The Rush: Clippers spoil ring night, Brooklyn looks primed on NBA opening night

On opening night of the NBA season, the Los Angeles Lakers fell to the Los Angeles Clippers after receiving their championship rings in a pre-game ceremony, Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving had monster games as the Brooklyn Nets blew out the Golden State Warriors, James Harden nearly got into a physical altercation with a Houston Rockets teammate, and the Washington Football Team had a pretty bad day, even by their standards. PLUS: James Harden finally passes, Ben Simmons shouldn’t get comfortable, and perhaps Dan Snyder should rebrand as Football Team Owner.

Video Transcript

[MUSIC PLAYING]

- Good! Wow, what a shot. Paul George has really got the stroke. He's got 30.

JARED QUAY: The Lakers only had 71 days off since winning the championship. And in the first game of the season, they played like it, falling behind by 22 points in the first quarter. They rallied. But in the end, they fell short to the Clippers behind a huge second half from Paul George.

- Driving right by Kuzma, takes it up, and puts it in.

JARED QUAY: The real show, though, came before tipoff. That's when AD got his first ring and LeBron got his fourth.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

And if you're wondering why they're so excited, just look at this thing. I mean, that's enough bling to power a space station. We can get to Mars with that.

The team also announced that they won't be raising a new championship banner until fans can't be there in person. Who knows when that'll be. By then, the Brooklyn Nets might have their own banner to hang.

This pregame handshake between Steph Curry and Kevin Durant was pretty much as close as the Warriors got to the Nets all night. In their first game as teammates, KD and Kyrie were everything Brooklyn could have hoped for. They combined for 48 points in 50 minutes as the Nets blew out the W's by 26 points.

And while it's good that the NBA's back to playing games, all the best action is off the court. Guess what James Harden today? I told you we should have did the James Harden tracker.

The situation between James Harden and the Houston Rockets keeps getting worse. He reportedly got into a heated exchange with a teammate yesterday at practice, and he even threw a basketball at him. You know things are bad when James Harden is passing the ball.

There's one team that keeps coming up in trade talks. And I ain't saying it's Philly, but I am saying Ben Simmons needs to keep his bags packed. The 76ers kick their season off tonight against the Wizards.

And while we're talking about DC, not a good day for the football team. See, they were just ordered to pay $1.6 million to settle a sexual misconduct claim against owner Dan Snyder. And while it ain't easy to overshadow a story like that, somehow Dwayne Haskins pulled it off.

The quarterback had to apologize after getting caught partying with strippers but without masks. I think the NFL prefers it the other way around. Damn shame too. Because I should be talking about how Dan Snyder's the worst owner in all of sports. Instead, Dwayne Haskins was with five strippers and made them all wear his Jersey.

I should be talking about how Dan Snyder's so offensive he should change his name to Washington Football Team Owner. Instead, I have to point out that Dwayne Haskins bought some stripper a baked Alaska. And it wasn't till I said that sentence that I realized I don't know what a baked Alaska is. But somehow Dwayne Haskins is breaking protocol to buy one. In fact, how does this thing's even open to know where he's at? Oh, I get it. Alaska's open.