The Minnesota Timberwolves struggled on Thursday to get their first win of the 2024-25 NBA season against the Sacramento Kings, while the Denver Nuggets started a losing streak against the Oklahoma City Thunder.
The six teams that were also supposed to participate in this campaign did so today, in four games in which the second victory of the Boston Celtics, the recent champions, or the first victory of Klay Thompson in the Dallas Mavericks of Luka Doncic also appeared.
Wizards 102-122 Celtics
Los Washington Wizards They wanted to surprise and put their two rookies Alexandre Sarr (number 2 in the show) and Carlton Carrington (number 14) in the starting five, but The Celtics They were very competitive. Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum added 52 points between them, which helped the Celtics overcome a few problems that Jordan Poole put in the first quarter. The players had a brilliant first day in the NBA, so the Wizards were supported by 26 points from Poole and 18 from the Lithuanian Jonas Valanciunas, who also participated in the tournament of capital.
Mavs 120-109 Spurs
The current Western champion started with the long-awaited Klay Thompson, whose 6 of 10 from the 3-point line broke the recent record. Dallas Mavericks. Thompson scored 22 points to match Luka Doncic’s 28 points, 10 rebounds and 8 assists in the Mavs’ win. Both surpassed the numbers of young French star Victor Wembanyama, who had to settle for 17 points – and a poor 5 of 18 field goals (27.8%) – and 9 rebounds. Closer to Wembanyama at Spurs Chris Paul, Thompson’s teammate last season on the Golden State Warriors, made his debut. Paul’s start was much sweeter than Thompson’s, with only 3 points on 1 of 6 field goals (16.7%), although he grabbed 7 rebounds and distributed 8 assists.
Kings 115-117 Timberwolves
Julius Randle presented himself before a Kings after the criticism he received after the opening game of the Los Angeles Lakers. New to Minnesota scored 33 points in a hard-fought win over the Timberwolveswho were behind most of the games. Anthony Edwards contributed another 32 points for the Timberwolves. The Best of the Kings was also the first DeMar DeRozan, who had 26 points and 8 rebounds. Keegan Murray had a double-double with 23 points and 11 rebounds, while his teammate Domantas Sabonis was close with 24 points and 8 rebounds.
Nuggets 87-102 Thunder
Denver’s Ball Arena swallowed its pride to appreciate its debut with the players Nuggets for Russell Westbrook, but his game was brilliant: 6 points, 5 rebounds and 5 assists. Nikola Jokic had a triple-double with 16 points, 12 rebounds and 13 assists, but the Nuggets missed a lot of points from the Serbian. In front of them was one of the revelation teams last season: the Oklahoma City Thunderwho took the lead in the first round and did not relinquish the lead despite having the 3-time NBA MVP ahead of them. Chet Holmgren completed a double-double with 25 points and 14 rebounds, while Shai Gilgeous-Alexander provided 28 points, 7 rebounds and 8 assists.