While it may have been hard to predict just where the Sixers would shake out in a loaded Eastern Conference, it felt easy to forecast what their glaring strengths and weaknesses would be. They have an overwhelming amount of offensive talent, hopefully enough to overcome defensive issues that can come with relying on aging veterans with shaky injury histories.
You can imagine everyone’s surprise when their first win of the season was going into Madison Square Garden and defeating the defending champions in a grind-it-out slugfest on Banner Night. Both teams shot under 42% from the field and both of them went 33% on their three-point attempts.
It might not have been what the average viewer expected, but it’s the type of performance the Sixers will have to put together often to achieve the lofty goals they have for this roster.
“Defense is what kept us in the game,” said Jaylen Brown after the game. “Defense is what we’re gonna have to continue to hang our hats on. [If] we keep a team around 100, we’ll always have a chance to win, so it’s a non-negotiable — gotta play defense.”
Tyrese Maxey, who finished the game with three big steals as well as three blocks, thought the team was really good at communicating and switching assignments for their first game out there as a new unit.
“It felt pretty good,” Maxey said. “This is a very competitive group. We take pride in being able to switch and kind of guard the yard, and we’re gonna help each other as well.”
The big adjustment the Sixers made in the second half was taking Joel Embiid off of Karl-Anthony Towns and having LeBron James guard the big man. This put Embiid on a non-shooter in Josh Hart, allowing the center to become a roamer.
“It’s kind of common to put a four-man on KAT because there’s so many pick-and-rolls with him and [Jalen] Brunson,” head coach Nick Nurse explained after the game. “That gives you some versatility to play some other coverages.”
That’s a look the Sixers have tried to employ in the past against the Knicks since they’ve acquired Towns — they’ve just lacked the four strong enough to not get pushed around by Towns.
“P.J. Tucker was the last one that we had who could do that, that can switch off and guard those bigger guys in the post,” said Embiid of James’ performance guarding Towns.
Embiid made sure to point out the Sixers have had some good defensive fours since Tucker departed in 2023, they just weren’t quite right for the Towns matchup.
“Last year we had [Paul George], but PG, he did a great job, but he’s a little light,” Embiid said.
For as encouraging as the Sixers cohesiveness on defense was, the best sign of the night may very well be how Embiid was moving around to defend the paint, especially in the second half. After Andre Drummond had a bit of renaissance in the first half, Embiid shut that down in the second. He was navigating around the paint and deterring every Knick shot attempt in a way he hasn’t looked like since 2023.
After the game, Embiid said he told Maxey, “we’ve been going against these guys for the last couple of years, and tonight felt a little different.”
For as many additions as the Sixers made to this roster, what Embiid meant by that statement was how he felt physically. In those previous battles against the Knicks, especially their two playoff series in the past three seasons, Embiid was severely compromised due to varying health issues and it especially impacted his play on the defensive end of the court.
Since he’s come back from the injury caused by the Jonathan Kuminga fall, he just hasn’t been the same paint deterrent he was for his entire career to that point.
After a healthy offseason where he was able to trim down his figure quite a bit, Embiid is feeling great about where he is as a defender, going so far as to say he’ll be back to an All-Defensive Team-caliber player after the game. He hasn’t made an All-Defense team since 2020-21.
“I think a lot of it falls on me. I put it on me,” he said. “If I want to be All-Defense like I used to be, that changes everything for our team. So if I can play that way every single night, which I will, [it] changes everything.”
Another big theme from the Sixers after the game was that it is just one game and they still have a lot to build on. Getting through that building phase all in one piece will be one of the most important parts of it. If the Sixers keep getting that version of Embiid on defense on a regular basis, it gets easier to believe they can achieve all that they want to.
