The NBA has officially dropped their full schedule for the upcoming 2024-25 season. It includes some fun games to start, but the first two will be heavy hitters as the Boston Celtics and Denver Nuggets will face in a two-game series. Some of the league's biggest stars will be on display as Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown battle Nikola Jokic on October 4th and October 6th. Fans can hope that these two games will be electric as one of the best in the West takes on the beasts of the East.
Boston Celtics can show off bench depth
It's preseason; don't expect your favorite player to be on the court for 30+ minutes. No one wants to see a star immediately go out with injury. Look for Boston to pull out some bench performances from guys like Payton Pritchard, Jordan Walsh, JD Davison, Sam Hauser, Luke Kornet, and Neemias Queta. It would also be exciting to see if rookies Baylor Scheierman and Anton Watson can find some minutes as well.
Beating the Nuggets would be a great way to start out, even if it is a bench vs. bench scenario for the majority of it. It really depends on the team that they're playing. Last year, against the Washington Wizards and Charlotte Hornets, Payton Pritchard led the charge. Against Denver, fans will most likely see flashes of the top players if the Nuggets play Jokic, Aaron Gordon, and Jamal Murray.
IT would be great if the Celtics could find a game or two where they could push their bench to the front. Last preseason, they had multiple games where none of their typical starting five players actually played. Instead, they were able to rotate through the main bench players and some G League guys, which is great for experience.
The Russell Westbrook thing
A huge move that happened this summer was Russell Westbrook packing his bags and heading to Denver. It made sense that he was leaving the LA Clippers, but teaming up with the Joker was the surprising part. It would be fun to see Westbrook's debut this preseason.
The veteran guard had a bit of a fall in stats after the 2022-23 season, but maybe he can get a fresh start in Colorado. Expect his assist average to go back to normal if he can get some stellar passes to Jokic at the top of the key or in the paint. Perhaps some lobs to Aaron Gordon will help, too.
Another interesting factor will be the rookie they picked up this year. In a trade with the Phoenix Suns, the Nuggets got forward DaRon Holmes II out of Dayton. He averaged 20.4 points, 2.6 assists, and 8.5 rebounds per game by his senior year there. Holmes II will hopefully get to see some playing time in one of the two games against the Cs.
Predictions of the first two games
We have a feeling that there could be a 1-1 split in these two games, but Denver could also come away with both of them. It seems like Denver taking two is the more likely scenario compared to Boston taking two. The Celtics seem to have some trouble when going head-to-head with this team.
They played twice last season, and the Nuggets won both times. The first was a down-to-the-wire 102-100 win, and the second was a comfortable 115-109 win. It didn't help that in both games, Jokic and Murray went off scoring-wise, while the Celtics had some players who just didn't show up for the whole game. game. The Cs will have to crack the code on this team with the possibility of facing them in the NBA Finals one day.