The Short Version
- Nets 114, 76ers 108 — Brooklyn spoils LeBron James’s first night in a Sixers uniform at Barclays; he and Jaylen Brown take the floor together for the first time and it ends in a six-point preseason loss.
- Wizards 111, Knicks 109 — AJ Dybantsa’s debut: 11 points, 4 steals, and the game-sealing stop as Washington beats the defending champions at the Garden.
- Hawks 123, Spurs 116 — Dyson Daniels triple-doubles (21 points, 13 rebounds, 11 assists) to power a comeback from 19 down in San Antonio.
- Heat 128, Pelicans 118 — Giannis goes for 18-4-4 in 18 minutes; Miami piles up 36 assists against 11 turnovers.
- Celtics 124, Cavaliers 113 — Luka Garza drops 22 and 10 with eight Celtics sitting; Boston’s deep bench wins the second-chance battle 21-6 on the offensive glass.
- Lakers 114, Kings 110 — Luka Dončić’s 23 leads the way on ESPN2; Austin Reaves debuts after the ankle injury and Sacramento’s 40-point fourth quarter falls just short.
THURSDAY NIGHT — The Nets spoiled LeBron’s 76ers debut. AJ Dybantsa arrived at the Garden with four steals and a win over the defending champions. Dyson Daniels triple-doubled the Hawks back from 19 down in San Antonio. Six preseason games on Thursday night, and October basketball talked plenty — Giannis kept rolling in Miami, the Celtics’ deep bench buried Cleveland’s starters, and Luka’s Lakers survived a 40-point Kings fourth quarter on ESPN2.
Nets 114, 76ers 108: the super-team debut gets crashed
LeBron James took the floor in a Philadelphia 76ers uniform for the first time on Thursday night, with Jaylen Brown beside him — the pairing the entire Eastern Conference has been dreading since the summer. It took about one half of looking like the future before Brooklyn’s depth turned it into a preseason loss nobody in Philly wanted on the record.
The Nets didn’t care about the occasion. Moritz Wagner was going at LeBron in the first quarter, Brooklyn’s second unit kept coming in waves, and the Sixers’ starters, for all their shine in stretches, never quite looked like a finished product. Dazzling at times, sloppy at others — which is exactly what a first night together is supposed to look like, and exactly what the rest of the East will be studying on film.
Here’s the thing about October: this loss means nothing, and the questions it raises mean everything. LeBron is 41 and has always needed the ball to bend a defense. Brown is at his best with it too. Somebody has to be the third option on a team built around three first options, and nobody figures that out in a preseason game in Brooklyn. For the full picture of how this roster got assembled, read our breakdown of the Sixers’ super-team summer.
Wizards 111, Knicks 109: the No. 1 pick announces himself
AJ Dybantsa didn’t wait long to make his case as the headliner of the 2026 draft class. The first-overall pick put up 11 points, 2 rebounds, 2 assists and four steals in his Wizards debut, and the last of those takeaways helped seal a 111-109 win over the defending-champion Knicks at the Garden.
The scoring will come — 5-of-11 in a debut is fine — but the four steals are the story. The pre-draft knock on Dybantsa was effort on the defensive end, and he spent Thursday night living in passing lanes against a fully healthy championship roster. Wizards coach Brian Keefe noticed, praising the rookie’s cutting people off and guarding one-on-one after the game. When your coach’s first rave review is about defense, the scouting report is already outdated.
The finish was pure October chaos: Tyler Nickel buried a three with 27 seconds left, Jaden Akins drove for a layup at 1:12, and a Reece Beekman turnover with eight seconds left ended the Knicks’ last gasp. Also worth your attention: Anthony Davis, in a Wizards jersey, driving to the basket at the Garden. This Washington roster — AD, Trae Young running the offense, and now Dybantsa — is the weirdest and most fun experiment in the league.
On the other side: the champs took an L at home in a game that doesn’t matter, and the more interesting Knicks news is Jordan Clarkson coming back on a one-year, $3.9 million veteran-minimum deal. He’s seventh all-time in bench points and 39 away from passing Thurl Bailey for sixth — but he’s buried behind Landry Shamet, Jose Alvarado and Miles McBride in a crowded backcourt. That’s a good problem for the champs and a quiet one for Clarkson.
Hawks 123, Spurs 116: Dyson Daniels does everything
Down 39-20 after one quarter in San Antonio, the Hawks could have packed it in and called it a preseason. Instead Dyson Daniels went and got a triple-double: 21 points, 13 rebounds, 11 assists, plus a steal and a block for good measure. Atlanta ripped off a 42-30 second quarter and never gave the lead back, winning 123-116.
Daniels was already one of the league’s premier perimeter defenders; nights like this are how he becomes something more. A 6-16 shooting line won’t make the highlight mix, but 13 boards and 11 dimes from your defensive stopper absolutely will. Jock Landale chipped in 14 points, 10 rebounds and 5 assists off the bench — the Hawks’ Australian connection quietly had itself a night.
Heat 128, Pelicans 118: Giannis is already home
Eighteen points, four rebounds, four assists and a steal in 18 minutes. That’s Giannis Antetokounmpo’s Thursday: 8-of-13 from the field, scoring at will in the first half, and 27 total points across his first two exhibitions in a Heat uniform. The fit conversation is over. He looks like he’s been in Miami for years.
The supporting cast is rounding into shape too. Klay Thompson’s shot is still rusty — 5 points on 2-of-7, 1-of-6 from three — but he was aggressive, added 3 blocks and 3 assists in 14 minutes, and his willingness to let it fly is exactly the spacing this team needs next to Giannis. Davion Mitchell ran the show with 9 points and 7 assists, Andrew Wiggins had 13, and Bam Adebayo did Bam things. As a team: 47 percent shooting, 36 assists, 11 turnovers to New Orleans’ 22. The ball is moving and nobody’s standing around watching the new guy.
For the Pelicans, the “finally healthy” season started quietly: Zion Williamson managed 8 points on 3-of-9 shooting, and Trey Murphy III had 11 on 3-of-8. It’s one preseason game, but the gap between these two rosters looked like more than ten points. Miami gets Minnesota on Saturday; the real debut — Giannis’s official Heat regular-season opener — comes October 21 against the Timberwolves on ESPN.
Celtics 124, Cavaliers 113: the deep bench buries the starters
Boston sat eight rotation players — Jayson Tatum, Derrick White, Paul George, Mitchell Robinson, Neemias Queta, Sam Hauser, Ron Harper Jr. and Payton Pritchard — and still walked into Cleveland and beat the Cavs’ actual starters by 11. Luka Garza led the way with a game-high 22 points and 10 rebounds in 27 minutes of pure hustle, and Devin Carter, fighting for the final two-way contract, added 17 points and 5 rebounds off the bench.
The number that tells the story: 21 offensive rebounds for Boston, 6 for Cleveland. The Celtics’ third unit wanted it more than the Cavs’ first unit, which is either a great sign for Boston’s depth or a worrying one for Cleveland’s edge. Donovan Mitchell had 11 in his 17 minutes, Tristan Enaruna led the Cavs’ bench with 13, and rookie Tyrese Proctor dropped 21 off the bench for Cleveland in the loss.
Circle Saturday: the Celtics host the 76ers at TD Garden, which could be Jaylen Brown’s first game against his old team in Boston. Preseason or not, that building will have feelings about it.
Lakers 114, Kings 110: Luka holds off the late charge
The ESPN2 nightcap nearly turned into a collapse. The Lakers led 57-43 at halftime, Luka Dončić was cooking to the tune of 23 points (6-of-16, a perfect 9-of-9 from the line), and then Sacramento dropped 40 in the fourth quarter to make the final minute genuinely uncomfortable. A Daeqwon Plowden bank shot at the buzzer cut it to 114-110 — close enough to raise eyebrows, not close enough to matter.
The bigger Lakers story was Austin Reaves. After missing the first two preseason games with an ankle tweaked in practice, the $180 million man debuted with 8 points, 8 assists and 5 rebounds in 25 minutes — team-high in dimes despite a 2-of-7 shooting night. The shot will come; the playmaking was already there. Jake LaRavia (17 points on 6-of-9) and Sandro Mamukelashvili (19 on 7-of-10) kept the bench mob rolling, and Dončić even picked up a third-quarter technical — free of charge, since they don’t carry over.
Still out: Walker Kessler, the 7-foot-2 center acquired from Utah, who jammed a finger in practice and hasn’t played yet. JJ Redick says the team will examine it Friday and expects him to play this preseason, so file it under precaution. Ziaire Williams sat with soreness that the team isn’t worried about. The Lakers are 2-1 with two to go: Tuesday against the Warriors in Las Vegas, then Denver on October 16. For the full setup on this rematch, see our Thursday preview.
What to watch Friday
The NBA China Games take over the morning: Rockets vs. Mavericks at 8:00 AM ET in Macao. That’s Kyrie Irving’s building — he opened up Thursday about the calf strain that delayed his comeback — and possibly his first game in 19 months, against Kevin Durant’s Rockets. Set an alarm; this is the most interesting exhibition of the week.
The evening slate is lighter but has juice: Pistons vs. Suns at 7:00 PM ET, then Grizzlies vs. Bulls at 8:00 PM ET from the United Center. Chicago’s young core gets another look after the Tuesday win over Phoenix, and Memphis needs a bounce-back showing.
Sources
- Sportradar — Nets-76ers final, box score, Oct 8
- Newslocker — Sixers super-team debut, Wizards-Knicks recap, Oct 8
- Sportradar — Wizards-Knicks final, play-by-play, Oct 8
- Fadeaway World — Dybantsa debut takeaways, Keefe quotes, Oct 8
- New York Post — Clarkson vet-minimum return, Oct 8
- Sportradar — Hawks-Spurs final, quarter splits, Oct 8
- Basketball.com.au — Daniels triple-double, Landale line, Oct 8
- Sportradar — Heat-Pelicans final, box score, Oct 8
- Fadeaway World — Heat player ratings, team stats, Oct 8
- RotoWire — Giannis 18/4/4 line, Oct 8
- NBC Sports — Giannis stat line, Oct 8
- All U Can Heat — Thompson encore, Oct 8
- Celtics Wire — Celtics-Cavs recap, Garza/Carter, Oct 8
- NBC Sports Boston — Celtics preseason opener live blog, Oct 8
- Sportradar — Lakers-Kings final, box score, Oct 8
- New York Post — Reaves preseason debut, Kessler finger, Oct 8
- NBC Sports — Dončić/Mamukelašvili/Reaves lines, Oct 9
- SportsHistori — Oct 9 preseason schedule
- ESPN Press Room — ESPN preseason TV schedule, Oct 8 tip-off
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