The first night of the NBA is here. Now you can stop pretending that you are going to win your NFL fantasy league and pay attention to something important.
Tuesday night’s opening matchup between the Cleveland Cavaliers and Boston Celtics was of course one of intrigue for many reasons. The teams have new rosters after a trade involving Kyrie Irving, Isaiah Thomas, and Jae Crowder, just to name a few.
The NBA likes to open its seasons with matchups like this, and the crowd at The Q in Cleveland did not disappoint when they saw Irving once more.
There did not appear to be bad blood on the court between LeBron James and Irving, and the two exchanged a friendly fist bump as is customary before the tip.
Via Instagram:
No hug for LeBron and Kyrie #3Cavs pic.twitter.com/8gNevnyWuh
— Ben Axelrod (@BenAxelrod) October 18, 2017
Of course, Cavaliers fans did not hold back once the Celtics won the tip off and Kyrie handled the ball for the first time.
If you missed it, here was Kyrie Irving's first basket as a member of the Boston Celtics: pic.twitter.com/pReiYVd6bh
— Alex Kennedy (@AlexKennedyNBA) October 18, 2017
Cavs will not run Kyrie Irving tribute video tonight. It was a floating moment and team says that moment never presented itself
— Jason Lloyd (@ByJasonLloyd) October 18, 2017
There was also myriad technical fouls, including one on Irving after a timeout and one on Al Horford for clapping at Crowder. The latter gave us this gem:
Is an absolute bummer that the Celtics will be without Gordon Hayward as he recovers from a broken left ankle. But, at least there will be some bad blood remaining between these teams to entertain us over the course of the regular season.