Photo: Sport355
Preseason Mondays are not supposed to teach you much. The stars play a half, the benches play the rest, and everybody flies home healthy. But scattered across Monday's four other games — the ones surrounding Atlanta's 113-110 win over Oklahoma City — there were real signals: a contender's superstar treating Madison Square Garden like a proving ground anyway, an offense in Brooklyn that could not stop scoring, a cross-Atlantic exhibition that turned into a 53-point rout, and one very large absence in Utah. Here is what Monday night actually taught us, game by game, with every score and stat line verified against ESPN.
Minnesota 122, New York 104: Edwards Treats MSG Like It Counts
The Timberwolves walked into Madison Square Garden and played the most complete game of the night. Minnesota won every quarter but the third — 30-25, 32-25, 28-30, 32-24 — led 62-50 at halftime, and closed with a 32-point fourth that removed any doubt, finishing off a 122-104 win over the Knicks in a matchup of teams with genuine spring ambitions.
Anthony Edwards was the best player on the floor by a wide margin: 26 points in just 25 minutes, the kind of ruthless efficiency that has become his signature on this stage. Jaden McDaniels backed him with 22 points and 5 rebounds, LaMelo Ball steered the offense with 10 points and 7 assists, and Ayo Dosunmu chipped in 11 off the bench. Minnesota's rotation looked deep, long and entirely unbothered by the building.
New York's night came with an asterisk the size of its minutes sheet: every Knicks starter played exactly 22 minutes, a preseason load-management grid if there ever was one. Within that limit, Jalen Brunson scored 20 points with 5 rebounds, OG Anunoby added 15, and Karl-Anthony Towns had 11 points and 4 assists. The Knicks were not embarrassed so much as scheduled — but 104 points with the starters capped still leaves questions about where the offense comes from when Brunson sits, and Minnesota's length made sure those questions got asked out loud.
Brooklyn 131, Washington 122: A Track Meet in the Capital
Photo: Barclays Center
If defense is coming to the Brooklyn-Washington rivalry, it did not arrive Monday. The Nets scored 36, 37, 30 and 28 by quarters — a metronome of offense — and beat the Wizards 131-122 in a game where Washington's 40-point second quarter somehow was not enough to take control.
Michael Porter Jr. led Brooklyn with 22 points in 24 minutes, and the Nets' balance behind him was the real story: six players in double figures. Nolan Traore scored 17, Keon Ellis and Noah Clowney 15 apiece, Moritz Wagner 13, and Julius Randle conducted the whole thing with 14 points and a team-high 9 assists — a power forward playing point-forward, bending Washington's defense until something broke open. Brooklyn's second unit outscored, outran and ultimately outlasted a Wizards team that was game all night.
Washington got 21 points from Kyshawn George, 19 from Bilal Coulibaly, 14 each from rookie AJ Dybantsa and Bub Carrington, and a conductor's line from Trae Young — 11 points and 11 assists in 28 minutes. The Wizards scored 122 and lost by nine while shooting the ball well enough to win most nights. In the preseason that is a fine problem to have; the defensive end is where their film session will live this week.
Portland 119, London Lions 66: The Exhibition That Became a Rout
International exhibitions are supposed to be competitive for a half and friendly by the fourth. Portland skipped both steps. The Trail Blazers led the visiting London Lions 34-21 after one quarter and 72-33 at halftime, then cruised to a 119-66 final — a 53-point margin that says as much about Portland's depth as it does about the gap between an NBA roster and a visiting club.
Portland's scoring was a group project: Toumani Camara and Scoot Henderson scored 14 apiece, Yang Hansen added 13 points, 4 rebounds and 4 assists in 21 minutes, Sidy Cissoko scored 13, and Donovan Clingan posted 11 points and 6 rebounds in 15 minutes. Fourteen Blazers saw the floor and the rotation never found a combination that stopped scoring. For London, Maxwell Lewis led with 13 points and Devante Adams added 12 — a long night, but exactly the kind of measuring-stick evening these tours exist to provide.
The honest read: results against non-NBA opposition prove little, but the manner matters. Portland's young core played hard, shared the ball and defended a team it could easily have overlooked. Habits are habits, even in a blowout.
San Antonio at Utah: The Wembanyama Watch — Still Waiting
The night's most interesting game might be the one still going. At halftime in Utah, the Jazz led the Spurs 68-61 — and the box score's biggest number was a zero: Victor Wembanyama had not played a single minute through two quarters, with no stats recorded in ESPN's box score. Whether San Antonio is managing his preseason load or saving him for the second half, the Spurs are living the no-Wemby experience in real time, and it looks like hard work.
To their credit, the Spurs are hanging around. Harrison Barnes poured in 18 first-half points, Keldon Johnson added 14, and Jordan McLaughlin ran the show with 12 points and 5 assists as San Antonio matched Utah 35-35 in the second quarter after a sluggish first. Utah's balance is the problem on the other side: Jaren Jackson Jr. and Keyonte George scored 13 apiece, Lauri Markkanen and Jaxson Hayes 11 each, and the Jazz put up 68 in a half against a defense missing its eraser. This one was in progress as the roundup published; the final belongs to the morning papers.
What Monday Actually Taught Us
Zoom out and the night had a theme: star efficiency in capped minutes. Edwards needed 25 minutes for 26 points. Porter needed 24 for 22. Brunson's whole starting five never saw a 23rd minute. The league's preseason economy runs on exactly this exchange — enough real reps to build rhythm, never enough to risk the season — and Monday's best teams all cashed it in.
The second lesson is depth. Brooklyn won with six double-figure scorers, Portland won with everybody, Minnesota's bench held a lead at MSG, and Atlanta — in the night's headline game — closed out Oklahoma City with its rotation players. Ten days from the games that count, the teams that look deepest in October are rarely wrong about themselves.
And the third lesson is the absence that hung over Utah: everything about San Antonio's season bends around Wembanyama, and a half played without him is a half spent learning how much. Monday gave them 61 points of fight and a seven-point hole. What the second half — and the season — looks like with him is the only question that matters in San Antonio. Follow the rest of the preseason and every night's scores on our NBA page, the full Sports front, and the Previously news front.
All final scores and statistics verified against ESPN box scores at publication. San Antonio at Utah was at halftime — Jazz 68, Spurs 61 — when this roundup was published.
