Who wins in Giannis vs. Zeus is a real conversation now

Yep, he’s that good folks. In what was a back and forth affair, the Milwaukee Bucks took down the Portland Trailblazers 113-110 behind a career night from Giannis Antetokounmpo. Milwaukee entered halftime tonight with a five-point lead, 60-55, with Giannis netting an absurd 21 points alone. The second half didn’t see either team pull ahead by a considerable margin, but when the Blazers closed Milwaukee’s lead late, Giannis was there to ensure they didn’t face back-to-back losses at home.

Shane Larkin comes up big in critical game for C’s

Without Gordon Hayward, Marcus Morris, and Marcus Smart, the Celtics were in real danger of going 0-3 against Joel Embiid and a promising young Sixers team. And in the most Celtic way possible, the most unlikely hero won them the game.

The basketball was good tonight, folks.

Led for the second straight game by Blake Griffin, the Los Angeles Clippers stayed perfect tonight and improved their record to 2-0 as they absolutely crushed the Phoenix Suns, 130-88. Griffin didn’t play in the fourth quarter with the result decided, and finished with 29 points, 8 rebounds, and 4 assists in 28 minutes. He was a hyper-efficient 7-13 from the field and 3-5 from beyond the arc, while converting 12 of his 14 free throw attempts. DeAndre Jordan played his role well, with 6 points and 13 rebounds.

The Los Angeles Clippers opened their 2017-2018 season Thursday night by trouncing the Los Angeles Lakers at Staples Center 108-92.

In a September 2017 interview with Mike Bresnahan of Spectrum SportsNet, Los Angeles Lakers rookie Lonzo Ball commented on the franchise’s rivalry with the Los Angeles Clippers.

You come at the king, you best not miss. The Kings missed - a lot.

The Denver Nuggets had trouble scoring from the field and were poor from the line for most of the game, but still ran away with their home opener against the Sacramento Kings. They carried the victory on the back of strong rebounding and defense. One of those things was a Nuggets hallmark last year and one definitely wasn’t, but both were good to see even against the tired Kings, who were on the second half of a back-to-back.

Steven Adams is awesome, and the Thunder are back!

Turns out, putting Russell Westbrook, Carmelo Anthony, and Paul George on the same team is going to a ton of fun. Who knew? After a slow start, shots started to fall and the Thunder got into a nice second half flow to ultimately beat the Knicks by 21. Russell Westbrook had his 80th career triple double, which is cool I guess. But Steven Adams plays really good defense, and that’s definitely cool.

Golden State got their first win of the season, behind 7 blocks from Kevin Durant and 33 points from Klay Thompson

If you were expecting the Warriors to come out of the gates firing after losing their season opener, well . . . that didn’t exactly happen. The Dubs looked sloppy and unfocused in the opening minutes against an energetic New Orleans Pelicans team.

With Kawhi Leonard in street clothes, LaMarcus Aldridge showed the Spurs had all the starpower they needed to beat an upgraded Minnesota squad.

Much has been made of the Spurs’ nondescript offseason, settling for seemingly marginal moves as superteams formed elsewhere. One of those new powers was meant to be the Timberwolves, who added top-flight wing Jimmy Butler to a core of Karl-Anthony Towns and Andrew Wiggins and have their sights set on a long-awaited return to the playoffs.