New-look 76ers flash glimpses of what could be against defending champion Knicks

NEW YORK — The thing to remember is, the New York Knicks didn’t want to leave VJ Edgecombe all by himself.

Like, all things being equal, you’d imagine they’d prefer to cover a player who averaged 16 points per game and converted 61% of his point-blank tries as a rookie for the Philadelphia 76ers, and has the kind of rocket propulsion in his calves that enable him to elevate and detonate above defenders at the rim. That’s not the kind of guy you typically like to leave open.

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It’s just that, well, Tyrese Maxey had the ball at the start of the play, and he’s an All-NBA lightning bolt who looked like the best player on the floor for the bulk of Tuesday’s season-opening contest at Madison Square Garden. So when he dribbled off a high ball screen late in the fourth quarter, having watched him slice and dice his way through their defense on multiple occasions, the Knicks decided to blitz him to try to force the ball out of his hands.

That strategy worked well for the Knicks during their sweep of the Sixers in the second round last spring, as they marauded their way through the Eastern Conference en route to the NBA title that they spent the early portion of Tuesday evening celebrating. This time, though, Maxey was ready for it, slipping the ball through the blitz to the now-healthy and noticeably slimmer Joel Embiid, who’d set the ball screen and was ready to take the feed from Maxey at the foul line and keep the play extended.

Embiid, you might recall, was the Most Valuable Player of the whole stinkin’ league a few seasons ago and can still look like one of the most dominant offensive players in the world when he’s right. The Knicks didn’t want to let him run rampant either; they’d really prefer to have someone help out the low man as he steps up to stop the ball, pinching in from the corners to protect the paint.

The thing is, though, that after Philadelphia’s stunning summertime makeover, one of those corners was occupied by Jaylen Brown, who averaged 28.7 points per game last season. The other was occupied by LeBron James, who, as you might have heard, is the leading scorer in the history of the…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/nba/article/new-look-76ers-flash-glimpses-of-what-could-be-against-defending-champion-knicks-055603874.html

Author : Dan Devine

Publish date : 2026-10-21 05:56:00

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