The break and the preparations are behind us, and a whole season is ahead of us: The 2022/23 NBA season kicked off tonight (between Tuesday and Wednesday) with two huge games in the East and West, when in the first part Boston won 117:126 over Philadelphia thanks to 70 points shared by its pair of stars. At this time, the Los Angeles Lakers and LeBron James are hosting the champion Golden State, live broadcast on 5SPORT.
Boston (0:1) – Philadelphia (1:0) 117:126
The new season opened in the same hall that closed the previous one. About four months after the loss to Golden State in Game 6 of the Finals, Boston returned home to TD Garden facing one of the strongest opponents in the conference – and thanks to the concert of the two stars Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, achieved the first victory in the first game.
Boston experienced a difficult summer, precisely after returning to the finals after 12 years. The focus, of course, is the suspension of the team’s coach Ima Oduka, who had an affair with an employee at the club, which catapulted 34-year-old Joe Mazzola to the main role. At least in his debut game on the lines, Mazzola enjoyed tremendous control from Tatum (12 rebounds) and Brown, who led with 35 points each.
Tatum got off to a great start and took a 2:9 lead, but James Harden’s 16 points in the first quarter changed the momentum and gave the Sixers a 24:29 lead after 12 minutes. Both teams fought, provided a playoff atmosphere in the first half and went into the break tied 63:63, but the greens came out sharper in the second half.
Tatum’s 17 points in the third quarter opened a double-digit gap between the sides and when the Phillies narrowed to 98:92 with 11 minutes to go, Grant Williams hit an important 3-pointer and Brown together with Malcolm Brogdon made sure that the group from Pennsylvania would not be able to make a comeback. The statistic of the game – 2:24 for Boston in points in the burst.
Brogdon looked excellent in his debut with 16 points (7 of 11 from the field), Williams contributed 15 without a foul and Smart added 14. On the other side, Harden finished with 35 points, 8 rebounds and 7 assists, Joel Embiid scored 26 alongside 15 rebounds, Tyrese Maxey 21 and Tobias Harris 18. Doc Rivers’ entire bench scored 11 points in aggregate.
“Let’s win the game for Bill Russell,” he said Brown to his friends during the match. The star paid tribute to the green legend in a ceremony held in his memory before the match, and completed a special evening with a wonderful personal display and a victory that whet the appetite of Celtics fans.
Starting the season off with a W ✅ pic.twitter.com/4gleODRk9L
— Boston Celtics (@celtics) October 19, 2022