Despite finishing with the top seed in the East after last year’s regular season, the Celtics have made major changes. Along with Thomas, Avery Bradley is out, and along with Irving, Gordon Hayward is in via free agency. Despite finishing ahead of Cleveland in the regular season, the playoffs showed that Boston simply did not have the offense to keep up with the Cavaliers once the game sped up. Isaiah Thomas led the team in points and assists — can Irving do just as well, or even better? Marcus Smart will still be there to pick opposing guards’ pockets, and Al Horford will still be inside to control the boards. I see Cleveland opening the season in a bit of a funk — they’ve lost Irving, and they lost a tumultuous Finals. They don’t have the centerpiece of the trade on their end (Thomas), and their leader is not going to be playing at 100%. On the other side, I expect Boston to come in fully primed and motivated — and I see them winning a 104-101 thriller. NBA Betting Pick: Boston CelticsHouston at Golden State (10:30pm ET, TNT)
The Houston Rockets took a major step last year — and their thanks for that was an exit in the second round of the NBA playoffs. They won 55 games, as James Harden & Company transformed from an offense-only team to a team that played solid defense and had the discipline to rebound. The addition of Chris Paul to the roster raised as many questions as it answered, though. Why would you add an elite point guard to a roster that already had one in Harden? How will the duo operate within the same offense? Given that Harden and Rockets coach Kevin McHale are already sparring publicly, this could be a tumultuous season in the Rockets’ locker room.
the Warriors as a team headed for that sort of entropy. Draymond Green, last year’s Defensive Player of the Year, returns to anchor a team that was underrated in the perceptions that people had about their ability to stop opposing teams. People think about video-game speed on offense when they think about Golden State — as their league-leading 115.9 points per game last year would seem to support. However, it was the interior defense that Kevin Durant added, as well as Green’s tendency to grab the right steal at the right time, that got the key stops that made the Warriors’ title run as ruthless as it was. I see Houston as coming in with some disrepair, while the Warriors seem rested and ready to start another season. I predict a final score of Golden State 120, Houston 109.
NBA Betting Pick: Golden State 