Around The NBA: Kyrie returns to Cleveland, Rockets visit Warriors on Opening Night

By Josh Liddick, Sports Talk Philly editor 

The month of October is in full swing as last week the NHL season got underway, and this week the NBA season starts up with its first two matchups on Tuesday night.

Kyrie Irving and the Celtics return to Cleveland vs. the Cavs while James Harden, Chris Paul and the Houston Rockets travel to Oracle Arena and battle the defending NBA Champion Golden State Warriors.

The Boston Celtics head to Cleveland to take on the Cavaliers in a rematch of the 2017 Eastern Conference Finals, and what could be a preview of what's to come for this season's conference finals clash.

There is a lot of crazy things to look at in terms of this game, especially with this being Kyrie Irving's first time back to Cleveland since he was traded by the Cavs to Boston for Isaiah Thomas.

While IT won't be dressed in uniform for this one due to his hip injury, the stakes are still pretty high. From an "on paper" standpoint, these two teams are by far the class of the Eastern Conference.

You have an almost completely brand new Celtics team taking the floor tonight, a team that only returns four players from a year ago. Four players left from a team that had the best regular season record in the East last year.

Gordon Hayward makes his Green and White debut tonight and Jae Crowder gets a chance to play against his old team as a member of the Cavs.

An interesting storyline to monitor as the game gets closer to the start tonight is that LeBron James is questionable to play due to a sprained ankle injury.

LeBron James participated in shoot around this morning. Per Cavs, he is questionable with ankle injury.

— ESPN Cleveland (@ESPNCleveland) October 17, 2017

Without LeBron in the game for the Cavs, the appeal for a competitive matchup between LeBron and Kyrie in Cleveland just wouldn't be there. It wouldn't be a surprising turn of events if LeBron is indeed not available to play tonight.

In the second and final game of the night, the defending champion Golden State Warriors take on the Houston Rockets at Oracle.

This Warrior team found ways to improve this season and they actually got better, landing free agent Nick Young to come off the bench. The other bench player to look out for is the young Patrick McCaw who played great last season, and will only look to improve this year.

That being said, the Warriors core is the same. They're all there. Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Kevin Durant and Draymond Green are all ready to get back on track and give the Warriors their third title in the last four seasons.

If health checks out and everything works out as planned, the Warriors should have no issue returning to the Finals again for the fourth year in a row.

However, there's a Houston Rockets team that has gotten better from last season, and in a very strong Western Conference now, they look like they'll be the second best team in the West this season.

James Harden is back and ready to begin a quest to becoming MVP this year after dropping that battle to Russell Westbrook last season. Harden though, is now joined by one of, if not the best point guard of this generation, Chris Paul, who was traded to Houston from the Los Angeles Clippers early in the offseason.

The Rockets were unable to land Carmelo Anthony or any other higher profile name in free agency like many thought they would, but a duo of Harden and Paul looks like it will be tough to beat.

It will be interesting to see how Harden and Paul co-exist as Harden is already the ball-handler of the team and CP3 has made a name for himself over the years as one of the NBA's most prolific passers.

Paul played 61 games for the Clippers in 2016-17 and averaged 18 points and nine assists a game for LA.

With the acquisition, the Rockets are putting Harden back at his shooting guard role that he's had for the majority of his career so far, although I wouldn't be surprised to see Harden and Paul take turns taking the ball up the court.

With a competitive West now, the chances of the Rockets, even with the addition of Chris Paul, overtaking the Warriors as Western Conference Champs seems slim. While Trevor Ariza, Ryan Anderson, and Clint Capela are a strong and capable 3, 4, and 5 in a starting lineup, they just don't match up well with this Golden State team in terms of winning a seven-game series.

All things considered, if LeBron does not play for the Cavaliers tonight against Boston, this Warriors/Rockets game might be the game to watch out of the two even though Kyrie is making his return to Cleveland.

So the slate of Opening Night matchups continue tomorrow night, as all around the NBA, teams are getting their seasons started.

The Sixers are in DC to take on the Wizards and the new-and-improved Timberwolves are taking on the Spurs in San Antonio on Wednesday.

On Thursday, the Lakers get their season started with an Battle for L.A. matchup against the Clippers, in what will be Lonzo Ball's first regular season game as a member of the Purple and Gold.