Even if we only have two games tomorrow, NBA fans are still in for a huge treat as four championship contenders from the Western Conference are going to commence the 2023-24 campaign.
Over at the Ball Arena in Denver, Colorado, we have the defending champions, the Nuggets, opening their title defence against the Lakers in a rematch of the WCF last season.
Meanwhile, the 2021-22 champions, the Warriors, will start their season with a date against a rejigged Suns squad at Chase Center in San Francisco, California.
Which teams do you think will be able to get their first win of the new season tomorrow? Without further ado, continue to read on below as SBOTOP takes a look at these four teams in today’s preview.
Los Angeles Lakers @ Denver Nuggets
The Nuggets will get to hoist their championship banner and flex their new rings in front of their home crowd tomorrow, which will certainly give the Lakers all the motivation to ruin their coronation night. After all, these two teams have an ongoing beef.
After sweeping the Lakers in their playoff series last season, Denver head coach Michael Malone harped on the attention paid to LA because he felt that the Nuggets weren’t given their plaudits, even after they won it all.
It can be remembered that, during their championship parade in Denver, the Nuggets continued to troll the Lakers, even going so far as to call Malone the “Lakers’ daddy”.
That surely did not sit well with LeBron James and co., although they’re saying to the media that this is “just another game”.
And that is why the Lakers responded by improving their overall roster this summer, easily making them one of the biggest winners of the offseason.
The Purple and Gold locked Anthony Davis down to a three-year, $186 million max extension, and then they brought back the likes of Austin Reaves, D’Angelo Russell, Jarred Vanderbilt, and Rui Hachimura.
Moreover, they’ve signed free agents Gabe Vincent, Jaxson Hayes, Taurean Prince, and Cam Reddish while bringing in Jalen Hood-Schifino and Maxwell Lewis via the NBA Draft.
The NBA 2023 odds favour the Lakers’ chances to win this game because they are better armed than the Nuggets this time around.
Yes, the Nuggets still have the core of Nikola Jokic, Jamal Murray, and Michael Porter Jr., but they lost several rotation players who helped in last year’s title run.
Bruce Brown left for a lucrative contract with the Pacers, while Thomas Bryant and Jeff Green went to the Heat and Rockets, respectively.
Reggie Jackson, Zeke Nnaji, and Christian Braun will have bigger roles for Denver this upcoming season, but it remains to be seen whether they can settle in with their new roles quickly.
Phoenix Suns @ Golden State Warriors
While the Lakers-Nuggets matchup can turn into a slugfest because of their styles of play, we can expect the opposite here in the Suns-Warriors matchup because these two sides have stars who can generate a ton of NBA 2023 highlights.
There’ll be points galore in this contest, with Kevin Durant, Bradley Beal, and Devin Booker getting buckets for the Suns, while the famous Splash Brothers, Steph Curry and Klay Thompson, will defend the Warriors’ home court anew.
Kevin Durant is a four-time scoring champion, after all, while Steph Curry is the all-time maker of three-pointers. Devin Booker managed to score 71 in a single game before, while Klay Thompson had a 60-point game and Bradley Beal averaged 30-plus points in back-to-back seasons in 2019-20 and 2020-21.
Durant finally gets the chance to play against his former team in a real road game, where he won his two titles and Finals MVPs. After leaving the Warriors in 2019, he only played one game at the Chase Center, but that was during the COVID-19 pandemic when fans weren’t allowed in the building.
For much of the hype surrounding this game, the hope is that Bradley Beal (back) and Devin Booker (toe) are declared fit for tomorrow because they were given questionable tags in the Suns’ latest injury report.
Last season, Booker missed 29 games due to a nagging groin injury, while Beal has had his share of leg injuries when he was still with the Wizards. As for the Warriors, they will be without Draymond Green in this contest due to an ankle sprain he sustained last month. Jonathan Kuminga is in line for a start, while Chris Paul will have more playmaking duties against his former team as a result.
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