Opening night of the 2026-27 NBA season is in the books, and it was a wild one -- a fitting start for what figures to be a wild season. It started with the Pistons storming back from down 22 points to stun the Celtics. LeBron James and the 76ers followed that by spoiling the Knicks' ring night with a supremely impressive victory at Madison Square Garden. And in the nightcap, the Thunder served Victor Wembanyama and the Spurs a fat slice of humble pie. 

Naturally, the takes are going to be flying after one game, silly as that is. So I figured I would get ahead of them and address how much truth, if any, there might be in these Game 1 overreactions.  

The Spurs' honeymoon is over

There is actually some truth to this because expectations have accelerated so quickly in San Antonio, and with that comes much greater scrutiny. The Spurs just aren't going to get away with a performance like the one they offered in a relatively resounding 116-104 opening-night loss to the Thunder in the same way they would have last year, when they were playing with house money. 

Victor Wembanyama was the No. 1 player in our CBS Sports Top 100 player rankings. He's the Vegas favorite to win MVP and Defensive Player of the Year. When he goes 1 for 13 for 12 points in a marquee matchup, as he did in the loss to OKC on Tuesday, he's going to get roasted for it. 

People are going to take a showing like this and say Wemby was crowned too early, that we need to slow down the hype around him and the Spurs, that Oklahoma City is still the better team and would have won the conference finals last year had Jalen Williams and Ajay Mitchell been healthy. 

That may be true. But that doesn't mean the Spurs aren't every bit as good as we all project them to be or that Wembanyama has somehow been overhyped too soon. He does need to figure out a way to get to a consistent scoring spot, but even on a highly unusual off-night offensively, he recorded 13 rebounds and six blocks. Wemby will be fine. So will the Spurs. Oklahoma City is just really freaking good, too. 

The 76ers have it all figured out

This certainly looked to be the case on opening night in an extremely impressive 106-100 victory over the Knicks. The offensive balance reflected a unit that has been playing together for years, evidenced by every starter getting double-digit shot attempts with hardly any feeling forced. 

Tyrese Maxey -- as he should be -- was the most aggressive scorer. LeBron James did a little of everything: led the way with seven assists, added nine rebounds, and finished with his standard freight-train force at the basket en route to a near triple-double. Joel Embiid looked as defensively mobile as he has in years, and he hurt the Knicks in two-man actions and as a short-roll playmaker when they continuously blitzed Maxey late in the game.

Meanwhile, Jaylen Brown, who on paper profiles as the guy with the toughest adjustment to all this because he is such a ball-dominant scorer by nature, let his 19 points come to him, selectively attacking off the dribble, running in transition and hanging around the basket where James found him twice for point-blank finishes. And he really defended, cutting off numerous drives, including this OG Anunoby foray that led to a huge pick-six for Maxey in a four-point game.  

This is exactly as coach Nick Nurse would draw it up, right down to the Sixers logging 24 fast-break points, a number that would have led the league last season by a mile and makes perfect sense considering Maxey and James ranked 1-2 league-wide last season in total fast-break points and Brown was 10th. Add in VJ Edgecombe to that trio, and the Sixers are going to have the pedal down all season. As season openers go, this was a dream start for the Sixers -- who didn't even have Dean Wade, who's going to quietly power some of the most dangerous Philly lineups, as he always did for Cleveland. 

But it's one game. They didn't shoot well, and that could be an off-and-on problem all year. Embiid looks like he hasn't eaten a carb in a year, but let's see how long he stays healthy and whether he ends up anchoring down a team that clearly wants to run. Let's see if a 41-year-old James keeps the same energy in November against the Magic that he brought on opening night at Madison Square Garden. There will be growing pains in Philly. 

But man, was this a promising showing, because it's not as if the Sixers were scorching hot or the Knicks played like trash. This was just a rock-solid win by a team that was connected on both ends in ways typically reserved for far more familiarized units.

Paul George is going to be an All-Star

George is a great fit on this Celtics team with his elite off-ball shooting, a stark contrast from Brown, who thrives in one-on-one (which will be missed in its own right, particularly in the playoffs). But let's settle down with the All-Star takes. His 38-point outing in the opening loss to the Pistons might literally be the best game George has all season. He was sensational. 

It's the first night of the season and I'm already seeing takes that the Celtics would be better off to have George be the initiator and let Jayson Tatum play more secondary offense. Dude. Are we really doing this? Let's just be happy that George got off to a hot start, because what's true in all this is that he can be very good for the Celtics this year. 

Jayson Tatum already misses Jaylen Brown

There's going to be some truth to this all season. Without Brown's rim pressure, Boston is going to have to make a lot of jumpers and Tatum, who will now garner an even greater degree of opposing defenses' focus, is going to be tasked both with creating and making a lot of those. 

Tatum fulfilled the creation part in the opener at Detroit, finishing with 11 assists as he drew multiple defenders and saw the floor well out of those positions. George benefited greatly with seven 3s en route to a Celtics record for points in a team debut with 38. 

The problem was, Tatum didn't make many of his own jumpers. He finished 6 for 23 and missed all seven of his 3s. He scored 13 points, only two of which came in the second half on 1-of-10 shooting as Detroit went on a 23-0 run to pull off a stunning comeback. 

"It felt good," Tatum said of his shooting. "Definitely not one of my best nights. I just have to play better. Part of my role is scoring. I felt really good about a lot of the looks."

Tatum is going to settle for a few pull-up 3s every game that you'd like to see him get downhill with, especially when he gets a big switched onto him, but for the most part, he's right. He did get pretty clean looks and those shots are going to go on more times than not. 

So let's not get worked up about this. Tatum moved well, got to his spots and made the right read out of double teams all night, and he's not going to be facing Detroit's defense, and in particular Ausar Thompson, every night. The shot just wasn't there on Tuesday. It happens. It doesn't mean he's somehow unfit for the greater challenge of playing without a star sidekick for the first time in his career.