NBA Monday Night Roundup: Four Preseason Games Live, Timberwolves Rolling Behind Edwards

MONDAY NIGHT — The NBA's preseason week is underway in earnest, and Monday night delivered a full five-game slate with something for every kind of basketball fan. As of about 6 p.m. PT — 9 p.m. Eastern — four games are in progress across Atlanta, Detroit, Philadelphia and Milwaukee, with a nightcap in Sacramento tipping at 10 p.m. ET featuring Luka Dončić and the rebuilt Los Angeles Lakers. The scores below are live and will keep moving until the final horns, but the shape of the evening is already clear: Memphis closing out a win in Atlanta, Philadelphia cruising past the Knicks, Phoenix in control in Detroit, and Minnesota making an early statement in Milwaukee behind its must-see superstar.

ATLANTA — The Grizzlies lead the Hawks 114-101 with just over ten minutes to play in the fourth quarter at State Farm Arena. Memphis has held a double-digit cushion deep into the final period, and this is the stretch of an October night when preseason basketball becomes what it really is: a proving ground for the back half of the roster. The starters' work is largely done by now. What remains is the deep-bench minutes — young guards fighting for rotation spots, two-way players trying to earn the coaches' trust, and everyone on the floor playing like the tape is being watched, because it is.

THE LATE WINDOW — A 13-point fourth-quarter lead in October is the safest kind of lead in basketball. Nobody is staging a frantic comeback in a preseason game; the incentives all run the other way. Atlanta's staff will be far more interested in which of its young players close the game with poise than in the number on the scoreboard. Memphis, for its part, gets to spend the final ten minutes evaluating the guys who rarely see October minutes at all — which is exactly the point of the month.

DETROIT — The Suns lead the Pistons 83-75 with 2:01 left in the third quarter at Little Caesars Arena. This is the tightest game of the night — an eight-point margin with a full quarter still to play — and the kind of second-half stretch coaches live for in the preseason. Phoenix has a working margin but nothing comfortable, which means the rotation decisions coming out of the locker room actually matter: who gets the first crack at the fourth quarter, which combinations the staff wants to see against a live opponent, and which young players get trusted with a game that's still in the balance.

THE DEVELOPMENT LEAGUE — Detroit and Phoenix are both in that familiar October posture: teams with young cores and real questions about who plays where. The Pistons' rebuild has been about accumulating talent; the Suns are retooling around a new shape of their own. Games like this — competitive into the fourth quarter, played in front of a home crowd that showed up for a Monday night in October — are the entire point of the preseason for franchises at this stage. Wins and losses don't count. Answers do.

PHILADELPHIA — The 76ers lead the Knicks 100-80 with 8:10 remaining in the fourth quarter at Xfinity Mobile Arena. Twenty points, eight minutes to play — this one is effectively decided, and both benches know it. For two Eastern Conference neighbors who expect to see each other when the games count, October is about something quieter: health, rhythm, and getting the rotation pieces to fit together without anyone getting hurt. Philadelphia has had the game in hand for a while now, and the final minutes will belong to the players fighting for the last few chairs.

EAST RIVALS — When contenders meet in the preseason, the scoreboard is the least interesting thing in the building. The Knicks and 76ers will measure themselves against each other all season; tonight is about seeing how the new pieces move. Philadelphia's coaching staff gets a clean look at its second unit against real NBA athletes, and New York gets the same. Nobody will remember the final score by Thanksgiving. Everybody will remember who looked ready.

MILWAUKEE — The Timberwolves lead the Bucks 49-34 with 4:53 left in the second quarter at Fiserv Forum — and this is the game with the night's biggest star on the floor. Anthony Edwards is must-see television every time he steps onto a court, and Minnesota has jumped out to a 15-point lead as the first half winds down. The Wolves came out of the gate with the kind of defensive intensity that sets a tone for October: hold a team under 40 points for nearly two full quarters, and you're telling the coaching staff the summer work took.

MUST-SEE TV — Here's the thing about watching Edwards in the preseason: you don't come for the stat line, you come for the moments. The burst in transition, the audacity of the pull-up, the way the entire arena leans forward when he gets a runway. Minnesota doesn't need him to play heavy minutes in October — nobody does — but every possession he plays is a reminder of why the Timberwolves' ceiling starts with him. The Bucks, meanwhile, have a whole second half to find their footing at home. A 15-point halftime deficit in the preseason is a film-session problem, not a crisis.

SACRAMENTO — And then there's the nightcap. The Lakers visit the Kings at 10 p.m. ET — 7 p.m. PT — at Golden 1 Center, and it's the most anticipated preseason tip of the young week: Luka Dončić's first look at game action with a completely rebuilt Lakers roster, nine new faces deep, with two starting spots and a whole rotation still up for grabs. The game airs on NBA TV and streams on NBA League Pass. We've got the full preview — who's starting, who's fighting for minutes, and what to watch right here on Previously.

October basketball is a strange and wonderful thing. The games don't count, but the work does — every rotation battle, every rookie's first real minutes, every new-look roster trying to learn itself in public. By the time the nightcap ends in Sacramento, all five of Monday's games will be in the books, and the league's coaches will have a fresh stack of tape to argue over on Tuesday morning. That's the preseason: nobody remembers the scores, everybody remembers what they learned. Check back with Previously's NBA hub for the morning wrap and everything the night's finals told us.