Starting 5 Daily Newsletter

NBA Starting 5, Nov. 1: Wemby, Spurs stage furious rally past Suns

San Antonio beats Phoenix in fantastic finish. KD vs. Wemby. 77th anniversary of 1st game.

November 1, 2023 2:49 PM

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When the NY Knicks & Toronto Huskies on this day in 1946, tipping off a brand-new league …

Who could have ever predicted that, 77 years later, we’d get a sequence like this KD x Wemby one? ⬇️

THE TIP ⏰

KD & Wemby with huge dunks on back to back possessions. | NBAE via Getty Images

Tuesday’s Games

🗽 Knicks 109, Cavs 91

🤠 Spurs 115, Suns 114

⛵ Clippers 118, Magic 102

Wednesday’s National TV Games

📺 Pelicans-Thunder, 7:30 ET, ESPN

📺 Clippers-Lakers, 10 ET, ESPN

📲 11 More Games LIVE In NBA App

🏀 76th anniversary of 1st NBA game

THE LINEUP 🏀

Wemby, Spurs Steal Win Late 🤠
Harden in LA for Clippers Win ⛵
7️⃣7️⃣th Anniversary Game Tonight
Group Chat: Halloween Edition 🧟
NBA Halloween 23 Lookbook 🎃

1. Wemby, Spurs Stage Wild Comeback Vs. Suns

Wemby after the rally. | NBAE via Getty Images

🤠 Spurs 115, Suns 114: The San Antonio Spurs led Tuesday’s game against the Phoenix Suns for 1.2 seconds – the final 1.2 seconds – as they earned an improbable win after trailing by 20 in the 2nd half.

Trailing by 3 with under 20 seconds to play, Devin Vassell put up a 3 that missed, but Victor Wembanyama’s putback dunk made it a 1-point game with 7 seconds left.

The Suns inbounded the ball to Kevin Durant, who was trapped in the corner before Keldon Johnson ripped the ball away, and drove in for the go-ahead layup, bringing this reaction from former teammate Dejounte Murray. A last-second jumper from Durant missed to seal the win for the Spurs.

Even before the thrilling finish, this game featured 2 uniquely talented players in Durant and Wembanyama. Here are 8 minutes of highlights from this marquee matchup.

KD. Nothing but net. | Courtesy Phoenix Suns

Wemby vs. Durant (Part 1): Durant’s fadeaway jumper has been virtually unguardable his entire career. If anyone needs further proof, here it is over the outstretched 8-foot wingspan of Wembanyama
Wemby vs Durant (Part 2): The matchup everyone came to see featured an incredible sequence of back-to-back dunks. It started with KD catching the inbounds pass off a back cut and throwing it down with Wemby coming over for a late contest
Wemby vs. Durant (Part 3): Then it was Victor’s turn. He caught the ball on the right wing, and as Durant closed out to him at the 3-point line, Wemby drove past KD, got one foot into the paint and elevated for a lefty slam. Here’s the slo-mo replay and the reaction from Reggie Miller and Brian Anderson on the TNT call
Milestone for KD: A driving dunk with 1:03 left to play gave Durant 26 points for the game and 27,001 for his career, making him the 12th player ever and 4th fastest (990 games) to reach 27K, trailing only Wilt, Jordan and Kareem

2. PG Stays Hot, Sends Clippers Past Magic

Big nights from PG & Russ. | NBAE via Getty Images

⛵ Clippers 118, Magic 102: Paul George kept his hot hand going, dropping 27 points, 7 rebounds, 7 assists and 6 3s to lead the Clippers to a win over the Magic.

Find yourself someone who celebrates your step-back 3s the way Russell Westbrook celebrates PG after this triple
George is shooting 52.9% to start the season, and ranks 10th in the league in scoring (27.3 ppg)
Watch Westbrook turn on the jets from halfcourt, leaving defenders falling in his path as he gets to the rim for 2 of his 18 points; he added 7 dimes, 5 steals and 1 rock-the-baby celly for good measure

Buzz around LA also focused on the reported trade with the 76ers for James Harden. Harden and PJ Tucker themselves were in attendance at the game.

Inside The NBA: Ernie, Chuck, Kenny and Shaq discussed the trade, the potential impact for both teams involved, which Harden the Clippers will be getting and how their collection of ball-dominant stars will mesh
NBA TV: Shaun Powell discussed how Harden would boost the Clippers’ outlook this season

Earlier on Tuesday night:

🗽 Knicks 109, Cavs 91: The Knicks used a balanced attack — Jalen Brunson and Julius Randle with 19 points each, 18 from Immanuel Quickley, and 16 from RJ Barrett — to defeat the Cavs in a playoff rematch. Donovan Mitchell scored 20 of his game-high 26 in the 1st half – including this nasty euro step past Barrett – but was the only Cav with more than 11 points

3. ESPN Doubleheader On 77th Anniversary Of 1st Game

LeBron (who would’ve gotten in for free that night) leads the Lakers against their crosstown rivals on the 77th anniversary of the first NBA game. | NBAE via Getty Images

77 years ago today, when the New York Knickerbockers traveled to play the Toronto Huskies, a new league was born.

(Got 1 min? Hear from players who were there)

Back then, on Nov. 1, 1946, the league was called the Basketball Association of America.

Two years later, it would rebrand to the National Basketball Association.

The first NBA game was also the first OT game. You can look back on the box score here. Leo Gottlieb went for 14 to lead the Knicks to the 68-66 win.
Ossie Schectman dropped 11, including the first points in NBA history
Toronto’s Ed Sadowski led all scorers with 18, while teammate George Nostrand added 16 … and inspired the 1st promo in NBA history: if you were 6-foot-8 or taller, you got in for free. (For real)
The first-ever international player, Hank Biasatti, played in that game. The league had 5 players born outside the USA in ‘46-’47. It has 125 now.

Read more from NBA.com’s Brian Martin on the 75th anniversary of the game that started it all

What’s coming tonight? Take a look, through the lens of Game 1.

SGA’s averaging 26 a night on 48.2% shooting so far, with OKC out to a 3-1 start. | NBAE via Getty Images

Pelicans-Thunder, 7:30 ET on ESPN

Two of the West’s most exciting (and hottest-starting) young squads meet up in a Play-In Tournament rematch – led by New Orleans’ Zion Williamson and Brandon Ingram & OKC’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Chet Holmgren.
The furthest west the BAA went in Year 1 was St. Louis.
Zion’s already printed himself a monster poster dunk this year. In 1946-47, dunks were still more than 2 decades away from being officially recorded.
Shai was one of a record-tying 6 players to average 30+ ppg last year. Joe Fulks led scoring in Year 1, at 23.2 ppg – in a league where scores rarely went above 80.

Clippers-Lakers, 10 ET on ESPN

Since 2019-20 (when AD joined LeBron on the Lakers and Kawhi and PG joined the Clippers), the Clips hold a 13-2 edge in head-to-head meetings, including 11 straight wins entering Wednesday. (Across 82-game seasons. Year 1 was 60)
This season, the Clippers lead the NBA in 3-point percentage (42.3%), while the Lakers are 28th (29.2%). The 3-point shot was still 33 years away when the 1st game was played in 1946-47
8 of the last 15 meetings were decided by 10 points or less, including 7 that featured clutch time, with Leonard (29 PTS, 58.3% FG, 14-15 FT) and Davis (17 PTS, 50% FG) leading their respective teams
With the reported acquisition of James Harden, the Clippers would have 4 former All-Stars with a combined 32 selections; the Lakers have 3 All-Stars with 28 selections. The 1st All-Star game was not held until 1951

Wednesday’s 11 Other Games:

🌹🆚🚘 Blazers-Pistons, 7 ET, NBA App
🦌🆚🦖 Bucks-Raptors, 7 ET, NBA App
🧙🆚🅰️ Wizards-Hawks, 7:30 ET, NBA App
🏁🆚🍀 Pacers-Celtics, 7:30 ET, NBA App
🌃🆚🔥 Nets-Heat, 7:30 ET, NBA App
⚔️🆚🗽 Cavaliers-Knicks, 7:30 ET, NBA App
🐝🆚🚀 Hornets-Rockets, 8 ET, NBA App
⚒️🆚🐺 Nuggets-Timberwolves, 8 ET, NBA App
🐂🆚🐴 Bulls-Mavericks, 8:30 ET, NBA App
🐻🆚🎷 Grizzlies-Jazz, 9 ET, NBA App
👑🆚🌉 Kings-Warriors, 10 ET, NBA App

4. GROUP CHAT: HOW DID TEAM SOCIAL CELEBRATE HALLOWEEN? 🎃

Walker Kessler. Big Power Rangers fan. | Courtesy Utah Jazz

Halloween seems to go up a notch in the league every year.

That very much includes team social accounts – which came correct from coast to coast yesterday. Check out a few favorites.

The Clippers asked their guys an important question: do you believe in ghosts?
The Spurs had one of their own: candy corn, yay or nay?
A bunch of Mavs had a common favorite candy. One you may not expect
The Jazz reacted to their Halloween costumes as kids
And the Pelicans talked about their favorites they’ve ever worn (though BI claimed he never fit in one 😂)
The Pistons blind-ranked the teammate most likely to steal candy from a kid
Horror movie expert Lonnie Walker IV blind-ranked horror movies

Terry Rozier & Mike, sharing candy. | Courtesy Charlotte Hornets

Raptors play ‘Take 2, Leave 2’ with Halloween movies. Where do you land?
The Kings’ Sasha Vezenkov has some well-thought-out opinions on famous candy
ICYMI, Giannis showed up as the Hulk on Monday … then stayed in character in the postgame press conference
The Hornets brought out the annual tradition of spooking their players
The Bulls got in some pregame trick-or-treating
Who are these masked, dancing Dubs?
Sure, the Obi Toppin Eastbay dunk was spicy. But … what if it was spooky?
OKC’s SGA, Lu Dort and Tre Mann surprised trick-or-treaters at the zoo