NEW YORK - The Sixers opened the season with a win that said as much about their defense as it did about their new-look roster.
For all the attention on the additions around Joel Embiid, the night’s biggest development may have been the simplest one: Embiid looked like himself again on that end of the floor. After being a liability in last spring’s second-round sweep against the Knicks, he helped anchor a much cleaner performance in Tuesday’s season-opening victory, with the Sixers allowing only 84.7 points per 100 possessions in his 33 minutes on the court.
That’s a massive swing from last season, when Philadelphia gave up 143.9 points per 100 possessions with Embiid on the floor during three of the four losses in that sweep. For a player who was once viewed as one of the league’s best defenders, that number had become a stunning marker of how far things had slipped.
“Embiid: "I felt good," Embiid said after the game. "I think this year’s going to be back to All-Defensive Team like in the past.
So, felt good. Moving great.
Felt like I was all over the place, so I need to do that every game."”
The Sixers were hanging on through a rough first half, but Nick Nurse found the tweak that changed the game. With Embiid already carrying three fouls, he shifted him away from Knicks center Karl-Anthony Towns and put LeBron James at the five. Embiid became Josh Hart’s defender, and New York’s least dangerous shooter was left to prove he could make the Sixers pay from deep.
That adjustment turned the game. The Knicks managed just 42 points after halftime, and Philadelphia’s defense started snuffing out possession after possession.
After practice on Tuesday, Nurse had already talked about the idea of flipping the frontcourt matchups, a familiar approach against New York.
“I think we talked about that yesterday or the day before,” Nurse said after the game. “Kind of common to put a four man on KAT, because there’s so many pick-and-rolls with him and [Jalen] Brunson that gives you some versatility to play some other coverages.
I think it was good... Over the long haul, it was very good for us, I think.”
Embiid said the switch was his suggestion.
“I suggested that to the guys, the coaching staff,” Embiid said, “because I just felt like the way they were calling fouls, I just felt like I wasn't - and I was just being honest - I wasn't going to be as aggressive as I should be on defense, having three fouls, wanting to stay on the floor. I just told them I thought we should do that. It was great.”
The move also let James take on a major defensive job against one of the league’s most productive offensive bigs, and he handled it in a big way down the stretch. His late rebound sealed the win, but his second-half work mattered just as much.
“I mean, this is all a team effort,” the NBA’s all-time leading scorer said.
The roster may look completely different, but Nurse is still seeing the same kind of buy-in he has tried to build around the group. After the win, he pointed to the collective feel of the team and the way it has come together in the early going.
“It’s been fun,” Nurse said. “These first few weeks have been fun. These guys, seriously, they’ve been really great.”
The Sixers have spent the last three weeks stressing that opening night would not define the season. James echoed that after the game, noting that this is only the first of 82.
Still, the first step looked awfully encouraging. The team that entered the season with a long list of new parts may be further along than expected.
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For the 76ers, it reopened an uncomfortable question about what exactly went wrong during Georges time in Philadelphia. Injuries were part of the answer, but so were the team dynamics around him, which never seemed to let his game breathe in the way it did against his new backdrop. If this is the beginning of a resurgence, it only sharpens the sense that the Sixers may have watched a different version of George emerge just as he moved on. [Read more 🡒]