Twenty-two of the league’s 30 teams opened their season as part of the NBA’s first League Pass Night of the 2026-27 season. We saw the NBA debuts of Darryn Peterson, Cameron Boozer and Caleb Wilson, Trae Young and Anthony Davis together in Washington, Kawhi Leonard back in Toronto, and Giannis Antetokounmpo’s Heat hosting LaMelo Ball and the Timberwolves.

It was a lot to digest, both in regard to the film and the numbers. And while we can’t make any grand conclusions from just one night of hoops, there were some intriguing developments.

Here are five numbers to know from Wednesday’s 11-game slate.

1. Luka Dončić creates great shots

78.1% — The Lakers’ expected effective field-goal percentage on shots off of Luka Dončić’s passes.

Effective field goal percentage = (FGM + (0.5 * 3PM)) / FGA

That’s the highest mark among 88 players who were the passer on at least 10 shots in the first two days of the season. Walker Kessler shot a perfect 12-for-12 in his Lakers debut, in part because his new point guard got him a bunch of dunks and layups. In fact, Kessler’s 10 dunks were tied for the most for any player in a single game since Shaquille O’Neal had 11 dunks more than 23 years ago (Mar. 21, 2003).

Five of Kessler’s 12 buckets were assisted by Dončić, which is tied for the most assists from one player to a single teammate in the first two nights. Dončić had seven total assists, with the Lakers taking just 10 shots off his passes. But him creating great shots is nothing new. Among players who’ve been the passer on at least 500 shots over the 14 seasons of tracking data, only Trae Young (13 assists on Wednesday) has created a higher expected effective field goal percentage.

Highest expected eFG% off passes, since 2013-14

Minimum 500 FGA

Darius Garland had the second highest expected effective field goal percentage among passers on at least 10 shots on Wednesday. He and Dončić will go head-to-head when the Clippers visit the Lakers on Friday (10 ET, League Pass).

2. Wolves dominate the possession game

+18 — Shot-opportunity differential in the Wolves’ win over the Heat.

The Heat shot just 8-for-33 (24%) and got outscored by 39 points from 3-point range, but the biggest difference in this game wasn’t the shooting. Instead, it was the number of shots. The Wolves (true shooting percentage of 59.1%) did make more of their opportunities than the Heat (57.3%), but that’s not a huge differential. What mattered more in the 25-point blowout was the turnovers (16-19) and the offensive rebounds (17-4). That shot-opportunity differential would have been the Wolves’ best and Heat’s worst last season.

Other teams that dominated the possession game were the Grizzlies (16 more shot opportunities than the Jazz), Raptors (13 more than the Bulls) and Warriors (11 more than the Lakers).

The Wolves were in the bottom half of the league in defensive rebounding percentage last season, but if they can continue to keep opponents off the glass like they did on Wednesday, they can complement a more-potent offense with a stout defense. They’ll remain in Florida to take on the Magic on Friday (7 ET, League Pass).

The Heat will now face the team that led the league in shot-opportunity differential last season, hosting the Pistons on Friday (8 ET, League Pass).

3. Leonard hasn’t slowed the Raptors down

43 — Raptors’ transition points in their win over the Bulls.

In each of the last six seasons, the Toronto Raptors have ranked first or second in the percentage of their points (16.5% last season) that have come on fast breaks. But half-court offense has generally been an issue. Kawhi Leonard is back to make them tougher to defend late in the clock, but that doesn’t mean that they want to stop running. And their 43 transition points (via Synergy tracking) on Wednesday would have been tied for their third highest total last season.

It helped that they forced 15 live-ball turnovers out of the Bulls, who also shot just 32%, including 4-for-36 (11%) from 3-point range. Leonard accounted for four of those 15 steals, and Chicago shot just 4-for-11 when he was the closest defender. Transition offense starts with stops.

The Raptors will look to keep running when they visit the Wizards on Friday (7 ET, League Pass). A matchup of two teams that dominated the possession game (Toronto at Minnesota) will follow on Sunday night (7 ET, NBA TV).

The Bulls will hope to take care of the ball better when they play in Milwaukee on Friday afternoon (4 ET, League Pass).

4. Ty Jerome has been doing this

33.0 — Ty Jerome’s points per 36 minutes over his 16 career games with the Grizzlies.

The most stunning line out of Wednesday’s games was Ty Jerome’s career-high 45 points in the Grizzlies’ win over the Jazz. The eighth-year guard shot 17-for-25 (including 5-for-10 from 3-point range) and added seven rebounds and six assists. While 45 points is 12 more than he’d ever scored before, Jerome was putting up relatively big numbers over a small sample size with Memphis last season. After returning from a calf strain, he averaged 31.4 points and 9.0 assists per 36 minutes over 15 games from late January to late March.

The Grizzlies have a great opportunity for a great start, now heading west for a four-game trip where they’ll visit the Warriors (Friday, 10 ET, League Pass), Kings, Jazz and Blazers.

Before facing the Grizzlies again, the Jazz will host the Pelicans (Friday, 9:30 ET, League Pass) and Lakers over the weekend.

5. A historically strong start in Portland

21-0 — The Blazers’ lead before the Suns scored their first points.

This was the sixth time in the 31 seasons for which we have play-by-play data where a team had a lead of at least 20 points before the other team scored. And the Blazers are the only team that’s done it twice…

• Feb. 21, 2004: Blazers 22, Celtics 0.
• Dec. 15, 2014: Cavs 21, Hornets 0.
• Apr. 11, 2016: Wizards 20, Nets 0.
• Mar. 7, 2020: Hornets 20, Rockets 0.
• Dec. 5, 2025: Knicks 23, Jazz 0.
• Oct. 21, 2026: Blazers 21, Suns 0.

All six teams that got off to the great start went on to win the game, with the Wizards (in 2016) being the only one of the six that lost the lead at some point.

The first quarter was the Blazers’ worst quarter (minus-4.0 points per 100 possessions) last season, but maybe their new starting backcourt of Ja Morant and Damian Lillard (along with new head coach Micah Nori) can get them off to better starts this season. They scored 35 points on 23 offensive possessions (152 per 100) with the two guards on the floor together against Phoenix, and they’ll look for another quick start when they visit the Kings on Friday (10 ET, League Pass).

The Suns will hope to bounce back when they host the Warriors on Saturday (10 ET, NBA TV).

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