Thursday nights featured 2 western conference games between the Spurs facing the Mavericks and the Nuggets hosting the Thunder
Spurs vs Mavericks Recap and Reaction
The Mavericks and Spurs each opened the 2024-2025 NBA season facing off against each other. This game allowed for Luka Doncic the play with Klay Thompson for the first time since he did not play in any preseason games. Overall, I liked what I saw from both teams let's recap the action that took place in Dallas last night .
The starting lineup for both teams are still a working progress. The Spurs opened with Chris Paul, Julian Champangie, Jeremy Sochan, Harrison Barnes, and Victor Wembanyama. I expect we will see Wembanyama play the center position more often this year after he showed signs last year of being bale to hold up defensively and offensively. I think Popovich wanted to ease him in last year to playing center, but now I think they'll fully lean into Wembanyama playing center. The Spurs will be without Devin Vassell for a little while as he recovers from a stress fracture in his foot suffered towards the end of the season last year. The Mavericks countered with Kyrie Irving, Luka Doncic, Klay Thompson, Daniel Gafford, and PJ Washington. None of the matchups really surprised me, but overall the pace of the game started off well. Each team seemed to be getting used to playing with each for the first, however Klay Thompson fits perfectly next to Luka Doncic. It gives the Mavericks a threat to space the floor. It seems his role with the Mavericks will be much different than it was with the Warriors the first 10+ years of his career. The Warriors often times had the ball moving a lot and player movement as well, but the Mavericks with Doncic will have the ball in his hands more. While this made lead to less shoots for Thompson the quality of these shots will be better for him going forward. The Mavericks defensive intensity seemed to be sustained since last year trade deadline. The Mavericks forced 7 early Spurs turnovers and made the Spurs look very uncomfortable early on. Chris Paul leading the show for the Spurs will be very good though. Paul was able to set the table nicely for everyone involved on the floor. He instilled his veteran presence throughout the opening frame of the game. The first half was played pretty even as the Mavs took a 49-47 lead heading into the break. The Spurs defense did seem to bother the Mavericks shooters. The Mavericks only hit 6 first half threes and really struggled finishing around the basket. This was partly because of Wembanyama's presence around the basket. His length is still unbelievable to watch. The Spurs wanted to post Wembanyama a lot. he was frequently catching the ball around the mid post area and went to work. While the efficiency wasn't great I still liked the looks the Spurs got for Wembanyama. For the Mavericks it was pretty clear their was some familiarity still needing to happen, but that quickly happened. Thompson was able to get going early on as he hit a couple threes in the beginning. It's obvious in the past two seasons Luka has shown a willingness to run more in transition leading to some easier baskets for his teammates. The progression from Lively as a play making has also been noticeable. The Spurs blitzed ball screens leading to Lively needing to short roll more frequently. Last season Lively struggled a little with making decision when his team had the 4 vs 3 advantage, but against the Spurs he showed much more improvement. Harrison Barnes had a nice first half for the Spurs as he put in 14, while the stars were all held under 10 points. The second half saw the Mavericks pick up the defensive intensity leading a lot of easy run outs and the offense started to catch some rhythm as the game went along. However, the Spurs went on a 13-2 run to close the once 17 point lead. However, this was the closet the Spurs would be until the end of the game. The Mavericks noticed the Spurs were either hedging and relying on backside rotations in ball screens or blitzing the screens in all. This caused the Mavericks to look at doing more handoffs with Luka. This allowed him to get downhill easier and make some plays for everyone around him. The two play sequence that seemed to put the game out of hand was Klay hitting Kyrie out of a loaded side ball screen. Kyrie being in the corner while the ball screen was taking stretched the Spurs defense out a lot. It was difficult for the Spurs to cover with the lob threat and Klay coming off the screen. The next possession down Luka threw nasty no look behind the head pass to PJ Washington for a corner three. The third quarter ended with the Mavericks leading 87-80. The fourth quarter saw the Mavericks stretch out the Spurs much more with Klay's shooting. He was able to get a lot of easy looks and buried some big threes the extend their lead. Overall, the Mavericks looked in control the entire second half and Jason Kidd has a lot of options on how to run his offense with Klay's shooting prowess. The Mavericks ended up winning 120-109. Klay finished with 22 points on 7/13 from the floor and 6/10 from three. Luka had 28 points, 10 rebounds, and 8 assists. Derrick Lively had 6 assists off the bench. Wembanyama finished with 17 points on 5/18 from the field and 1/8 from three. Julian Champangie had 17 points on 7/12 from the field and 4/8 from three. The Spurs had 19 total turnovers. Paul finished with 7 assists.
Reaction
The Mavericks look really good they had a top 3 player in the league in Luka Doncic and overall have great balance on offense. I still want to see the defense against an elite offensive that will really stretch them out. I think starting Klay was the right decision over Naji Marshall, but overall I still want to see how they look against an elite offense. Ever since the trade deadline last year the Mavericks have been really good on defense. The offensive piece is a dream come true for Dallas. Adding Thompson leave Kid wit a lot of actions that worked well tonight. Especially when they do their double drag for Luka and even added into a lot of spain actions with Lively and Gafford. Overall, I loved how the Mavericks looked in the second half tonight.
The Spurs looked young in their opening game. I like Paul handling the ball for them, but it still feels like they are a year away. Adding some more guys around Wembanyama and staying healthy will be key for them. Stephon Castle did leave me with a good impression. He played well on defense taking on the challenge of guarding both Luka and Kyrie. He offering a lot of resistance against both of them and forced them into some tough shots. He still needs to work on his finishing. It felt like the shot blocked were able to time his attempts well, which forced him into some difficult finishes around the basket. He showed a willingness to shoot the ball which is good, but overall he didn't make a ton of shots. The season will be long and Wembanyama will have better shooting days ahead of him.
The second game of the night featured the two top seeds from the Western conference last season in the Nuggets and Thunder.
Nuggets/Thunder Recap and Reaction
Probably the biggest matchup of the year so far took placed Thursday in Denver between the Nuggets and Thunder. Both teams are vying for the top seed in the Western Conference and the game would give a good feel for where each team is to start the year for them. The Opening lineups didn't featured any surprises really. The Thunder open with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Chet Holmgren, Jalen Williams, Lu Dort, and Isaiah Joe. The Thunder were without Isaiah Hartenstein as recovers from a left hand fracture. The injury didn't us the opportunity to see Hartenstein suit up with his new team in a regular season game, but the overall didn't seem to affect the Thunder. The Nuggets opened with Jamal Murray, Christian Braun, Michael Porter Jr, Aaron Gordon, and Nikola Jokic. The question the entire offseason and training was who would get the fifth spot after Kentavious Caldwell-Pope left for Orlando in free agency this past year. The Matchups didn't surprise me in this one either. The Thunder have a lot of flexibility on who they can place where on defense. The beginning of the game saw the Thunder place Holmgren on Jokic with them doubling early on. Jokic however, was able to make all the right passes on time and put his teammates in successful positions to score. The Thunder rely heavily on their defensive rotations to guard the passes from Jokic out of the double teams. two things that were noticeable early on for the Nuggets was their willingness to shoot threes and play at faster pace. They displayed both very well early on and took an 18-10 lead in the first quarter. The Thunder seem stagnant early on with not a lot of movement or cutting on offense. They have a lot of player who can beat guys one on one. This puts a lot of pressure on the defense and gives them easy passes out of their drives. Shai also seemed to work himself into the game as he was not very aggressive attacking early on. The first sub for the Nuggets saw Russell Westbrook and Julian Strawther come off the bench for the Nuggets. both are new to the rotation and need to give the Nuggets a big push in order for them to be successful deep into the playoffs. The first quarter saw the Thunder pick up the intensity on defense and pace on offense. The Thunder started to make outside shots and were able to slow down the Jokic passes out of double teams. Chet Holmgren played really well early on and tired to slow down Jokic as much as possible. The opening quarter ended with OKC up 31-24 after going on an 18-4 run. The second quarter saw a struggle from Denver on the offensive end. As soon as Jokic went to the bench it was evident they still don't have a great plan yet to handle the offense. Dario Saric played the center position, but was pretty bad in this one he didn't provide much rim protection, not that Jokic does, but OKC was able to get down hill pretty easily and score at will around the basket. The second quarter also saw how the Thunder would use Alex Caruso this season as well. He was a really good screener and cutter for them. He doesn't play with the ball in his hands a lot, but provides some high IQ for the Thunder. The score going into the break was OKC leading 58-51. The Thunder's ability to put the ball on the floor and attack the basket put a lot of pressure on Denver's defense. This forced Denver into a ton of rotations and got OKC a lot of easy looks from the field. Holmgren played really well throughout the first half guarding Jokic and making shots from all over the floor. He has really shown an ability to be a really good decision making in his second healthy season for the Thunder. Shai had 12 points along with Chet and Aaron Wiggins had 11 on 5/5 shooting off the bench. Jokic had 10 points ,6 assists, and 4 rebounds the lead the Nuggets. Braun also had 10 points as well. The third quarter saw Shai and Chet take over for the Thunder. Shai has shown a willingness to shoot more catch and shoot threes this season. He was able to connect on a couple early on and even took some transition threes as well. Both of these teams want to increase their three point attempts going into this year. Chet played arguably the best quarter of any player in the third quarter. His ability to roll as a lob threat and be able to shoot it make it difficult for Jokic to cover him. Often times Nuggets want to find a non shooter to put Jokic on and have Aaron Gordon guard whoever the center is for the other team. Overall, Chet played well and made good decision with the ball in his hands. He also hit a couple pull ups, a shot he didn't a lo last year. The sequence that summed up the night was Holmgren blocking Jokic on one end and then running the floor for a poster dunk on Peyton Watson on the other end. This effectively put the game out of reach for the Nuggets and saw OKC take an 85-68 lead into the third quarter. The final quarter saw Shai get the basket very easily and make plays for his cutting teammates. If he's able to increase his assist to about 7 per game this year the Thunder will be very dangerous to the rest of the league. the final ended up being 102-87 with the Thunder winning. The Nuggets shot 18% from three and 35% overall. while the Thunder weren't great from the field either were still able to get up more shots than the Nuggets. Shai finished with 28 points 8 assists and 7 rebounds. Chet Holmgren finished with 25 points 14 rebounds 5 assists, 4 blocks and 2 steals on the night. Wiggins added 15 points off the bench. For the Nuggets Jokic had 16 points 13 assists, 12 rebounds. Braun had also had 16 points. Jamal Murray very pretty non-existent the entire night. He struggled from the field and OKC made it difficult on him the entire time.
Reaction
If the Thunder wanted everyone to know fi they are hungry for the upcoming season they let everyone know tonight. They went into Denver and mauled the Nuggets on their home floor on opening night. The Thunder can go 11 guys deep and any type of style. Getting Hartenstein back will only give them more defensive versatility against other teams. The offense didn't flow great tonight, but their depth really showed and seemed to wear down the Nuggets as the game went on. Shai and Chet were terrific and Jalen Williams didn't even need to do a whole lot tonight. There's a lot to be excited about for the Thunder this year.
The Nuggets didn't look great tonight but that's what the Thunder do to teams. They need to figure out a way to get more shooting and production from their bench. They only had 16 total bench points in the game. I think playing a little bit faster will be better for them going forward. Westbrook certainly offers the facilities to do that, but outside of this its difficult for them to push the pace. The Nuggets also need to either get to the foul line more often or shot more threes because they can't just rely on twos the entire time. They will not be able to win games from a math standpoint if they don't take more threes.
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