The NBA’s opening week raised more questions than answers.
Oklahoma City’s Jalen Williams suffered what looked to be a serious leg injury in Sunday night’s seven-point win over the Clippers. Williams was stretchered off the court on a night where the Thunder compiled three injuries total to Williams, Cason Wallace and Jaylin Williams. The Thunder are yet to advise on Williams’ status.
Six teams are 3-0, including Memphis, which was projected to be among the league’s worst teams. Seven teams have yet to win, including Miami, Golden State and the defending champion New York Knicks, the first defending champions to start 0-3 since the 2011-12 Dallas Mavericks.
Luka Doncic scored the season’s first 50-point game as the Lakers started 3-0 in the post-LeBron era. Ty Jerome leads the league in scoring. Off the court, the league heads to London to talk about Europe and are adamant that everything is on track for an October 2027 launch.
Here are five stories to track this week.
How Oklahoma City Replaces Jalen Williams
Jalen Williams was taken off on a stretcher with 1:14 left in Sunday’s 108-101 win over the Clippers after landing awkwardly on his left leg on a drive to the rim. The Thunder have not released an official diagnosis yet for Williams. Coach Mark Daigneault told the media postgame “We’re not doing great.” It was the third injury of the night for the Thunder: Cason Wallace left the game with a shoulder issue and Jaylin Williams didn’t return after dealing with a wrist complaint.
Last year Williams played 33 regular season games and five playoff games. His absence was seen as a real factor in the Thunder’s conference finals loss to San Antonio. Last night’s injury to Williams is part of a broader issue the NBA is facing with key players being injured or load managed during opening week: Orlando’s Paolo Banchero could miss up to six weeks with a high ankle sprain, Detroit’s Jalen Duren strained a hamstring, and Dallas Mavericks star Cooper Flagg also injured his shoulder.
What to watch: The diagnosis and timeline for both Williams and Wallace. If both are on the sidelines for a significant amount of time how does Daigneault adjust ball use and wing defense between Jared McCain, Alex Caruso, and the rest of the roster? Does this prompt the Thunder to re-think how they attack the trade market now?
The NBA’s EuroLeague Meeting In London
The NBA heads to London on Tuesday to meet with Real Madrid about NBA Europe. Spanish media have reported that Barcelona, Olympiacos and Olimpia Milano led opposition to the NBA’s roughly €520 million proposal to acquire the EuroLeague and that clubs would pay €400 million each to join the new league. The hope is that 16 teams – 12 permanent – from Italy, UK, France, Spain, Germany, Greece and Turkiye will be playing in the competition. The NBA is targeting an October 2027 launch.
What to watch: Aside from Real Madrid who supports the new league, will any other cities or teams show support for it and join the discussions Tuesday. And if not, does the NBA revise its €520 million offer or its 2027 launch target?
Post-LeBron Lakers Jump To A 3-0 Start
The Lakers opened their first season without LeBron with three consecutive wins. On Sunday, in the 132-123 win over Utah, Luka Doncic poured in 52 points on 17-from-30 shooting including eight triples from 18 shots. This was the league’s first 50-point game of the season and the 10th time Doncic has reached the scoring feat. He also became the third player in Lakers history to score 50 with 10 assists.
What to watch: We’ll be looking at how this Lakers roster will respond to a four-game week: Portland at home Tuesday, a back-to-back at the Clippers Wednesday, at Golden State Friday, then back home against the Raptors Sunday. The big question: How much of the scoring will Doncic have to contribute, especially on consecutive nights. Also, who is the genuine Lakers’ closer? Is it Reaves or Doncic?
Can Ty Jerome Keep Leading the League in Scoring?
Who would have guessed that Ty Jerome, the Grizzlies guard who played 15 games last year, would be leading the NBA in scoring after three games? The sample size is minuscule but Jerome has scored 104 points through Memphis’ 3-0 start. This included a 45-point night against Utah which was a franchise record for opening night. Jerome scored 28 against Golden State and 31 against Sacramento. He is the second Grizzly ever to reach 100 points in the first three games of the season; the first was Ja Morant.
If you look at his numbers from last year, however limited, Jerome was scoring at a rate of more than 30 points per 36 minutes. He averaged 19.7 points in 22.6 minutes. This year there’s no Ja Morant to compete with and he came out of training camp with a clear starting point guard role, playing about 32 minutes a night with the ball in his hand.
What to watch: Does Jerome’s efficiency hold? He’s shooting 56.3 percent from the field averaged over three games, but his percentage has dropped each game: 68, then 50, then 47. His numbers set a high bar. Given last season’s injuries it will be interesting to see how Memphis plays this out: will they reward the hot start and give him an extension bump or do they use him as a trade asset especially if Memphis falls out of playoff contention.
Warriors and Heat Still Searching For First Win
For the first time in a long time both the Warriors and Heat are 0-3 to start an NBA season. This is the first winless start in Steph Curry’s career; For the Heat, it marks the first for Erik Spoelstra in 19 seasons as head coach.
For the Warriors, the roster explains most of their early season woes. Jimmy Butler isn’t expected back from a torn ACL before February. Kristaps Porzingis is out indefinitely. Curry, Draymond Green and Brandin Podziemski all missed Saturday’s loss to the Suns. Rookie Yaxel Lendeborg has been a bright spark with 26 points against Phoenix.
As for the Heat, who came into the season with one of the biggest trade gets of the summer with Giannis Antetokounmpo joining the roster, they’ve lost to Minnesota by 25, Detroit by 17, and Charlotte by 5 who were missing Kon Knueppel and Coby White. In that Hornets game the Heat trailed 92-70 late in the third and rallied to tie the score at 100 thanks to Davion Mitchell’s 22 points and the bench in Bobby Portis (13 points) and Pelle Larsson (15 points).
What to watch: The schedule doesn’t ease up for both teams. The Warriors play at Denver tonight with Curry, Green and Podziemski cleared to return, then take on the 3-0 Timberwolves on Wednesday and host the Lakers Friday. Miami plays Dallas tonight, then Atlanta and Indiana. Watch Antetokounmpo’s fouls and how much Spoelstra uses the bench unit that helped ignite the momentum shift in Charlotte.
Number of the week: 0
That was Scottie Barnes’s point total in Toronto’s 117-94 loss in Minnesota. He went 0-for-12 from the field (0-for-5 from three), didn’t have one free-throw attempt and was a -27 on the floor. His teammate and starting centre Jakob Poeltl also failed to score, going 0-for-2 from the field with one turnover in 19 minutes. The Raptors were without key star recruit Kawhi Leonard, who missed the game with a swollen knee.
Quote Of The Week
“I actually want to play tomorrow, so can you guys put pressure on them?”
– Joel Embiid, after a 28-point triple-double against Milwaukee. The Sixers still ruled him out the next night.
This article was originally published on Forbes.com