Boston Celtics 113, Detroit Pistons 121

For 30 minutes this was Boston's game and Paul George's debut. The first quarter was a trade-off, 28-27 Celtics after Jayson Tatum's pull-up at the buzzer, and it was still tied at 39 when Detroit called timeout with 7:21 left in the second. Boston scored the next 11, George made back-to-back threes late in the period, and the Celtics took a 58-45 lead into the half. It got worse for Detroit before it got better: George made three straight threes in a 52-second stretch of the third, the last at 8:32, and Boston led 72-50, its largest lead of the day at 22.

The run back started from the bench. Javonte Green made three threes in a minute and a half, the third at 3:06 to make it 81-75, and Isaiah Joe's three from 27 feet with 53.8 left cut it to 85-82. Baylor Scheierman answered at the horn for 88-82 after three, but Detroit had outscored Boston 37-30 in the quarter and the building had changed. Boston pushed it back to 96-84 at 9:49 of the fourth and Derrick White's three at 8:19 made it 99-89, and then the Celtics did not score for five minutes. Duncan Robinson made threes at 8:00 and 7:34 and three free throws at 7:07 for 99-98, Green's running jumper at 6:41 gave Detroit its first lead since the second quarter at 101-99, and by the time Green's 28-footer landed at 3:33 it was 112-99, a 23-0 run that Bickerstaff's group built on deflections and loose balls. The rest was free throws, and Cade Cunningham's two with 0.6 left set the final.

George finished with 38 on 12-of-21 from the floor and 7-of-12 from three, and nobody else in green came close: Tatum went 6-of-23 and 0-of-7 from deep for 13 points with 11 assists, and White and Payton Pritchard had 17 apiece. Detroit's balance did the rest. Cunningham had 22 and eight assists, Jalen Duren 22 and nine rebounds on 8-of-13, Robinson 21 on 5-of-10 from three, Green 19 off the bench on 5-of-10 from deep, and Ausar Thompson 11 and 11. The margin lived at the line and on the glass: Detroit shot 28-of-32 at the stripe to Boston's 16-of-21, outrebounded the Celtics 49-39, and outscored them 76-55 after halftime. Detroit is 1-0; Boston is 0-1.

BOS 113 · DET 121

Philadelphia 76ers 106, New York Knicks 100

The Knicks got their rings, raised the 2025-26 banner, and then spent the first half looking like the deeper team. Maxey opened with two quick threes for a 6-0 lead, but New York took a 25-23 edge into the second on Jalen Brunson's floater with 3.3 seconds left and kept pushing. Jordan Clarkson's floater at 7:35 of the second made it 40-30, the Knicks' largest lead of the night at 10, and Brunson's free throws with 54.8 left pushed it to 57-50 before Philadelphia trimmed the half to 58-54.

The third quarter flipped it. Brown's dunk tied it at 66 with 5:49 left, Karl-Anthony Towns answered with a three for 72-66 at 4:43, and then Philadelphia closed the period on a 17-4 run. Anfernee Simons made three threes in the quarter, the last at 1:22 for a 77-76 lead, and Brown made two more in the final 49 seconds, the second at the horn, for 83-76 after three. The Knicks never got back to even. Jose Alvarado's runner cut it to 88-86 at 8:08 of the fourth, Towns's threes made it 96-95 at 4:37 and 100-98 at 2:40, and each time Philadelphia answered: Joel Embiid's three at 3:31, VJ Edgecombe's dunk at 2:15, Maxey's running dunk at 1:52 for 104-98. Brunson's layup with 41.3 left made it a two-possession game, and James's two free throws with 7.7 seconds left closed it.

Maxey led everyone with 28 on 9-of-19. Brown had 19, eight rebounds and six assists, James had 14, nine rebounds and seven assists in his Philadelphia debut, Embiid worked through a 4-of-15 night for 13 points and 11 rebounds, and Simons gave the bench 13 on 3-of-8 from three. New York shot 37% as a team and 11-of-33 from deep: Brunson 21 on 6-of-19, OG Anunoby 10 on 3-of-12 and 1-of-9 from three, Mikal Bridges four points. Towns finished with 19 and 12, Andre Drummond had 12 and 14 off the bench, and the Knicks won the boards 53-45 with 14 offensive rebounds, but Philadelphia turned it over only 10 times and ran up 24 fast-break points to New York's 16. Philadelphia is 1-0; New York is 0-1.

PHI 106 · NYK 100

Oklahoma City Thunder 116, San Antonio Spurs 104

The rematch of May's seven-game series tipped at 9:50 ET after the Knicks' ceremony ran long, and the tension showed up before the shooting did. Both teams started 3-of-8 and 3-of-9 from the floor, then Oklahoma City made five of its six first-quarter threes, two each from Alex Caruso and Jared McCain off the bench, for a 34-28 lead after one. At 9:21 of the second, De'Aaron Fox threw Chet Holmgren to the floor as the Thunder tried to enter the ball to a mismatch, and when it cleared Fox had a flagrant 1 and Victor Wembanyama, Jalen Williams, Jaylin Williams and Kenrich Williams had technicals. Kenrich Williams's three on the next trip made it 42-30, and the Thunder kept going: 10-of-14 from three in the half, 17 assists on 24 baskets, and a 65-44 lead at the break while San Antonio shot 29% with nobody in double figures.

The Spurs got it back to a game the way they did against this team in the spring. A 6-0 run opened the third, Stephon Castle made three threes in the period, Fox went 4-of-4 with every bucket in the paint, and San Antonio shot 63% in the quarter to cut it to 74-67 with 6:05 left. Oklahoma City answered from the rim: Aday Mara blocked a Wembanyama alley-oop and finished one of his own on the next possession, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored nine in the quarter, and the Thunder took a 93-80 lead into the fourth, Wembanyama's reverse dunk at the horn his first field goal of the night. San Antonio got within seven at 95-88 with 8:18 left, then McCain's sixth three and a Cason Wallace runout dunk off a Fox turnover pushed it back to 100-88, and the Thunder led 112-100 with 1:14 to play.

Gilgeous-Alexander finished with 32 points, five rebounds and four assists, 16 of them in the first half. McCain had 20 off the bench with a career-high six threes, and the second unit carried the plus-minus. Wembanyama had 12 points and 13 rebounds on one made field goal, 1-of-13 through the fourth quarter, with his points coming almost entirely at the line, and the Spurs went 23-of-33 from the stripe as a team through three quarters. Oklahoma City is 1-0; San Antonio is 0-1.

OKC 116 · SAS 104

Opening night was three games, and all three are featured above. The full slate begins Wednesday.

Boston was without two-way guard Devin Carter (illness). Philadelphia played without Ariel Hukporti (season-ending Achilles tear suffered in the preseason), Dominick Barlow (back) and Tacko Fall (quad), while Anfernee Simons, listed questionable with a hamstring, played and scored 13. Oklahoma City was without Nikola Topić, Thomas Sorber and Otega Oweh, and Chet Holmgren returned from the quad issue that cost him the preseason. San Antonio was without Tobias Harris (calf) and Jayden Quaintance (knee). Fox's flagrant 1 and the four technicals in the second quarter in San Antonio were the night's only ejection-adjacent moments, and nobody was ejected. No new in-game injuries were announced from any of the three games.

Wednesday is the first full slate of the season, 11 games, with Dallas at Houston and Golden State at the Lakers the two we'll be watching closest. We'll have the preview, the card, and both leans before tip-off.