With opening night upon us, it’s time to take a quick walk down memory lane to see what players got a fast start to the season over the last decade.
While the vast majority of the great performances on Opening Night are strangely by Los Angeles Lakers, a few other players seem to get their act into gear, historically speaking. Who will stand up and get their team off on the right foot in 09/10? Safe to say it won’t be Blake “Jimmy” Griffin. *awkward*
| Best individual Opening Night efforts
00/01 Jerry Stackhouse DET Shaquille O’Neal LAL 01/02 02/03 04/05 06/07 07/08 09/10 ??? |
With four games on the slate for day one, (BOS@CLE, WAS@DAL, HOU@POR and LAC@LAL) with plenty of bona fide stars to step up, who will it be? BOS@CLE LeBron will want to get their disappointing 08/09 as far behind him as possible so he’s a good candidate, although facing what may be the best defense in the league isn’t a great way to do it. WAS@DAL Gilbert might have a huge game until half time. Then quickly off to hospital for knee surgery. *cold blooded* HOU@POR Houston are craptacular. But very strong defensively, so this game might be a wash in terms of big performances. LAC@LAL Given their amazing history of strong individual performances on Opening Night, this is our pick for a standout game. Although given that they are getting their Championship Rings, they may get poleaxed by 40 like the Miami Heat starting their 06/07 campaign. With Pau Gasol most likely sidelined, we select Lamar Odom the most likely to excel on Opening Night 2009/10. Memo to the Lakers: No pre-game predictions of a repeat. It just ends badly. |
