The Big Story – Celtics Are Back: The new-look Celtics open their season Tuesday vs. Detroit. It’ll give Celtic Nation their first look at Paul George and Mitchell Robinson. Robinson will help the inner D and rebounding, while the big question for the perpetually injured 36-year-old George is how many games he can play after averaging just 48 a year the last seven seasons.

That’s the big number for the C’s, as George will need to play a lot more games than usual as he steps into the gigantic hole left behind by the departure of Jaylen Brown.

We’ll see how that works out starting Tuesday.

Sports 101: Name the only two to win an NCAA Basketball title, an Olympic gold medal and NBA titles as a player and a coach.

News Item – Baseball Payroll Battle: Sox owner John Henry must be rooting hard for Milwaukee in the NLCS. That’s because it features L.A., with baseball’s highest payroll at $410 million, vs. the team with MLB’s most wins despite just the 28th-ranked payroll at $130 million. The latter represents the “scouting and drafting well” approach Henry wanted for his Red Sox when he downsized the payroll. Said another way, it’s the battle of “it’s not how much you spend, it’s how you spend it.”

News Item – Pats Crush Raiders 45-17

• Good News – Drake Maye: He’s back to normal in going 26-34 for 374 yards and four TDs.

• Bad News – Injuries Galore: They already have put more guys on IR in 2026 than in all of 2025. Sunday it was top two 2026 draft picks Will Campbell and TreVeyon Henderson reinjuring a knee/MCL and ankle respectively.

• The Pleasant Surprise – Kyle Williams: I told you guys he would be better than you thought. It’s a small sample size, but after three catches for 91 yards and a TD, his career yard per catch average of 22.9 is now best in NFL history. Homer Jones’ 22.5 for the 1960s Giants is the record.

• Best Development – Zak Kuhr: You have to love how aggressive the Pats’ young DC is in dialing up pressure with the blitz. Most aggressive Pats DC since Brian Flores in 2018.

News Item – WNBA Surprise: I couldn’t name one player on the Golden State Valkyries but I’m sure the Las Vegas Aces can after the three-time defending champs got swept out of the playoffs by the second-year expansion team. Only thing left for A’ja Wilson and the rest of the WNBA’s petty players is to find a way to blame their demise on Caitlin Clark.

News Item – Speaking of Clark: “Las Vegas-Golden State averaged 1.12 million [viewers] on NBC and Peacock, according to figures NBC supplied to OutKick,” wrote Dan Zaksheske for Outkick in a story published Oct. 8 on foxnews.com. It was a respectable number but it pales in comparison to the numbers watching Clark and Indiana vs. LV, as “Just one Sunday earlier, Indiana’s first-round opener against Las Vegas averaged 2.11 million viewers on ABC,” the Outkick story said.

The Numbers:

3 –wins in five games for Coach B and UNC after their 21-17 win over Pittsburgh Saturday.

20 –combined penalties by the Pats and Raiders on Sunday for 218 yards.

51 – my over-under for the games George is able to play for Boston this year.

… Of the Week Awards

RIP – Mike Ditka: Has any coach of any team in any sport ever looked more like his team’s mascot than the big fella when he was coaching the Chicago Bears in the 1980s? The one word that best described this bigger-than-life character as a player or a coach was “tough.” Though punishing, intimidating and fearless also come to mind for the western Pennsylvania native. Lost in all of it is that he was a great player and the first tight end elected to the Hall of Fame in Canton.

In Case You’re Interested: James Tibbs III, who the Red Sox got in the Rafael Devers deal and then flipped to (of course) the Dodgers for Dustin May, hit .287 with 30 homers, 32 doubles and 107 RBI in AAA.

Random Thoughts:

DeMario Douglas’s dance after scoring the opening drive TD vs. Vegas was the worst local celebration dance since Antoine Walker used the Walker Wiggle to turn most of Celtic Nation against him.

Sports 101 Answer: Bill Russell and K.C. Jones.

Final Thought – Biggest Celtics Question Marks:

Does Jayson Tatum have the competitive leadership skills they need without Brown?

How do they fill the Jaylen Brown hole when George misses the usual 30 games? Or at the foul line, where JB had 400 more FTs than PG last year?

After costing his team its last two playoff series losses due to stubbornness and a complete inability to close out tight games, will Slow Joe Mazzulla learn from it or will he be the biggest reason they get swept out of the playoffs early for a third straight season?

Can Hugo Gonzalez improve his shooting enough beyond 5 feet to be the needed most improved player on the team?

Season Prediction: 54-28, third in the East.

Email Dave Long at dlong@hippopress.com.