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First of Many – 22 Immediate Takeaways from Sixer 106, Knicks 100
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What’s the most difficult task you can be given to start the NBA regular season?
Playing the defending champions in their building on ring night. It doesn’t get any harder than that, and the Sixers went into Madison Square Garden and got the job done on Tuesday night, taking out the Knicks 106-100 in a low-scoring and somewhat janky rock fight.
It was impressive enough, just beating the champs in the opener. But the Sixers had to battle. They didn’t shoot the ball particularly well, just 42% overall and 28% from three. Andre Drummond killed them in the first half. Then they buckled down defensively in the third, made some transition buckets, and got enough shots to fall en route to a really nice victory to kick off the 2026-2027 campaign.
Four Sixers starters finished in double figures, highlighted by a 28-point Tyrese Maxey effort that included 3 steals and 3 blocks (!). Joel Embiid went for a 13/11 double-double while protecting the rim beautifully and Jaylen Brown finished with 19/8/6 in his debut. LeBron James was only 5-13 from the field but tossed 7 assists and grabbed nine rebounds.
Most importantly, perhaps, they executed down the stretch and showed a lot of composure in picking out the right passes after diagnosing what the Knicks were throwing at them.
Now, to the observations we go.
1) The Knicks printed their championship shirts with the wrong year. Great job! –
2) It was good to see Maxey firing away early, then putting it together late. For as much talk as there was about LeBron and Jaylen Brown this offseason, we probably forgot that Tyrese was coming off another All Star season in which he averaged 28.3 PPG.
3) Dirty KAT with the leg kick! Two early fouls on him. Reggie Miller was on the broadcast and agreed that Karl-Anthony Towns pulled a “Reggie Miller.” Then OG Anunoby tried the same thing a few possessions later.
4) Towns’ absence forced Drummond into the game earlier, which changed the way the Knicks play. He’s not a three-point threat, so Embiid was able to sag off him a little bit and nullify a couple of Jalen Brunson pick and roll attempts. There’s no pop threat coming off that action, but it did result in some physical battles at the rim in which both guys had some good moments. Then you saw the Knicks go right at Adem Bona with a pick and roll that almost resulted in a poster. That was some big boy basketball and Drummond gave them some quality minutes while cleaning up on the glass at both ends. He had a double-double at 9:17 in the second quarter!
5) Sub patterns: Anfernee Simons and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope were first off the bench for the Sixers, replacing Maxey and Brown. The latter two came back in around the 2:40 mark in the 1st quarter, with Embiid and James exiting. Nick Nurse then brought Jabari Walker on to play some small ball five with LeBron, Maxey, Brown, and Simons. Nurse only went 9 deep in the opener and we didn’t see Labaron Philon Jr.
6) Simons was refreshing.13 points on 5-10 shooting. It’s so nice to see a 6th man type come off the bench and not be afraid to pull up and let it fly. He got hot towards the end of the third period and really helped the Sixers get things going offensively.
7) Was that the worst non-goaltending call you’ve ever seen? This ball was a little short but it was definitely going to hit the rim:
8) Embiid came back in at 8:00 in the second quarter and immediately hit a baseline jumper, followed by a straight-on three pointer. The Sixers cut the lead to four. With Ariel Hukporti out for the year, it looks like it’s gonna be the same issue with the backup bigs trying to just keep the team afloat in the non-Embiid minutes. Of course, it’s not like they’re going to run into a Drummond heater every night out, or play the Knicks inside of MSG.
9) Reggie Miller and Jamal Crawford were right about the second quarter. The Sixers looked a lot better when they started attacking the rim instead of just playing their perimeter screen and dish game. Embiid tried a Euro step on KAT and ended up forcing a third foul with 3:59 in the 1st half. They’ve got too much talent to play a static game around the three-point line.
10) NBA officiating is quite the experience. There are so many whistles for things that don’t need to be called. Then they swallow the whistles on obvious things that should be called. And players on every team embellish and seek contact and cry to the refs. It’s the worst thing in the league right now. Wish there was more actual basketball being played.
11) LeBron was really giving it to somebody on the sideline. Didn’t appear to be a celebrity but looked like a generic Wall Street New York douche bag – “You don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about… I’m not from the west coast.. I’m from Ohio baby.” –
12) Sixers shot 46% and 3-13 from three in the first half but were only down four going into the break. That felt like a win. Felt like they should have been down by a lot more than that.
13) There will be plenty of occasions early on in which a player bobbles a LeBron pass because they weren’t expecting him to even try it, let alone complete it. Brown had one of those to start the third quarter, struggling to reel in a baseline feed before bricking a short jumper.
14) Third quarter was so much better defensively. Getting stops and running out in transition to attack the rim. Punishing turnovers and getting downhill. They also had some wide-open corner threes that fell short, but you’ll take those looks from Maxey and Edgecombe any day of the week. Every time they get downhill and push the pace, good things happen, like this:
15) They were 3-19 from three about midway through the third quarter, and bricked a couple after that good series of transitional points. I was about to pull my hair out when Jaylen Brown decided to just drive the lane and dunk it.
16) To that point – do we need to see the Embiid three pointers this season? He shot 33% from three last year. Went 2-7 in this game, which is… not even 33%. They have too many good pieces to settle for that shot. If he needs to take 2-3 a game, okay, but he doesn’t often try more than 5 in a game.
17) 11-0 run to end the third quarter, sparked by Maxey, Brown, and a cranked-up defensive effort. New York got really lackadaisical and sloppy and the Sixers made them pay for it. That inbound play to end the quarter was really nice, just a little back screen here to obstruct Mikal Bridges after Brown runs him toward the high elbow:
18) One of the game’s best sequences was the Embiid block on Drummond that resulted in a transitional run out for Maxey – AND 1. Embiid got Drummond again a few minutes later, leading to a LeBron breakout for a couple of foul shots. Defense to offense, all season long. It’s gonna be there for them if they commit to pushing the pace.
19) Bona did a pretty good job against KAT in those fourth quarter non-Embiid minutes. Drew a foul, got a stop, and had a chase-down block on Jose Alvarado that just happened to fall to KAT. Could have been worse.
20) Needed every bit of those KCP three pointers halfway through the fourth quarter. And he was 1-5 from deep at that point. It helped stave off a Knicks run and got Nurse to a timeout and an Embiid sub.
21) New York defensively at the end of the game… on a couple of possessions they blitzed Maxey on a pick and roll, so he dumped the ball off for Joel Embiid at the nail. Both times Embiid picked out the right pass, getting Edgecombe under the basket. Really nice patience from Joel there to pause and scan and find the right play. They did it again a third time and the ball found Jaylen Brown, who lost it out of play after review. BUT – they clearly diagnosed what the Knicks were doing and didn’t panic, made good decisions, and knew where to go.
22) Super weird ending! Joel Embiid throws up a heave and completely misses the rim with 20 seconds left in a four point game. The Knicks dick around a little bit, waste 10 whole seconds, and Brunson misses a heave of his own while calling for a foul. LeBron then goes to the free-throw line to ice it. Felt kind of anticlimactic, but you will take it.
PLAY THE SONG CHOONIS!
Kevin has been writing about Philadelphia sports since 2009. He spent seven years in the CBS 3 sports department and started with the Union during the team's 2010 inaugural season. He went to the academic powerhouses of Boyertown High School and West Virginia University. email - k.kinkead@sportradar.com