Sixers lock down Knicks on defense, move to 1-0 to open LeBron James era

Tyrese Maxey led Philadelphia on offense with 28 points, and the Sixers played a terrific defensive game to earn a 106-100 win over the Knicks on opening night.

Here’s what I saw.

Defense leads to offense

The most meaningful moment of Tuesday’s first half wasn’t a no-look dime for LeBron James, a pull-up three for Tyrese Maxey, or a sequence that a lot of people will care about. But watching Joel Embiid play genuinely explosive defense, stringing together one stop after the next, feels like a great omen for what is to come this season.

It came late in the first half, fresh off an Embiid turnover, with the big man sprinting his way back into the picture to deny a hit ahead to former teammate Andre Drummond. Embiid would fall with the ball out of bounds, but the point had already been proven: Embiid’s end-to-end speed was far better than in years past. And even more impressive was his cat-and-mouse defending against Jalen Brunson moments later, when he hovered close enough to bait an entry pass to Drummond before flashing back to the rim and blocking Drummond at the rim.

That was the sort of play Embiid made regularly in his youth and certainly when he was a yearly MVP candidate. Making those plays allows him to overcome rough patches on offense, and it appears those will be there this season as Philadelphia tries to figure out the pecking order.

Frankly, I was thrilled about the Sixers’ defense in game one considering how many new pieces they’ve brought on. When you put together a star-laden team like this one, the hope is always that you can coax each player to expend more energy on defense while taking a smaller role on offense. And that showed up in a big way on opening night against New York. Tyrese Maxey made several significant effort plays, including an incredible recovery block in the first half and several noteworthy digs on big men from the weak side. LeBron played the passing lanes well and rotated assignments as the night wore on, starting on a wing and eventually switching to Karl-Anthony Towns, protecting Embiid from foul trouble as they navigated the third quarter.

VJ Edgecombe may have had a slow night on offense, but he was one of the key ingredients to making it all work on defense, getting into Jalen Brunson’s chest and rarely giving him breathing space all night. Brunson accumulated points but shot tour dates from the field, bringing the Knicks’ offense to a screeching halt when they needed their crunch-time leader to come through.

The team breakthrough came in the third quarter, with the Sixers putting together a few highlight-reel sequences in transition. Jaylen Brown attempted to recreate the famous LeBron/Wade alley-oop meme on a dunk for their elder statesman, and moments later hit a gorgeous spin move around Brunson before finding an open shooter on the perimeter. Their stated intent to play fast took two quarters and change to materialize, but when it arrived, it changed the course of this game.

I have long assumed that this team would be an offense-first group, and maybe that will show up over time. But on night one, the defense was tremendous from both an effort and execution perspective.

Figuring out the half-court

Nobody looked particularly comfortable for Philadelphia early on, save for Tyrese Maxey, who made back-to-back threes to open the game and looked well on his way to a big-time performance. But the peril of having a lineup this loaded emerged quickly, with Maxey passing up a wide-open three on the wing to find LeBron James in the corner, forcing a pass for a lower-quality shot even though he was already off to the races. It was a real-time reminder of how unselfishness can hurt your team from time to time, even if Maxey’s heart was ultimately in the right place.

With Embiid involved in so many actions as a screener, the Sixers ended up defaulting to him quite often in the first half, for better and sometimes for worse. Embiid had some impressive flashes around the hoop, including a beautiful drop step into a hook shot around Drummond, but his face-up game devolved into some ugly turnovers and even a block for Drummond on a jumper, with the rest of the crew doing a lot of standing and watching. Philadelphia was fortunate that the Knicks couldn’t get shots to go down, either, buying the Sixers some time to sort through their issues.

Embiid’s biggest current issue on offense is pace of play, which is to say lack thereof. A lot of possessions died either in his hands or because he didn’t make a quicker decision with the ball, with second-side opportunities disappearing before he ultimately tried to get into his own bag attacking off the dribble. I don’t think it was a coincidence that the offense flowed a lot better as LeBron got more involved in the latter stages of the game. But credit to Embiid for this — when the Knicks trapped Maxey in the closing minutes of the game, he did an excellent job of operating in four-on-threes, hitting Edgecombe with back-to-back drop-off passes for free throws and a dunk.

I think you could make a case that Jaylen Brown was their most important player, and the thesis behind acquiring him already played out on night one. During the bridge minutes at the end of the third, it was Brown who hit two monster threes, extending their lead heading into the fourth. Although his attempts to hunt mismatches went awry early in the game, he led some excellent possessions in the second half by taking crossmatches with Brunson and driving him deep into the paint, either scoring himself or swinging the ball for a clean look elsewhere.

But even with all the other additions and stars, it was Maxey who ultimately led the way on offense for Philadelphia, pinging back and forth between on-ball dynamo and off-ball threat. His pace was too much for the Knicks to handle, and with New York throwing the kitchen sink at him late in the game, it opened the floor for other contributors to score in the closing minutes. Star power, baby!

Other notes

— I have been concerned about the amount of Kentavious Caldwell-Pope we were expecting to get heading into the season, with Justin Edwards offering little competition on the wing and nearly guaranteeing KCP a rotation spot. I won’t be moving off of that after game one, with the veteran wing smoking multiple open jumpers and looking a tad creakier than I would like on defense. But give him credit for hitting a pair of huge threes in the middle of the fourth, keeping the Sixers out in front by a narrow margin.

On the other hand, Anfernee Simons was an instant lift on offense. Get ready for lots of buckets!

— Sorting out the offensive process is something I think is completely within Philadelphia’s control. I’m not sure how they’re going to cope with the rebounding problem, which has been a problem for years and remains an issue even with major changes to the roster. Adem Bona being your backup center isn’t helping much there.