John Wall back on floor
John Wall was back on the floor for the first time in nearly two years. DeMarcus Cousins played for the first time since the 2019 NBA Finals.
And the NBA champion Los Angeles Lakers were home, with nobody there to watch.
The NBA preseason — a truncated 49-game, nine-day sprint — opened Friday night with a five-game slate, action returning to NBA arenas for the first time in exactly nine months. Coaches debuted with their new teams: Stephen Silas with Houston, Tom Thibodeau with New York, Billy Donovan with Chicago and Tyronn Lue with the Los Angeles Clippers. Rookies, such as No. 4 pick Patrick Williams of the Bulls and No. 8 pick Obi Toppin of the Knicks, got their first NBA minutes.
As will be the case in most buildings, at least to start the season, almost nobody was at any of these games. With the coronavirus pandemic ongoing and case numbers still rising, the era that started for the NBA with the suspension of last season on March 11 — the night that Utah’s Rudy Gobert tested positive — resumed with the league and its teams erring on the sides of caution and safety.
“It’s different, for sure,” Lakers coach Frank Vogel said before his team faced the Clippers inside a very empty Staples Center.
Well, some things were different.
Coaches wore masks. Detroit showed old videos of actual fan interactions — with the disclaimer that they were taped previously — during some timeouts. Bench seating areas were all spaced out, nobody next to one another.
“The atmosphere will be obviously significantly different than what guys are used to in an arena,” Orlando coach Steve Clifford said.
Other things — like Wall’s explosion to the basket — were just like normal.
Wall’s first basket since December 2018 came on the first possession of Houston’s preseason, when he got to the rim for an easy score in his Rockets debut, one that came after his recovery from heel and Achilles injuries.
The Rockets’ next basket? Wall set up Cousins for a 3-pointer, the center’s first basket since Game 6 of the 2019 finals with the Warriors, two months before he tore his ACL and missed last season.
Reigning NBA scoring champion James Harden wasn’t playing for the Rockets, still not cleared to be back on the floor with the team that he hasn’t practiced with yet and apparently no longer wants to be with. LeBron James and Anthony Davis, who were last seen on the floor together when the Lakers topped the Miami Heat in the NBA Finals in the Walt Disney World bubble — less than two months ago — were among the regulars who got the champs’ preseason opener off. Friday’s preseason openers: ROCKETS 125, BULLS 104 At Chicago, Wall had 13 points and nine assists in 19 minutes and the Rockets led wire-to-wire.
Bruno Caboclo had 17 points for Houston, which led by as many as 32. Gerald Green and Eric Gordon scored 16 apiece, Cousins had 14 points in 15 minutes and Ben McLemore added 10 for the Rockets — who had a 35-0 edge in points off turnovers until the final moments.
Coby White scored 15 for the Bulls. Lauri Markkanen added 13 for Chicago, Williams had 12 in his NBA debut, Noah Vonleh and Zach LaVine each added 12 and Tomas Satoransky finished with 11. LAKERS 87, CLIPPERS 81
At Los Angeles, Talen HortonTucker scored 19 points and Kyle Kuzma had 18 for the Lakers.
Montrezl Harrell had 13 points and 12 rebounds against his former team and Dennis Schroder added 10 points for the Lakers. Paul George had 10 for the Clippers and Kawhi Leonard managed three in 14 minutes.
Both teams shot exactly 30 for 84 from the field, and none of the Clippers’ starters logged even 15 minutes.