DAME TIME | TMK #3 - October 27th

Today, on Polysport:

A 33-year-old wears a new jersey, a hail mary goes untouched, and Europeans pretend to be Russell Westbrook.

The Starting Five:

• DAME TIME

• KD Strikes Back

• Europa League Week 3

• Thursday Night Football

• A European Brickfest

Today’s Action:

• NBA

• Premier League

• La Liga

• Rugby World Cup

🏀 DAME TIME

If the first game of the season is anything to go by, Milwaukee fans are in for a treat this season. Damian Lillard wasted absolutely no time in making himself known and broke the Bucks’ record for points in a first game with 39 in a 118-117 victory over the Philadelphia 76ers.

This could not have gone better.

You’d think that Dame and Giannis would need time to get to know each other and play well together. You’d be wrong. From the opening minute of the game, it was clear that the Bucks brought Dame to do Dame things, and Dame Time did not waste time.

Lillard and Antetokounmpo looked comfortable together, with Giannis playing the team game and not forcing the ball through him. Giannis finished the game with 23 points and 13 rebounds and proved that, as he claimed during the off-season, he’s focused on winning.

Maybe more impressively, while Lillard did take over the 4th quarter by scoring 14 points in 4 minutes to end the game, he did not play hero ball. The Bucks’ supporting cast - namely Brook Lopez and Jae Crowder - both hit clutch 3s to keep Milwaukee in the game as the 76ers opened an 8-point gap halfway through the 4th. Bobby Portis finished with 10 points and a strong contribution.

Long story short, the Bucks already look like complete a team, and that’s a scary thought.

The 76ers deserve a good word for giving the Bucks everything they could handle. Tyrese Maxey looks to have taken a step forward from last season and finished with 36 points and 8 assists. Kelly Oubre was the second most prolific scorer on the 76ers with 27 points. Reigning MVP Joel Embiid scored 24, and Tobias Harris added 20. The 76ers played a good team game and shot 45% from the 3-point line.

The East’s top contenders have looked the part in their first game.

🏀 KD Strikes Back

Yesterday, I mentioned two things I’d be watching in this game: KD’s performance and Lebron’s minutes. Both improved dramatically.

Let’s start with Kevin Durant. After a lackluster 15-point opening game this season, KD came back with a vengeance to score 39 in the Suns 100-95 loss to the Lakers. With Devin Booker and Bradley Beal nursing injuries, KD singlehandedly put the Suns up 12 points heading into the fourth quarter.

However, the lack of a supporting cast was in the spotlight during the fourth quarter, when the Suns scored only 11 points, with only 2 of those points being scored by a Suns player not named Kevin Durant.

Durant might be Superman, but he can’t save everyone, everywhere, all at once.

This is a troubling proposition for the Suns, who gave up depth for star power. Granted, the 2 best players after KD were not available, but as they say - the best ability is availability.

As for the Lakers, one thing is clear - Lebron still wants to win more than anything else. Two games in, and the plan to cap Lebron’s minutes at 30 is already a distant memory. Lebron played 35 minutes and scored 21 points, 10 of which in the fourth quarter.

LeBron said after the game that while the team has a system for him in place this season, “tonight called for me to go outside the box”. For this Lakers team to go anywhere this year, LeBron is going to have to live out of the box.

⚽ Europa League - Week 3

Group A

Olympiakos 2 - 1 West Ham

TSC Backa Topola 1 - 3 Freiburg

Group A of the Europa League is wide open, as teams keep losing to each other. West Ham lost to Olympiakos, who itself lost to Freiburg, who lost to West Ham. And round and round we go. The only certainty is that unfortunately, Backa Topola isn’t going anywhere.

Group B

Olympique Marseille 3 - 1 AEK Athens

Brighton 2 - 0 Ajax Amsterdam

With yesterday’s results, Group B is up for grabs. Three points separate Marseille at the top and Ajax at the bottom, and a single game would be enough to turn the table on its head. No team looks like a clear favorite to top this group.

Group C

Aris Limassol 0 - 1 Real Betis

Sparta Prague 0 - 0 Glasgow Rangers

Yet another group that’s too close to call, the Europa League is providing some interesting action this year. Real Betis lost to the Rangers, who lost to Limassol, who just lost to Betis…you get the idea.

Group D

Strum Graz 2 - 2 Atalanta

Rakow 1 - 1 Sporting Lisbon

Atalanta sits atop the group with 7 points but dropped 2 points as Strum managed to equalize despite being down to 10 men. Nevertheless, Atalanta looks like the clear favorite to top Group D.

Group E

Liverpool 5 - 1 Toulouse

Union Saint Gilloise 2 - 1 Linz ASK

Our game to watch yesterday delivered, and Liverpool outclassed Toulouse in every aspect of the game. Liverpool are comfortably first in the group and look like the favorites to win the tournament. Meanwhile, USG pulled out an important comeback with goals in the 84’ and 94’ minutes to keep itself in the running.

Group F

Panathinaikos 1 - 2 Rennes

Villareal - Maccabi Haifa - TBD

Rennes scored an important away victory against the former head of the group to take its place and position itself as the front-runner heading into the 2nd leg of games. The game between Villareal and Maccabi Haifa has been reported due to the ongoing war in Israel.

Group G

AS Roma 2 - 0 Slavia Praha

Sheriff Tiraspol 1 - 1 Servette Geneva

Roma set the tone from the get-go with a first-minute goal and finished the first round of games with three wins in as many games. Slavia Praha will hope to repay the favor in the return game to challenge Roma’s position at the top.

Group H

Molde FK 5 - 1 BK Hacken

Bayer Leverkusen 5 - 1 Qarabag FC

It’s not often that you see two games ending 5-1 in the same group, on the same day. It was almost the same game: 1-0, 1-1, and 5-1 from there. Qarabag previously beat Molde and Hacken just to get thrashed by the Germans; this group's best team isn’t in any doubt.

🏈 TNF: Bills 24 - 18 Bucs

Did the Bills do enough to bounce back from a surprising loss against the Patriots last week? Yes, but barely.

Allen looked like himself once again and finished the game with 324 yards on 31/40 passing, 2 passing TDs, and 1 rushing TD. He played his part and looked a lot more dialed in than he has this season. He came out aggressively to play and led his team as we are used to seeing from him.

But Allen was never the Bills’ main problem. Their defense is. Since the Bills lost their best defender in Matt Milano and best cornerback in Tre’Davious White, they haven’t been able to close out games and left themselves vulnerable to getting burned by the Bucs.

Baker Mayfield had a decent game, throwing for 237 yards and 2 TDs, despite looking lost at times. But his biggest throw - a hail mary to essentially win the game - went untouched in the endzone, despite Chris Godwin being milliseconds away from adjusting and catching it. If only he had turned around a split second earlier.

This wasn't the convincing display you’d expect from a contender at home. The Bills may have won, but if they want to get anywhere this season, they have A LOT of work to do.

🏀 Real Madrid 65 - 64 Barcelona

Let me start by stating that I like European Basketball. It’s a good game, played by good players. The rotations are deep - the 12th man can easily see 10 to 15 minutes of action a game. European Basketball is intense; the crowd gets into it, and the atmosphere is electric. At least, in most cases.

Yesterday’s Clasico between Real Madrid and Barcelona was a brickfest like I hadn’t seen in a while. Here’s the entire game in one stat:

Real Madrid - who won the game - shot 9% from the 3-point line. That’s 2 from 22. What?

Both teams came in with the best offense in the Euroleague (90 and 89 points a game, respectively), and neither could manage more than 65 points. You wouldn’t know it from watching the highlights, but this game was tough to watch.

In total, Madrid shot 24 from 66 (36.4%) from the field, while Barca managed to shoot 25 from 65 (38.5%). Even the free throw percentage was awful, 62.5% for Madrid, 56.2%(!) for Barcelona. Steph Curry can hit threes better than Barcelona can hit free throws. What?

The game was intense and went back and forth, with both teams taking leads and squandering them. All in all, it wasn’t a TERRIBLE game, but I do hope that should these two teams get to the Euroleague Final, we’ll see a better game than the one we saw yesterday.

⚽ Premier League

Crystal Palace - Tottenham Hotspurs

Tottenham lost Harry Kane - its top scorer of all time - to Bayern Munich and yet leads the Premier League after 9 games. They’re playing well and haven’t lost a game so far.

⚽ La Liga

FC Girona - Celta Vigo

Girona is arguably the best story of the early season in Football, having won 8 of 10 and being tied for 1st with Real Madrid atop La Liga. La Liga is notoriously dominated by European powerhouses, and Girona…isn’t one of them. Is Girona the Spanish Leicester? Let’s hope so.

🏀 NBA

Boston Celtics - Miami Heat

A repeat of last year’s Conference Finals, which Miami won 4-3 to the dismay of Boston’s fans everywhere. The Celtics looked very strong against the Knicks earlier this week, and the addition of Porzingis seemed to have its intended impact. Meanwhile, the Heat’s roster largely stayed the same, minus Gabe Vincent who got paid by the Lakers.

Sacramento Kings - Golden State Warriors

The closest thing to a Bay Area derby in the NBA, both teams made the playoffs last year and will be looking to do so again. Both teams looked strong in their first game, and would be no surprise if this game ends up being a decided factor in these teams’ playoff seedings later in the season.

🏉 Rugby World Cup

3rd Place Match: Argentina - England

The game no one wants to play is back, with Argentina playing England mostly for pride. Argentina, who were soundly beaten by the All-Blacks in the semifinal, will be looking to secure a Southern Hemisphere Top 3 in this World Cup. England, coming off a disappointing 1-point loss to the South Africans, will try to end its tournament on a high note and defend the honor of Nothern rugby.

Wrap Up

Sport is the gift that keeps on giving. The more the merrier, right? See you tomorrow.