The Opening Tip

• Carmelo Anthony is playing as well as he has in years. 
• We have an anecdote to relay about Horace Grant and pet grieving. 
• The CBB season started last night.

Tonight's best games

1. The four funniest things about the Jokic bros vs. Morris bros beef

(The Jokic bros vs. Morris bros beef began on-court on Monday with the exchange above between Nikola Jokic and Markieff Morris. Some of it wasn't funny -- Morris is out tonight with "whiplash" -- but some of it was.)

4. Tyler Herro briefly stepping to Jokic

We’ve all seen ... 

• The clip of Tyler Herro boxing.
• The clip of Jokic stepping to Devin Booker. 

Herro made the right move. Full clip here.

3. Jimmy Butler and crew assembling outside the Nuggets’ locker room

After the game, Jimmy Butler and some other Heat players gathered outside Denver’s locker room. Photographer Aaron Ontiveroz captured the scene and wrote on his Instagram page that the Heat left because “security intervened.” 

• The Heat, when security inevitably stopped them: “Well, we tried!” 

2. The ensuing Twitter fight

Here’s what happened: 

• Marcus Morris, twin of Markieff, tweeted in support of his brother: “Waited till bro turned his back”
• Jokic’s brothers, two big and healthy Serbian fellas who sit menacingly in the stands at most Nuggets games, created a Twitter account (@jokicbrothers) simply to tweet back to Marcus: “If you want to make a step further be sure we will be waiting for you”

1. @jokicbrothers, in context

The bio-less and profile picture-less account, which Mike Singer of the Denver Post confirmed to be real, now has 48.8K followers in its second day of existence and only follows one person: Jamal Murray.

The two teams play again Nov. 29 in Miami. Reports say the Jokic brothers have already bought tickets to the game.

2. Daily GIF: The Lakers, who had a chance for years to pick up Carmelo, can’t believe Carmelo was ever out of the league

In Monday’s OT win over the Hornets (5-7), Carmelo Anthony dropped 29 off the bench for the Lakers (6-5), including the clutch 3-pointer above.

He’s averaging 17.6 PPG on .520 percent shooting from 3. (He’s 37, FYI.)

Here’s what Anthony Davis said on him being out of the league for a year-plus:
 

3. Trivia time

Kentucky basketball lost to Duke last night at Madison Square Garden, 79-71, to start the season.

Last year, the Wildcats finished just 9-16. Winning percentage-wise, it was their ninth-worst season ever, but before last year, when was the last decade they finished with single-digit wins?

4. Normalize grieving over the loss of your friends’ cat

Scottie Pippen’s book came out yesterday. He’s been celebrating by going scorched earth on Michael Jordan, which has led to much backlash against Pippen, which led to the resurfacing of an anecdote from Roland Lazenby’s 2015 biography of Jordan about Pippen and his best friend Horace Grant:
 

This has been framed in a negative light on Twitter. It makes us like those two more.  

5.  Quick Hits

• Eric Adams, New York City’s Mayor-elect, says he won’t change the COVID-19 vaccine mandate when he takes office on Jan. 1, so Kyrie Irving still only has one path toward playing, and it doesn’t involve getting “immunized.”
• Deron Williams and long-time NFL RB Frank Gore are going to box on Dec. 18. 
• Dwight Howard on his (BS) top 75 snub: “I knew I wasn’t going to be in it”
• Shout out to @NBACobwebs for unearthing this clear example of Tim Donaghy, ahem, blowing a call. 
• Gary Payton on his son, Gary of the Warriors’, athleticism: “I was wondering if the mailman came around when I was out of town. Wherever athletic ability came from, I’m just happy he got it.”

6.  Reads and pods

• Giannis is on the cusp of his next evolution: Becoming an elite passer [The Ringer]
• St. John’s Lou Carnesecca is college basketball’s most priceless treasure [The New York Post]
• Early impressions of the rookie class [The Lost Post]

Trivia answer: The 1920s (They finished 3-13 in 1926-27.)