Darren and Vic's Playbook: Week Two of NBA Play

Published: Tuesday, October 28, 2025

by Darren Worrell and Victor Lisboa

Week one of the 2025-26 NBA season in the books. The season just started, and it already feels like it is the playoffs, as many of the games were very close, with several games going to overtime (including a few double overtime games). However, now in week two, a lot of games are going on, so we will once again preview the contests that we feel are going to put on a show this week. 

Darren: Denver Nuggets @ Minnesota Timberwolves

This is one of those games where you just do not know which way it is going to go because both teams are two well-coached squads. Last year, they met three times during the regular season with the Timberwolves sweeping the season series. 

However, it is a new season, and anything can happen. Both teams kept their core intact without making major changes, as the Timberwolves re-signed Joe Ingles, Bones Hyland, Naz Reid, and Julius Randle, all of which were key players to the Timberwolves run to the Western Conference Finals last season. 

The Nuggets on the other hand were able to re-sign Christian Braun who is probably one of the best perimeter defenders on the team. They also were able to make some great signings in the offseason as well, reuniting with Bruce Brown who was vital to their 2023 championship run.

They also picked up some other free agents during the offseason, including Tim Hardaway Jr., Cameron Johnson, and Jonas Valanciunas, as these are players who all boost their depth.

This game happened before this article was published, but the storyline going into this contest featured Anthony Edwards being inactive, as he will be out two weeks with a hamstring injury after leaving the first quarter of their win against the Indiana Pacers.  Therefore, this loss will be a really tough challenge for this Timberwolves team moving forward as they will be playing without their best player. 

Even without Edwards, they still have the rest of their core pieces needed to win games.  This includes Randle, who is the second leading scorer on the team with 25.3 points per game, in addition to Reid, Jaden McDaniels, Mike Conley, and Donte Divencenzo, all of which can still lead the team to a win. 

The Nuggets still look scary as they have Nikola Jokic who is one of the best players in the NBA, with a strong supporting cast of Jamal Murray and Aaron Gordon.

As far as who will win, I have to say the Nuggets because they are fully healthy, and it is a given that Jokic and Murray will be a problem. For the final score, I would estimate a 120-105 game, and feel confident that they will win by at least ten.

Victor: New York Knicks @ Chicago Bulls

The Chicago Bulls have gotten off to an impressive 3-0 start to the season, but I feel that we have seen this movie before with this team before, especially in 2021 when they acquired DeMar DeRozan and were one of the best squads in the East before Lonzo Ball went down, which led to a first round exit. The Bulls have now moved on from DeRozan and Zach LaVine, as they both have teamed up again with the Sacramento Kings.  

This revamped Bulls team still rosters veteran center Nikola Vucevic, and Coby White. However, they have been able to acquire promising talent in the draft like Matas Buzelis, as well as acquiring Josh Giddey from the Thunder in exchange for Alex Caruso. Giddey has looked like their future point guard who’s been averaging the best numbers of his young career with Chicago. 
 
I do expect the Bulls to fall back down to Earth eventually, but they have been impressive early to say the least. Last year, the Bulls had their way with the Knicks and gave them trouble in all three of their matchups, winning the tight regular season series 2-1. Two of those games were decided by two or less points.  
 
I’m expecting this to be a fun pair of games, as these two teams play in back-to-back matchups this Friday and Sunday. I’m looking for Karl Anthony-Towns to explode in the scoring column against this team. In his three games last year against the Bulls, he averaged an incredible 40 points and 14 rebounds. 

The Bulls still have the same centers they had last year in their rotation, and I am not too confident they can limit Towns' scoring and offense. However, Chicago has played some impressive defense to start the season. They will likely want to limit Brunson and the wing players to the best of their abilities, as that is where they have thrived on defense. 
 
The Knicks are coming off a sloppy loss to the Miami Heat after two impressive wins to start the year versus Boston and Cleveland. I have appreciated that in all three games, Mike Brown has gone to an at least 10-man rotation. After the additions New York made in the offseason, it only felt right. 

I believe leaning on a deep rotation again is what will give the Knicks a chance against a hot Bulls team with momentum and a good amount of youth. Although Coach Brown has gone deep into the rotation (which is unusual if you compare this team under Tom Thibodeau), I still have not seen the production from the bench that will be crucial to keep the starting lineup fresh.

I especially want to see more from Jordan Clarkson, who is averaging six points on 26% shooting thus far. Therefore, based on how the Bulls played the Knicks last season, and how similar these rosters are this season, I expect this to be another close series. 

Darren Worrell can be reached at darren.worrell@student.shu.edu.

Victor Lisboa can be reached at victor.lisboa@student.shu.edu.

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