NBA Opening Night Breakdown

the league. Of course, I talked about Draymond Green's idiotic documentary that he decided to drop right before a ring night, just when the team's try to get over the fact that I don't know you touched your fucking teammate in the mouth. Anyway, lot's to go over, Nick, So just go ahead and drop that motherfucking bea. We are so back, baby, Oh my god, we are back. And boy did opening night deliver. As an aside, why the fuck were the

Lakers playing on Opening Night? I try to tell y'all and the Sixers, that's fine, But where were the Milwaukee Bucks in all of this? The disrespect to Yannis is getting egregious. The disrespect till Milwaukee is getting egregious.

We had all wait about what seven minutes? Eight minutes, be honest, like one minute before the world knew what I already knew and was shouting from the highest rooftops for the last I don't know two years now, what are the Lakers doing? What are they up to? What is this team? It don't make no damn sense? And the delusional fan base hate to see it on Twitter kept me from my sleep. I was enjoying the timeline so much. The Twitter fan base for the Lakers is

currently in shambles. Shambles at night Shamble's first thing. In the morning, reality came crashing hard, folks. It just I've literally never seen any fan base come to terms that the season was over as fast as this Laker fan base has. It was not even halftime, folks, and they were like, all right, that's enough for me, SpongeBob emoji, I'm a head out. And for everybody waking up on the East coast at nine am, people were already cooking

the Lakers barbecued chicken. Just you have the East Coast cooking them up on the grill, and then you wake up on the West coast just in time for those barbecued Laker thighs to just be ready for your plate to consume them. This team's fucking bad. This team is trash. They won thirty three games last year, and I tell you what, they're worse than then. I actually don't hate to see it. They did nothing to improve this team's weaknesses. They can't defend, which they couldn't do last year. Why'd

they give up Alex Crusoe. Why why'd they give up Kyle Kuzma? Why why'd they give up KCP? Why? Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, Russell Westbrook. I forgot he was supposed to be the panacea. But they can't defend, they cannot shoot, they cannot score. Those are all the most integral things for a basketball team to be able to do. But hey, we had to see it for our own two eyes before we understood what was going on, what time it was. This is not a title contender. This is not a playoff team.

Let me say it again, this is not a playoff team. This team won thirty three games last year, and I think they might win thirty one or thirty two this year. Because why even with teams trying to tank like Sacramento, or even with teams trying to tank like excuse me, san Antonio, not Sacramento. Even with teams trying to tank like Utah, you think they're gonna try to tank against the Lakers. Fuck No, everyone hates the Lakers anyway, I'm getting too excited. I'm getting ahead of myself. I've got

a full on breakdown of why the Lakers snink. Just hold on a second. Let's talk about Ring Knight for a second. Bowling shirts that I tried to buy on eBay or NBA dot com. Those are sick. I want that. I want that white and gold bowling shirt. They should wear those all the time. That should be the Warriors warm up suit the entire year. Just show that you've won, you're the chance as you've got the Laryo on the side of your shirt, like, yeah, we're the fucking men

right now. Emotions, tears running down. Everyone's there. They're bringing out the director of Player Finance Operations, who knows who she was, but she got some shine. Adam Silver's there, Peter Gruber is there. All the peeps, even people who aren't even on rosters are there, like Quin Dairy Witherspoon showing up in street clothes, getting his popcorn ready, collecting his hardware, you know, sitting down and enjoying the fact

that he can only watch basketball. I digress. It was a whole thing, whole thing, and so I was thinking about it, and I was like, what did Jalen Rose say? Jalen Rose said, the fact that the Warriors did not suspend Draymond Green meant that they were soft and that they weren't gonna win the title and that things were gonna come crashing down. I actually posit this, If the Warriors would have suspended Draymond Green for Ring night, that would have been the end. That would have been the

end of the chapter of this dynasty. That would have been the thing that broke the fabric of this Warrior's

team down. Because if you stole that moment from Draymond one of the key pieces of this franchise and dynasty for the last god knows how long, And you took that away for a good reason, but not a good enough reason enough, right, he can't really move on and heal if a key piece of your team is sitting watching the rest of his brothers aka Quin Darry Witherspoon get his fucking ring and Draymond Green has to have his FedEx to him, sir, No, no, no, we can't

have that. That would have been a disaster. So I'm glad they didn't suspend him, But we got to talk about this fucking documentary he produced. What were we doing? Baby? I love Draymond Green. I'm like the only Draymond Green fan left on Earth. I think he's a good dude. I like him. Has obviously a little anger issues he's sorting through, but I like him. I'm a fan of Draymond. I think he's worthwhile to this team and keeping him around is very important. But god damn, that documentary was

just so tone deaf. For a guy who knows all about media and how narratives are created and shaped, he was so off to try to put out what was that? Did you? If you haven't seen it, pause, pause this podcast, go click watch the seven minute come back. If you're back now you know what I'm talking about. That narrator? Who was that all state narrator? Welcome to Welcome to

Draymond Green's universe. Like, what was that? The way that it was all dramatic in the back and in the front lighting and the ring light and Draymond's eyes, like, the whole thing was so I hate to say the word because makes me feel icky, but it was cringe. It was cringe. It was something. First of all, this is what Draymond said by addressing the punch. I never really knew how much it blew up. I was just at home chilling with my children. And then he had

the b roll in the biz. That's what we call the video that he puts on top of his audio and it's him and his kids playing, Oh cute, Draymond. Draymond's a father. Oh, let's all circle around. He's a sweet man. Be serious, Draymond said he was watching the tape fifteen times. You don't know how much it blew up? Oh serious, talking to me. Nobody knows what's going on more than Draymond Green. That is just flat out bullshit propaganda. And I mean that sincerely, with no shade. Draymond is

trying to control the narrative and he is failing. Everyone has turned against him except for me. Draymond. He check is a safe space for you to get your feelings out. If you ever want to come on to the I don't even know. If I'm old media or new media, I can't tell. But if you ever want to come on medium media, that's what I am, sort of nouveau media, come on in. He has friends that would alert him. By the way, Hey, shit's go a viral. Draymond Layer,

shit low, lay low. The filmmakers even made this dramatic account of Draymond Green on a peloton, probably in his apartment, gym or condo, Jim with his towels and his weights and a water bottle and Draymond Green has no time to waste four days until opening nights and you see him on his I don't even know if he took the peloton class. He wasn't sweating that badly. But anyway, why was he away from the team, I don't know, Because he punched his fucking team in the face. They

even said he was exiled. He was exiled, folks, stop it. I should they should hire me. I always wonder when people make decisions, like, did you guys have anyone who could tell you, no, this is not a good idea. Did anybody in the room have any kajones to say, hey, this is gonna be worse as a result of you putting this out. Also, the whole team's trying to move on. They said, all of them have said this. Steve Kerr has said this, Draymond h Jordan Poole has said this,

Clay has said this, Steph has said this. We're all just trying to move on. We all want to stop thinking about this punch, talking about this punch. We all just want to just get our rings fucking move past us. So what does Draymond Green do? Put out a documentary explaining the whole thing, how he thinks it's actually a good thing that we saw him in his worst moments, because there's an upside to that, Draymond Green, No one

wants to do this. Right now, we're trying to watch Steph Curry work on his new dream Shape post move, which he executed to perfection. Steph's dreamshake absolutely electric. If you haven't seen that, go google that. The entire video was a debacle. Jordan Pool. After the game, they asked them, Hey, was there any healing that's taking place between you and Draymond? His quote fairy telling we went out there. We had a job to do to win a game. Sounds like

it's still fresh, sounds like the wounds haven't healed. I got bit by a a Viishla about three days ago on my arm. That wound has healed faster and I can still see it on my arm right now. That wound has healed faster than Draymond Green and Jordan Pool's wounds. They also played a basketball game, so let's talk about that. It was a game. It was a game. The Warriors put the league on notice. Dub Nation where we at had gold blooded. The Warriors gonna win it again, folks.

I hate to tell people who are not lifelong Dub fans like me, they are gonna win it all again. Unfortunately for the rest of the league it is scary hours. They put on a clinic, a defensive clinic against a team. Truthfully that it's not really mattering because they can't score or shoot, but it was it was something they swarmed, They switched. They suplexed the Lakers into submission. They sagged off them because they know let them shoot. Let them shoot.

These boys can't shoot the three feet off the three point line. They're packing the paint offensively. They looked amazing. They just felt like they were already in regular season four. None of the russ that we would expect from a team happened. They felt like we had just seen them win the championship, and then two days later the season began for the Lakers. It's just more of the same.

It showed two major things. One announced in big bold Lakers, big bold letters, excuse me that the Warriors are going to be They're gonna win it all. They're gonna be hard out. You gotta come with your best shit. That team should be the West favorites than they are. This is the best defense in the West. And they showed that Wiggins was a monster. Looney was the rock in which the defense was built on. Wiseman is disciplined. Now on defense, I saw a defensive possession with him where

he stayed straight up. He was completely locked in. He didn't do anything too crazy, and you know what possession over for the Lakers. Out into transition, we go sprinting like thoroughbreds. Steph was out there showing why he is the only player ever to lead the NBA in steels and not make the team First Team All Defense, and it was sick. And you can say, well, Trista, this is the Lakers, So what does it matter really, how can we really gauge how good the Warriors defense really is?

Have a point. It was the Lakers and we will get to that. But now it's still a team that has shown they have no rust. They showed off all the things that you need to do to win a championship, all the things they did lash Well, yes it was the Lakers, but they've also just won a title, hence the ring night. Here's the scary part. I think they're better. I think this team is actually better than last year. Moses Moody didn't see a ton of him, but I

think he's gonna take a step. James Wiseman looked good. Kaminga look meh, but I think he'll progress. They have Dante DiVincenzo looked amazing. This second unit is going to be ridiculous. If you hate the Warriors. I guess you're only solace is you don't really have one. Honestly, other teams have gotten better, but they've they other team to beat as good as the Warriors were, Let's be honest. The thing that was most most impressive, most exciting, most

delicious was how bad the Lakers were. People. It was fucking, absolutely priceless. Rob Palinka creating the masterpiece, the Mona Lisa of how bad can you fuck up? One of the greatest player players in our generation? The greatest player since Michael Jordan? How bad can you fuck up? His legacy? If he tried? It gets pretty bad. It's really bad. This is a Titanic and it's already started to sink, but somehow everybody's just still playing the banjo fingerprints all

over this thing. And yet yet, yet he gets an extension in this offseason after the offseason he had which was pretty much signing Patrick Beverley or trading for Patrick Beverly. I don't even recall what the terms were, but it's terrible. The Lakers are so much worse, and you know what, I love it, but by a far margin. The thing that makes me sad is that Lebron James is getting wasted. Even healthy ish, this team is getting their doors blown

off by any good team in the NBA. They signed a bunch of youngsters after signing every player thirty five and older. Polinka's bold offseason decision. All the thirty five year olds that we hated, like Carmelo Anthony, Let's replace him with undrafted rookies like Scottie Pippen Jr. Austin Reeves. Let's add Patrick Beverly into the mix. For some you're just like a little spicy. Just put a little spicy

on top of these rookies. Kendrick Nunn. He's back healthy again, So now we can really evaluate these Lakers guys, like, what did you expect to happen? I don't know. Westbrook came off the bench for the first time in his career in the preseason. He ends up getting the start tonight, and yet that didn't make no sense. It was Russell Westbrook, Patrick Beverly, Lonnie Walker, Braun at the and ad at the five. And then of course he's nursing a hamstring injury.

Russell Westbrook and says to the world with a dead straight face that Darvin Ham's decision to bring him off the bench in the last preseason game probably is what hurt his hamstring. That is absolute lunacy. If you're hoping though that the Lakers are getting a reprieve after this, I don't know, like play the Pistons or the Thunderspurs or the Utah Jazz. Like who do they get next? Checks notes? Oh a Clippers, Clippers next. Where there are

wings Lonnie Walker and Austin Reeves. That is their wings that I just hate to tell you. They're gonna be saddled with the task of trying to defend Kawhi Leonard and Paul George. That is going to be a blood bath. Shooting wise in this game, one for ten from three in the first half is that bad? I feel like that's bad. Way though ageless Lebron James kept them within ten and then the third quarter that was the one that was really telling for me. Wheels of course fall off,

as we might expect, the inevitable occurs. The Warriors outscore the Lakers by twenty by twenty thirty two twelve, and before you know it, Lebron James has on his hands a full on fire, looks at his head, puts his hands on it. Staring up at a twenty seven point deficit. They are two for twenty from three. This team sucks. At one point they were two for twenty. That's probably what they'll shoot moving forward, maybe three for twenty. Good job.

When asked about it after the game, Lebron James said.

bunch of forty plus career three point shooting guys. I mean, it looked like a football team, you know, if like, you know, you had a football analogy and you had a bunch of guys that was underneath route runners and you're wondering why the quarterback is not throwing twenty plus it passes down the field. Okay, you know that's that's how the team was constructed. So that don't mean you can't win. Brady did it?

think I'm gonna set alarms. Little Hey, Siri, let me know when Lebron James goes and gives another press conference. I am not shocked that this team is bad, but why. What I am shocked about is that not enough people are asking why Polenka got an extension, like he is responsible for his dumpster fire. First, he replaced seventy five percent of a roster that no one wanted last year with a bunch of players that no one wants this year. How bad was last year's roster? Oh? I don't know.

They're currently nine players nine count them nine players who were on the Laker roster last year who have yet to have a team right now. That is absurd. Might I remind you this season has started, it is now in motion. Look at this year's team. We have guys like Wenyan Gabriel and he actually played solid five six minutes last night Whenyan Gabriel got It's not rocket science, folks. If Wenyan Gabriel is getting real minutes on your team,

you've got problems. You've got a guy named Matt Ryan on your team, and I'm not talking about the washed Colts. I'm talking about a guy that even Celtics fans forgot about, and he was a Celtic. You've got Scottie Pippen junior, who's a nice player, fine young player. He is not getting you anywhere. You got Cole Swider. Is it Sweiter or Sweeter? I think it's Swider. But the fact that I don't know his last name tells you everything you need to know. Right This isn't like knowing Ben Mathern.

If you don't know his last name, I don't know what to tell you. And secondly, how are people not outraged that Rob Polenka is literally destroying Lebron James's career. The last part of Lebron's career, he has been just on the brink. He hasn't made the playoffs. Now what three out of the five years that Lebron James has played. Okay, so you won a title once, you missed the playoffs your first year, you missed last year, You're not gonna

make it this year? And what you were a playing team and somehow snuck your way into playing the Phoenix Suns and losing in the first round in twenty twenty one. That is a disaster. We could legitimately see a scenario, and we'll talk about this more. We could legitimately see a scenario where Lebron James never makes it to the

playoffs again in his career. Think about that, after everything that he did for Cleveland with that dogshit roster, and then the sort of rain that he had in Miami, then what he did in Cleveland again to then go to La, Man, the sun in La will get you forgetting everything about your life. The sun in La will get you figuring like ambition doesn't matter anymore. Strive for greatness. What I'm striving for? Vitamin D, Baby, I don't need to go to the playoffs like I am a multi billionaire.

This is absolutely insane. Lebron is a time machine and I really mean it. He wore the homage to his draft day white suit and made it look better than it did two decades ago. Oh my god. He was the best player on the floor last night against the defending NBA champions and he's not even gonna go to the playoffs. They might not even be a play in team this year. Think about that, and why is Rob Polinka extended? Why is his job security on lock? Braun

deserves better than this man. They don't have any first round draft picks because of the Ad trade, and much like the Puff Daddy Tour of nineteen ninety eight, there is no way out, folks, There is no way out. Moving on, because I could do this all day talk about the Lakers and how sad it is. Let's talk about the Sixers and the Celtics, because that game was elite, like the product on the floor, elite. The Sixers and the Celtics squared off, and what was Joe Mizula's first

game coaching since e May got deep sixth. The game was phenomenal. Both teams showing at points why people are tapping them to lead the East. Who is going to get the most regular seasons wins. I was very shocked how good the Celtics looked, and at times I was like, Okay, I get why they're still considered the best team in all of basketball. From Las Vegas perspective, here's the good.

Starting in Boston, the team didn't look like they missed debate whoo the fact, despite the fact the emy Udoka got shit canned, Let's be honest, he's not coming back. Before the preseason started, Jason Tatum looks like he's on a mission, declaring to the athletic that his sole goal

is to win a championship. Then he goes out puts up seventy fantasy points thirty five points real life in opening night, blocks, steals, transition buckets, tough and ones, tough, lays jump shot after jump shot, and here's what should send shiffs down the spine of other teams. Even without Rob Williams, their best defensive player, this team played really good defense against Joel Embiid and a very potent offense

team called the Sixers. Looked offense like just looked awesome for long stretches, they have swarming, deflecting passes, they can switch everything on defense. Still, they're very long. They can disrupt a very good Sixers team that makes tough shot after tough shot, and I think we can expect this

defensive intensity moving forward. But to me, where it was very exciting was the offense, especially when you're point guard as Marcus mart Boston shot fifty percent in their first half, then came out of the break and shot fifty seven percent in the second half to take a tight game and make it a very comfortable win. The thing that impresses me the most this team doesn't have Danella Gallinari for the year. This team is missing Rob Williams. They've

got issues, and they still look pretty deep. They can run out a second unit. They can put the ball in the hole, unlike last year. I like Malcolm Brogden if he can stay healthy. He needs some seasoning, but with Tatum making a big leap forward Brown being underrated, you can kind of flex him in and out with the second unit. I think this team can score with just about anybody and with a very long, stingy defense. When Rob Williams comes back, my lord, they don't seem

to care about Emai Udoka's suspension. They look very very good. Philly's very good too, just not as good as Boston. That's pretty much it. I don't know how that changes. The good for the Sixers was the offense really? James Harden looks good, very good. He put on a masterpiece. He looked like Houston Harden again, Big nights from big, big game James. He is going to be aggressive all

year long. The assists will come, of course, but he's going to score thirty again, and that's exciting for Sixers fans. He's aggressive, he looks lean, he's shooting the lights out, he's getting the free throw line, vintage James Harden, and Bed looked like he was in mid season for him. I'm not talking about him falling on every possession. I'm just talking about him consistently being that guy, double digit rebounds, double digit points, being able to do whatever he wants

on the floor. So there was a lot to like about Philly's offense, which cooked an elite Boston defense. But defensively, they've got a lot that is leaving to be desired. Philly is just something else defensively, and if PJ Tucker can't defend because he looks like he's a bit I don't want to say wash, but he looks like a bit like some is lost on his step. They took advantage of the Sixers. The Celtics did. They shot over

fifty percent from the field for the entire game. The Celtics put up one hundred and twenty seven points on the Sixers, and a lot of it, you have to say is on PJ. Tucker, who I love. He cannot be expected to be the type of perimeter defender that Ben Simmons was. An AVI wolfman arrant. I think that's how you say it. He said it best on Twitter. This game was begging for a switchable center to take the Celtics out of their rhythm. Sixers have two options

on the roster. Neither played a minute at the five. That can't happen in the playoffs. This is gonna be a very good regular season team. How good they're gonna be in the playoffs? I think that depends. Do they have to face the six Do they have to face the Celtics, do they have to face I don't know, a team like the Bucks. Well, I have to see they were getting abs so loutly cooked, and it was

a great game. The scary thing about the Celtics is they were getting cooked by the Sixers and you look up and a lead that was four turns out to be twenty and you don't know how it's happening, because James Harden just put up six quick buckets and somehow the lead got extended. That's what they're gonna do this year, folks. Four point leads will turn into twenty point leads before you know it, because that's what happens when you have a team that can put their clamps on whenever they want.

You got guys like Tatum and Brown who can get out in the block, They can block you, they can get out into the transition. They can make tough lays. There's also a little tussle I don't know if you guys saw this between Embiid and Marcus Smart, and Bid grabbed Marcus of Smart's arm. The two fell to the ground, and then Smart grabbed Joel and Bead's leg. Joel Embiid flops to the ground like he was playing, you know,

for his favorite team. Man you. Smart was not happy after the game, though, Marcus Smart said publicly I could have cracked his head open if I wanted to. What does that mean that? I mean it feels like something that would receive a you know, Marcus Smart documentary after and just a four day exile. I think there's a real deal rivalry bruin here though, between Marcus Smart and Joel embiid things I would love to see. So yeah,

Opening night massive success. Both games delivered for different reasons. We'll get into a ton of lead of news from around the league tomorrow, but I do want to cover just a couple of quick stories. One Grant Williams absolutely bald last night after not getting his contract extension from the Celtics. He went five or five for fifteen points

in just twenty four minutes. He was not offered the rookie scale contract extension, which is a little odd considering that he was a pretty important piece for the Celtics last year. Other players who were not extended by their teams include you'll probably guess some of these, Kobe White number seventh pick in the twenty nineteen draft, Jackson Hayes, the number eight pick in the twenty nine teen draft, Ruey Yacchi Murrow number nine pick in the twenty nineteen draft.

Cam Reddish the number ten pick. I mean, we're starting to get We're starting to get a little bit of a pattern. Are we not? Ten pick in twenty nineteen? Cam Johnson the eleventh pick in twenty nineteen. PJ. Washington the twelve pick in the twenty nineteen draft. Matis Thible, number twenty in the twenty nineteen draft. Holy shit, number seven through number twelve. What a disaster. All of these teams are feeling like maybe we made the wrong decisions.

A lot of good players, young good players on that list. I'll put up a TikTok asking who surprised you the most on this list? But also moving forward, a little news out of TNT. Good news in terms of extensions. Charles Barkley looks like he's gonna get extension. He's gonna get paid ten years, one hundred million dollars. No more talk about him leaving the Live Tour. Thought it was hilarious though. He came on and said pretty sure, I'm

not going to fulfill the entire length of that contract. Like, I don't think I'm putting in ten more years. That's exciting, very fun. They've got me locked down. I can't do anything else. But I don't think I'm gonna stother ten. He as old as fuck love him, wish he does stay another ten and greed does lead the way. Charles Barkley takes every opportunity that he can get if they pay enough, so we'll have to see. I love Chuck Barkley being involved in TNT for the foreseeable future. This

is a good stuff. This is good stuff. Keeping the band together is important, So hats off to Ernie and Shaq and Kenny and Chuck for all getting in the bag continuing to have the best product in the NBA in terms of a show. But we have to go. That is all the time that we have for the Heat Check. We'll be back tomorrow with a new episode. Will we recap the opener and more news ton of teams as well as getting deep into this tee that's brewing.

So follow us on the heat Check. Please do not forget to download, subscribe, Please tell your friends, every single one of them, and follow us on socialide at this heat check and Trista Criek on TikTok. Thanks again, We'll see you next time.