It's Wemby Time | TMK #2 - October 26th

Today, on Polysport:

A tall man makes his debut in the NBA. A blond man finally scores in the Champions League. And skinny men now know how many drugs they’ll have to take to finish this year’s Tour De France.

Bird’s Eye View:

• Champions League - Week 3 - Matchday 2

• NBA - October 25th

In-Depth:

• Champions League: Halfway through the group stage, who will go through?

• Wemby and Porzingis’ debuts

• This year's route of the Tour De France

Today’s Action:

• Europa & Conference Leagues Top Matches

• NBA

• Euroleague

⚽Champions League - Week 3 - Matchday 2

Great action but no major surprises in yesterday’s Champions League games. In the early games, Barcelona beat Shakhtar 2-1 while Feyenoord won 3-1 against Lazio, both at home.

Yesterday’s heavy favorites played as you’d expect against weaker teams. Porto won 4-1 at Antwerp, Haaland finally scored again and Manchester City looked great in a 1-3 victory at Young Boys, and Leipzig won comfortably 3-1 at home against Red Star Belgrade. The only draw was a hard-fought 2-2 between Celtic and Atletico Madrid.

The main event, courtesy of the group of death, saw the Frenchmen of Paris Saint Germain dismantle the Frenchmen of AC Milan 3-0, and Dortmund who managed to eke out a 1-0 win away at Newcastle.

🏀NBA - 24 Teams in Action + Changes to the All-Star Game

After yesterday’s opening night, 24 more teams saw their first official NBA action of the 2023-2024 season. Notable performances:

The Celtics won 108-104 away against the Knicks behind 34 points from Tatum and 30 from Porzingis. More on that below.

The Pistons’ Cade Cunningham scored 30 points in a 1-point loss to the Heat, 103-102.

Luka Doncic does MVP things for the Mavericks with a 33-13-10 line to beat the Spurs at home, 126-119. Wemby scored 15 points on his debut. More on that below.

The Grizzlies lost 111-104 to the Pelicans at home as Ja Morant serves his first game of suspensions following multiple gun-waving incidents.

The Cavs beat the Nets 114-113 despite 36 points from Cam Thomas. Donovan Mitchell finished with 27 points and the go-ahead 3 with 12 seconds on the clock.

The Pacers dropped 143 points on the Wizards to win 143-120. Indiana had 8 players scoring in the double digits.

Other scores: Hornets beat Hawks, 116-110. Magic best Rockets, 116-86. Raptors beat Timberwolves, 97-94. Thunders win at Bulls, 124-104. Kings win at Jazz, 130-114. Clippers beat Trail Blazers, 123-111.

⚽ Champions League: Halfway through the group stage, who will go through?

Group A

Surely: Bayern. 3 wins, unbeaten for 37 games in the group stage, this is a lock if there ever was one.

Still fighting: Galatasaray and Manchester United. This is likely to come down to their rematch in Turkey, after Gala’s shock 3-2 win in Old Trafford in the 1st leg.

Unlikely: Copenhagen. The Danish team looked good at times, but realistically have to win against both Manchester United and Galatasaray and hope for some luck.

Group B

Surely: Arsenal. They’re still to host Lens and Sevilla, and one more win should be enough for them to go through. Their squad is also the strongest of this group.

Still fighting: Everyone else. Every game between those three teams ended in a draw. Lens is ahead thanks to their home victory against Arsenal, but this one is too close to call. Of those three teams, only PSV still has 2 games at home.

Group C

Surely: Real Madrid. 3 wins, and they’ve looked good doing it. Another win and the qualification will be guaranteed.

Still fighting: Napoli and Braga. Napoli was efficient if unexciting in their latest win over Union Berlin, but they will be hosting Braga for the spot in the next stage, and have beaten the Portuguese side 1-2 away.

Unlikely: Union Berlin. The Germans got a tough draw and didn’t make it easier on themselves by simply not playing well. Perhaps next year.

Group D

Surely: Real Sociedad and Inter. This group perhaps looks closer than it is, as Real Sociedad beat Salzburg 2-0 away, which means that Salzburg will have to do the game to have any hope of going through, and given the way Real Sociedad have been playing, that’s…

Unlikely: RB Salzburg and Benfica. I do think Salzburg is a competent side, and they could go far in the Europa League. Benfica is still looking to score a goal in the competition.

Group E

Surely: No one. This group was predicted as the closest of them all, and it’s living up to that expectation.

Still fighting: Feyenoord, Atletico Madrid, Lazio. Feyenoord looks like the best team so far, having won convincingly at home against Celtic and Lazio, and barely lost away in Madrid. Atletico look like the second-best team is this group.

Unlikely: Celtic. A porous defense and a loss at home to Lazio probably sealed their fate for this edition of the Champions League.

Group F

Surely: No one. This wasn’t dubbed the group of death for no reason.

Still fighting: Everyone. Yes, PSG is in the lead, and they’re the only team to win two games. But they’ve also gotten destroyed away at Newcastle. They obviously have incredible talents on the team and it’ll be a shocker to see them out, but Paris also always feels like it can implode at any moment.

Newcastle losing to Dortmund at home yesterday hurts a lot, as a win would have put them in prime position to go through. Now they have to play away in Paris and Dortmund, and it’s going to be anything but easy.

Group G

Surely: Manchester City and RB Leipzig. The big favorites of this group came through and won all of their games against the underdogs.

Unlikely: Young Boys and Crvena Zvezda. There’s still a place in the Europa League to fight for, and it’s advantage Young Boys as they’ll be hosting the return leg.

Group H

Surely: Barcelona and Porto. Barcelona and 3 for 3 despite numerous injuries. Their young core looks promising. They’ll be through. Porto still has work to do, but a victory at home against Shakhtar should seal the deal.

Unlikely: Shakhtar and Antwerp. It wouldn't be impossible for Shakhtar to come through, but playing their home game away from home has had an impact on the team. The comeback goes through Porto. As for Antwerp, they’ve conceded 4 goals per game on average. Enough said.

🏀NBA

Victor Wembanyama’s Debut

After millions of words have been written about Wemby’s potential, we finally go to see him on the court. He finished his first game with 15 points and 5 rebounds in 23 minutes. Let’s overanalyze his first game.

First, Wemby got in foul trouble, which hampered his playing minutes and ability to get into a rhythm. Perhaps Coach Pop is happy to let him settle in gently, but Wemby should eventually average something closer to 40 minutes a game, not 20.

The good news is that Wemby looked very comfortable on the floor, especially in the last 7 minutes of the game, where he scored half of his points. His length really stands out even in the midst of other giants, and his fluidity is off the chart. Just looking at him, you’d never expect him to stop on a dime and pull up a three - and yet, he does it effortlessly. His ball-handling skills were on display, as was his ability to dunk with the smallest of jumps.

Despite the lackluster stats, this was an encouraging night for San Antonio and Wemby fans. Wemby looked good in crunch time and has plenty of room to be coached (by Pop, no less) and improve. Do yourself a favor and go watch highlights of the last 7 minutes of play. 

Porzingis’ Debut Against the Knicks

You couldn’t script this better even if you wanted to. Kristap Porzingis started his career booed by Knicks fans on Draft night. He developed into a 23 PPG player by this third year but was eventually traded to Dallas, spent two seasons in Washington, and now plays for Boston.

He comes back to the Knicks on opening night, and what does he do? Drops 30 points, grabs 8 rebounds, blocks 4 shots for the Celtics, and gets the W.

What do Knicks fans do in response? Chant “F*** Porzingis”.

Take the L and move on, Knicks fans. Focus on your playoff hopes.

🚵Tour De France

Here’s something we don’t talk about every day.

The Tour the France has unveiled the full course for its 2024 edition set for this summer. This year’s race will start in Florence, Italy, before crossing the Alps into France on day 4 of the race.

Very notably, for the first time, the race will not go through or end in Paris, due to the 2024 Olympics scheduled for the summer. The final stage of the race will therefore be between Monaco and Nice, arguably two of the most beautiful cities in the French Riviera in summertime. The Peloton is expected to struggle through the Alps in the first week, and head to flatter terrain before hitting the Pyrenees two weeks in. Cycling fans rejoice - this year’s route looks different and interesting.

⚽ Europa League

Brighton - Ajax

If you’d ask football fans who would go through from Group B, a majority would’ve said Ajax and Brighton. Yet both find themselves at the bottom of the table and in dire need of a victory. Ajax has had a horrid start to the season and has already fired its coach, while Brighton is 7th in the Premier League and should do better on the European stage. This is an early must-win for both teams.

Liverpool - Toulouse

The top sides of Group E clash tonight in Liverpool. A victory for the Reds would essentially qualify them for the next stage, but Toulouse will be looking to eke out a draw at Anfield to continue its positive start to the European season. That being said, there’s little doubt that the quality of Liverpool’s side should be able to overwhelm the French’s defenses.

Roma - Slavia Praha

Both teams started their European campaign with 2 victories against the weaker teams of the groups to set up a showdown for first place after three matchdays. Slavia Praha has scored 8 goals and yet to concede one, while Roma and conceded none, while Roma has scored 6 and conceded only one.  

🏀NBA

Milwaukee Bucks - Philadelphia 76ers

It’s DAME TIME in Milwaukee. Buck’s VP of scouting said he has been trying to pair Dame with Giannis for “years”, and it has finally happened. We’re about to get our first look at the revamped Two-Headed Greek Time Dragon Freak Bucks attack.

It will surely take some time for them to gel and create a cohesive unit, but the journey to the ring starts today for Milwaukee, and I can’t wait to see the two of them in action. This is CAN’T MISS BASKETBALL, and I haven’t even mentioned the James Harden drama (he won’t be playing tonight anyway).

Los Angeles Lakers - Phoenix Suns

Two things I’ll be watching in this game:

1. Will Lebron continue to be managed and play 27-29 minutes a game, and if so, can the Lakers get by with their best players effectively playing 60% of the game? This isn’t a knock on Lebron - but I can’t see the Lakers going anywhere with him playing a limited amount of minutes. Perhaps the plan is to manage him, squeak into the playoffs, and unleash him then? We’ll see.

2. Can KD shake off the rust? Last time around KD finished with an uncharacteristic 15 points on terrible shooting percentages and didn’t look at his best. Father time or simple early-season rust? The Suns, unlike the Lakers, have Devin Booker to pick up the slack when KD has a night off - but the Suns will NEED the best KD to go anywhere this season.

🏀Euroleague

Real Madrid - Barcelona

EL CLASICO comes to the Euroleague and quite a version at that. Both teams currently sit atop the Euroleague table and are 4-0.

Real Madrid is the Euroleague’s most potent offense so far and the only team averaging over 90 points a game. It is led by French center Vincent Poirier who leads all Madrid’s scorers with 12.2 points a game on 76%(!) shooting from inside the arc.

Barcelona isn’t far behind, with 89.5 points a game, so just a point a game away behind Madrid. It is led in scoring by Italian guard Nicolas Laprovittola, who averages 13.8 points a game. In every other statistical category, the two are extremely closely matched.

This could very well be a preview of the Euroleague Final a few months from now.

Wrap Up

A busy Wednesday leads to a busy Thursday. Sports never stop, and don’t we all love it for that?

Enjoy today’s action, and see you tomorrow.

TMK