Last Night In The NBA: The 2018-19 Season Has Arrived
Good morning! I would like to welcome you to the very first Last Night In The NBA blog of the 2018-19 season. From here on out, each and every day, we are here to bring you up to speed on everything you may have missed from the night before in the Association. It’s a wonderful time, where basketball is going to be in our lives essentially every night from now until June. Tons of teams are entering the season with a ton of hype and even more potential, and last night was the first step. Some will say preseason NBA basketball is useless, and in my opinion those people need to be arrested immediately. If by chance you decided to be a normal person and go out and enjoy your Friday night at the bar, here’s everything you missed.
Philadelphia 76ers (1-0) 104 vs Melbourne United 84
Speaking of teams with a ton of hype, the Sixers gave their fans a whole bunch of basketball porn last night. Everything Sixers Twitter was hoping for they got last night and sure maybe it wasn’t against real NBA competition, but I’m not here to nitpick. If you’re a Sixers fan you had a lot of fun last night, because your trio of Fultz/Simmons/Embiid had monster nights. That’s right I said Markelle Fultz, which is exactly where we’ll start
The entire basketball world has been waiting to see the work of Drew Hanlen in an actual game and so far for our first look, pretty damn good. Fultz played 23 minutes, went 6-11 from the field (didn’t attempt a three), had 14/1/4/2/2 and was a +9. All things considered, a pretty perfect debut. His shot looked about as good as you could expect including his little hesi midrange jimbo that was such a killer move for him back at Washington. The defense, while tough to gauge because of who they were playing was still a positive, and nothing you saw leads you to believe he won’t be able to defend against real NBA talent. That chase down block was no joke and something he did a lot in college as well.You saw a lot of the reasons why Fultz was a #1 pick, with his unique size and handle that allows him to get wherever he wants to go, the biggest hurdle for him is clearly the mental aspect of the game. If that’s not going to be a problem, Fultz is going to be really good.
But of course, it doesn’t end there. Of course someone like Ben Simmons would be pumped to play a team like Melbourne, and honestly Simmons picked right up where he left off last season. The creativity, the passing, and the overall filling of the entire stat sheet, it was all there.
26 minutes 4-9 shooting and a near triple double of 8/14/8/2/1 with a team best +19. Sure we may not have learned if there’s been any solve for Simmons against teams that dare him to shoot, but when Sixers talk about that not mattering, this is what they mean. He can impact the game in so many ways, and you always have to account for him when he’s on the floor even without a jumper. The four TOs may have been a little high, but it was a blowout so who really cares.
And finally, there’s Joel Embiid. One of the best young big men in the league for a reason, he flexed a little bit last night to the tune of 20/10 with 2 blocks on 7-11. Made a three and was a solid +17.
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Obviously the United had no real answer in the post, and the big thing is he played 23 minutes and came out clean. As for the rest of the Sixers JJ Redick led the bench with 13 points, but they also got solid showings from TJ McConnell (6/2/2) and Korkmaz (7/7) and as a team they shot an impressive 48%. It gets even better too when you realize they didn’t even shoot that well from deep (6-29) or from the line (16-25). Those things will probably be much better during the regular season, so in theory the Sixers can look even better. They had a great night.
Boston Celtics (0-1) 97 vs Charlotte Hornets (1-0) 104
As always, the full Celtics blog will be up a little later. You realize pageviews are important right? Need all the ones I can get. So instead, just watch Jeremy Lamb and rookie Miles Bridges who were both fairly ridiculous
You could feel those dunks through your computer and I feel like Jeremy Lamb is always someone who kills the Celtics. It’s so random but true. Of teams he’s played at least 11 times which is the number he’s played BOS, he has his second highest scoring average against the Celtics. Ain’t that some shit.
Sadly, these were the only two games last night, but we’re back in action tonight with four games on the docket. Some good matchups like POR/TOR, MIN/GS and then Beijing Ducks/DAL and Perth Wildcats/UTA (?!?!?!?!?). As I always say, feel free to go out and enjoy yourselves tonight, just come back tomorrow morning and I’ll fill you in on everything you missed.