The Sixers finally rolled out their new-look starting five together Thursday night, and even in a preseason setting, the sight carried real weight.
LeBron James, Joel Embiid, VJ Edgecombe, Jaylen Brown and Tyrese Maxey shared the floor for the first half at Barclays Center, giving Philadelphia its first extended look at a lineup that still feels a little surreal. The result was a 114-108 loss to the Nets, but the Sixers still took a two-point lead into halftime and spent much of the night showing flashes of what this group can become.
Nick Nurse liked the early signs, even if the execution came and went.
“I think there were some really good things happening right off the bat, a bunch of back cuts and good passing,” Sixers head coach Nick Nurse said. “We obviously turned the ball over a lot, which you can never do. Just a little clunky in segments, too.
“But it’s preseason, first time that they’re together. You look at what’s good and what are the learning experiences, things that we can improve on. And just try to get ‘em together as much as we can.”
James, making his Sixers preseason debut, drew the usual crowd afterward in the visiting locker room. At 41, he still looks like a player who can bend a game with very little wasted motion.
“It obviously feels a little different playing in a new uniform,” James said, “but the game is the game.”
He didn’t need many touches to make his mark. James scored 10 points in 18 minutes on a single field goal attempt, finishing 1 for 1 from the floor and 8 for 8 at the line. He added five assists, four rebounds and a steal, and his impact showed up everywhere - in transition, in the half court and in the little passes that open up the whole offense.
He kept the Sixers moving with sharp hit-ahead passes, easy feeds to cutters and timely looks for open shooters. Even without hunting shots, he kept Brooklyn occupied.
“It’s both offensively and defensively,” VJ Edgecombe said. “Defensively, he’s loud, he’s talking, so you’ve got confidence in guarding.
And then offensively, he just creates plays. He requires so much gravity, everybody else gets open.
He doesn’t care about scoring. He’s already got the (NBA) record; he doesn’t care about scoring.”
Philadelphia also saw the rough edges that come with a group still learning one another. The Nets put up 33 points in the first quarter, and while the Sixers weren’t bad on defense overall, the standard will be higher once the games count.
Joel Embiid pointed to the team’s tendency to overextend on help defense.
“We’ve got to do better,” Embiid said. “I think we over-helped a little bit too much.
We’ve got to do a better job of stopping penetration. They drove all night.
… A lot to watch and learn and get better.”
Embiid had his own uneven night, committing eight of the team’s 21 turnovers while looking like a player getting his first game action since May. Brooklyn’s pressure clearly bothered Philadelphia at times, forcing mistakes and speeding up possessions.
“A team like that is very active,” James said. “Their job is to try to pressure you, make you play against the shot clock. Besides the pick-sixes and the turnovers we had, I thought we played some good ball and it’s good to go against a team like that.”
For James, Embiid, Edgecombe, Brown and Maxey, the first test is in the books. The next step comes with more reps, more rhythm and, if all goes according to plan, more time together.
Brown called Thursday night “just the first step in the journey.”
“I think the more you get on the floor, the better you become,” Embiid said.
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