In NBA history, only eight teams have kicked off their season by scoring 140 or more points. You’d think that kicking off the season with such a barrage of points would be a good sign for the team going forward, but…
It happened 4 times in the sixties. In 1960, the Cincinnati Royals beat the LA Lakers 140-123 to kick off their season, they finished that season 33-46. In 1962, two teams did it. The San Francisco Warriors beat the Detroit Pistons 140-113 but only finished the season 31-49. The Boston Celtics fared much better – after their opening day demolishing of the New York Knicks, 149-116, they finished the season 58-22 (and won the NBA championship).
Later, in 1967, the San Francisco Warriors again kicked off the season sizzling, with a 144-116 win over the Seattle Supersonics. But they finished the season tepid, with a record of 43-39.
The same thing happened in 1984. The Portland Trailblazers demolished the Kansas City Kings, 140-119, but finished the season at a highly mediocre 42-40. In 1991, however, the San Antonio Spurs bucked the trend. They followed up their 140-99 shellacking of the Dallas Mavericks by finishing a very respectable 47-35.
However, the grandaddy of all kickoff games was the one between the Golden State Warriors and Denver Nuggets, on November 2, 1990. Golden State won the game (in regulation!) 162-158, even though Denver took 130 shots! The overwhelming offensive prowess didn’t translate much to the rest of the season, though, as Golden State went 44-38 and Denver was the worst team in the league, finishing at 20-62, despite scoring nearly 120 points a game.