By: Know Buxton
The 2024-2025 NBA season tips off on October 22 with the defending champions Boston Celtics facing the New York Knicks. That game will be followed by the Los Angeles Lakers hosting the Minnesota Timberwolves. I really like these matchups for opening night because all four of these teams should be pretty competitive this season. In my opinion, the Boston Celtics look like the favorites to win the NBA Finals for the second year in a row. They definitely have all of the pieces they need in order to go back to back. They have two stars in Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, they have two of the best defending guards in the league in Jrue Holiday and Derrick White, and they also have one of the best shooting and defending big men in the league in Kristaps Porzingis. They have a solid bench with players like Payton Pritchard, Al Horford, and Lonnie Walker IV, but it could be better. To me, their biggest threat to going back to back is their health. If one player in their starting five gets injured for an extended period of time, things could go downhill. Luckily for the Celtics, these players don’t have bad injury histories except for Kristaps Porzingis so this shouldn’t be much of a concern. For the Knicks on the other hand, they also have a good chance to make a championship push. I really like the additions they made with Mikal Bridges and Karl-Anthony Towns. Their biggest concern is the depth which they lost by trading Julius Randle and Donte DiVincenzo. They also lost Isiah Hartenstein to the Thunder in free agency this summer which doesn’t help. As for the opening night game between the two, I think the Celtics will win a close game and this could potentially be a playoff matchup we see later in the season.
The Lakers are a team to watch this season too. They are led by LeBron James and Anthony Davis , two of the best players in the NBA; but their biggest problem, as always, is the supporting cast for their two superstars. They signed JJ Reddick as a first time head coach and he seems to be very close with LeBron James. This is a make or break season for the Lakers in my opinion because LeBron’s career is coming to an end and Anthony Davis might not want to stay for much longer if there is no LeBron James. For the Timberwolves, I am very high on their young superstar Anthony Edwards. The Timberwolves finished as a top team last season and made a deep playoff run before losing to the Mavericks. They traded their star that went alongside Edwards in Karl-Anthony Towns, but I like the additions of Julius Randle and Donte Divincenzo. The biggest question for Minnesota is if their good season last season was a fluke or not. I think they have all the pieces in place for another successful season, but it largely depends on how the Towns trade turns out for them. In the Timberwolves vs Lakers game, I think the Timberwolves will win in a close one but it definitely could go the other way. This game comes down to which team plays better together because both teams made moves this off-season and have some new additions.
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