The Rotation: Opening night

The NBA regular season is a freight train that waits for no one. With multiple games nearly every single night, it can be difficult to keep up. As a solution, we humbly offer The Rotation — a daily recap series sharing three big stories from the previous night, one focused on a player, one focused on a single play, one focused on the big picture.

Kawhi Leonard’s big night

Opening night of the 2016-17 NBA season was not lacking in star power. LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers received their championship rings and then faced Carmelo Anthony and the revamped New York Knicks, while Damian Lillard opened the Portland Trail Blazers’ campaign against a buzzy (yet beat-up) Utah Jazz team. In the marquee matchup of the evening, the Golden State Warriors and the San Antonio Spurs clashed in the crown jewel of the evening, a game many expected to be a coronation of the new Warriors.

While James christened ring night with a triple double, highlighted by an array of vintage, ferocious dunks, and Lillard dropped 39-9-6 in a win over the Jazz, one superstar reigned supreme on opening night. Kawhi Leonard, in the first game of the post-Duncan era Spurs, decided to have arguably the best performance of his career, scoring a career-high 35 points on 10-21 shooting (15-15 from the line) with five rebounds, three assists, and five steals.

Leonard was a man possessed Tuesday night, playing quickly and aggressively on offense against a Warriors squad that looked outmatched by the Spurs in every facet of the game. While Leonard was 0-3 from beyond the arc, the Spurs still beat the Warriors at their own game going 12-24 from deep compared to an abysmal 7-33 mark for the reigning Western Conference champs.

Leonard has a lot to prove this season, despite being a two-time, reigning Defensive Player of the Year and former Finals MVP. With Duncan gone, the team is officially his to lead and being more aggressive on the offensive end is the only piece missing from the Kawhi puzzle. Kawhi dropped a career high in the first game A.D. (After Duncan). Against a team likely to be favored in every single game the play this year, Leonard was the one with the transcendent performance.

So, on a night when LeBron reminded everyone “this is still my league,” Kawhi upset the Death Star Warriors and hung an opening night loss on their record, one season after the Dubs didn’t lose their first game until Dec. 12. If Leonard is able to take his game to a new level on offense, the underground argument that he is the best two-way player in the game may start gaining further validity.

— Dan Israeli, @DanIsraeli

It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s Rodney Hood

A certain sect of NBA fans will be quick to tell you that the Utah Jazz are the NBA’s next big thing. They have young talent, added veterans this offseason to help take the next step, and seem on the cusp of being something special. Sure, none of that matters until they prove it, and indeed, the Jazz lost in their opener against the Portland Trail Blazers (Damian Lillard, everybody). However, one play alone validated everything we think we know about what this Jazz team is capable of in 2016-17.

Late in the third quarter with the Jazz having mounted a comeback to take a two-point lead, third-year wing Rodney Hood got loose off of a back-cut and received a beautiful pass from Joe Ingles. Then, Hood flew — and kept flying until he chose to bring down the hammer of Thor and Tim Taylor in unison, upon the rim and Evan Turner:

That kind of vicious posterization is going to be Highlight of the Night in most cases, and rightfully so. In case you were unaware, every guy in the NBA isn’t capable of assaulting the rim (or a maligned wing) like that. However, in the context of the start of the Jazz’s season, that is such a pivotal play for them moving forward.

Hood certainly showed he was on the cusp of being something special last season, as he averaged 14.5 points, 3.4 rebounds, 2.7 assists, and just under a steal in 32.2 minutes per game. However, he was the embodiment of last year’s injury-riddled Utah season. The potential was apparent, but there was a swagger and level of confidence missing — even when healthy — that they’d need to make the expected leap.

Merely attempting that dunk shows that there is a newfound fearlessness with this Jazz team. Perhaps that’s natural maturation, or the arrival of guys like Joe Johnson and Boris Diaw, or a combination of those things and others; but the point remains that Hood’s dunk showcases that this isn’t a Jazz team that’s ever going to back down.

Lillard annihilated Utah in the fourth quarter on Tuesday night because that’s what Dame does. He could’ve had prime Tony Allen and Bruce Bowen in his grill and 80 percent of those shots are still falling. However, Hood’s dunk encapsulated what the Jazz are entering this new season: a team with more certainty in themselves than ever before. Someone go put the rest of the league on notice (and hug Evan Turner).

— Cody Williams, @TheSizzle20

Summer dreams, ripped at the seams

It’s been 129 days since the Cleveland Cavaliers finished the greatest comeback in NBA history, 18 weeks and 3 days since LeBron James made good on his promise to rescue the city of Cleveland, and since the Golden State Warriors lost their grip on indelible greatness. That’s a lot of time for change and, as the fortunes of each team diverged again on Opening Night, we had a chance to see just how much.

The Cavaliers took the New York Knicks apart. They did it with the sort of joy and energy that I imagine comes naturally after being presented with an eight-pound diamond-encrusted symbol of your accomplishments. There is a wide gap in talent between the Cavaliers and the Knicks and we can chalk up most of the point differential to the talent differential. Still, there was an electricity to the Cavs that I don’t recall seeing before.

They weren’t just in sync and playing smart, disciplined basketball. They were happy. They were genuinely enjoying, not just winning, but doing it together. One hundred and twenty nine days later, the Cavaliers are still celebrating. With monkeys, and pressure, and history off their backs, they looked free. Like the beautiful version of this team that we all imagined when LeBron made his (lower-case) decision and the Kevin Love trade was completed. The Cavaliers are better than they’ve ever been because they’ve been to the top of the mountain.

To be clear, the Golden State Warriors are not as bad as they looked last night. Yes, they were steamrolled by the San Antonio Spurs. Yes, there were some clear issues with Zaza Pachulia’s defense. Yes, they have some things to sort out. But we didn’t see anything last night that should change the projections of them as the best team in the league and, potentially, a historic collection of talent.

The most important lesson from this game is that, for at least one night, the Warriors felt the pressure. Golden State won 73 games last season with a flowing exuberance, an emotional timbre that was not in the building against the Spurs. This is not to say that the they succumbed to pressure, or will continue to suffer under it, but there was clearly a weight on this team. The stakes have changed. The Warriors have been to the top of the mountain too, except 129 days ago LeBron sent them tumbling down to the bottom. No matter what Kevin Durant says, the Warriors can’t get lost in the fun this season.

What a difference a summer makes.

— Ian Levy, @HickoryHigh

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