Every morning, we will give you five things from the night before in the NBA to start your day.
1: Waiters sinks Clippers
It did not take long for Dion Waiters to find his footing in the NBA. After two years largely spent coming off the bench at Syracuse and being a change-of-pace guard, Waiters was selected with the fourth pick overall by the Cavaliers. He has stepped right in to Cleveland's lineup and torn things up, showing to be a much more capable 3-point shooter than he was at Syracuse.
Waiters made sure the Clippers knew who he was and what kind of player he can be in the Cavaliers' 108-101 win at Staples Center.
The rookie scored 28 points, hitting on 7 of his 11 3-point attempts. He is shooting 48.0 percent from the floor and 55.0 percent from beyond the arc, averaging 16.3 points per game. Waiters is taking the NBA by storm and Los Angeles learned that when the team left him open time and time again.
The Cavaliers though needed some Kyrie Irving, turning in an All-Star caliber year himself (through four games). Irving outdueled Chris Paul with 24 points and 10 assists including a killer 3-pointer late in the game give Cleveland a pretty big road win.
2: Wolves come back
New arena, same old Nets? Not quite. Brooklyn has changed its identity as a franchise and rebranded itself, but that does not mean there is not a little bit of the old Nets and the perceptions about that franchise still alive in the Barclays Center. Or maybe Monday night's game says more about the Timberwolves and their rebuilding efforts.
Minnesota erased a 22-point lead and outscored Brooklyn 32-10 in the fourth quarter to grab a road win and perhaps say soemthing about this Minnesota team. Chase Budinger came off the bench to score 16 points and Alexey Shved had 11 off the bench to help key the run that ultimately gave Minnesota victory.
If anything, it proves that not everything is rosy for the Nets as they move into their new digs. There is still a lot of growing for this team to do. It also should be noted that the Barclays Center still has a few glitches as computers were malfunctioning in the arena.
Still lots of work to do.
3: HIGHLIGHTS!!!
RIP Jim Durham
J.R. Smith cleared for takeoff
Kings edge Warriors
4: Line of the Night: O.J. Mayo 32 points, 12/18 FGs, 6/3 3FGs
Not a bad way to celebrate your 25th birthday right? Mayo has been a torrid pace as the central focus of Dallas' offense with Dirk Nowitzki sitting out with an injury. Mayo helped set the tone and pace Dallas in a 114-91 win over Portland on Monday. Mayo is averaging 21.5 points per game and shooting 50.9 percent from the floor as he has become a full-time starter after leaving Memphis.
5: You can quote me on that
It's still early on. The point of this team, the versatility and the depth, it could be a different guy every night.
–Erik Spoelstra after Dwyane Wade scored 22 points in a 124-99 win over the Suns
Maybe it’s what we needed. After that first win I think we were maybe a little bit too high on ourselves. This knocked us down a little bit, but we’ve got to use this as a steppingstone.
