NEW YORK — In the basement of Madison Square Garden, after having just finished off a monster second half performance where he scored ten third quarter points to quiet the New York faithful and take down the reigning NBA champions, Jaylen Brown stood at his locker and discussed his non-negotiables if the Sixers‘ collection of superstar talent is going to do anything meaningful this season.

“Defense is what we’re going to have to hang our hat on,” Brown said after the game. “Non-negotiable. We have to play defense.”

That’s not the side of the ball that immediately comes to mind when talking about the Philadelphia 76ers, who run out a team that features four players who have averaged at least 28 points per game in a season, including the NBA’s all-time points leader in LeBron James, along with the per-minute scoring leader in Joel Embiid.

Yet on opening night, in the biggest of stages, and against the defending champion New York Knicks, it was very much a stellar defensive performance which kept the visiting Philadelphia 76ers in the game.

In the first half of play the Sixers committed two cardinal sins that should be a virtual death sentence in the modern NBA, especially when going up against the quality of competition that the Sixers faced last night: they could not shoot a lick from the perimeter, making just three of their 13 shots from deep in the first half, wasting countless quality possessions against a stingy Knicks defense; and they lost the possession battle handily, with the Knicks finishing the first 24 minutes of play with a seven more field goal attempts, and five more free-throw attempts, than the Sixers, thanks in large part to absolutely destroying the Sixers on the glass.

But the Sixers stayed within arms reach of the defending champs, not with their overwhelming talent or tough shot making, as one might expect, but with grit, hustle, and a world class defensive performance.

“I thought in the first half we played good first stop defense, but we gave up some second chance points,” LeBron James said after the game. “They got some threes off of us not closing with a defensive rebound so. I was really conscious about that [in the second half].”

The defensive effort kept the Sixers’ within striking distance at the break, down just 58-54 despite their struggles from the perimeter. They put together a much more competitive effort on the glass after intermission, limiting the Knicks to just two offensive rebounds on 16 missed shots in the third quarter. Cleaning up the defensive glass allowed the Sixers to get out in transition and really find their footing, and in time some perimeter shots began to fall as well.

The Sixers used an 11-2 run to close out the third, punctuated by a fadeaway three from Jaylen Brown sprinting off a Joel Embiid screen to beat the buzzer. The run gave the Sixers an 83-76 lead heading into the fourth. That proved to be the final lead change of the night, with the Sixers having an answer for every run the Knicks made in the final quarter of play.

“We executed at a high level. Didn’t turn the ball over down the stretch. Got good looks, I think, every single trip down,” Tyrese Maxey said of the team’s fourth quarter execution.

“This group is very competitive. I’ve been saying it all training camp and you saw it tonight,” Maxey continued. “You could tell the guys don’t like losing.”

The NBA’s newest super team took down the defending NBA champs by playing hard-nosed, gritty basketball. If they continue to combine that level of sheer talent along with doing all the little things that go into winning at the highest levels, the Sixers might just have something here.

Big takeaway – Joel Embiid anchors the defense once again

Any time you hold a team to just 98 points per 100 possessions, a number of things are likely true.

(Context: the worst offense in the league last year, the Brooklyn Nets, averaged 108.8 points per 100 possessions.)

First, the other team probably shot poorly, as the Knicks did last night, connecting on just 11 of their 33 three-point attempts. That doesn’t take away from what the Sixers accomplished, and both teams missed more than their fair share of quality looks.

Second, it takes a total team effort.

This isn’t, say, the New York Knicks, who are returning their entire starting five from their championship run. You expect them to all be on the same page. They should be communicating out all the switches and rotations that they need to execute their defensive schemes.

But with four of their top seven players having been acquired in the offseason, that level of togetherness right from the jump isn’t something the Sixers have the luxury of falling back on at this stage, which makes the team effort that they showed on opening night wildly impressive.

While acknowledging that it was a team effort defensively that helped the Sixers lock down the Knicks, there were two players who stood out: second year guard VJ Edgecombe, and a rejuvenated Joel Embiid.

Edgecombe was the Sixers’ primary defender on the reigning Finals MVP, holding Brunson to just 3-9 shooting from the field when VJ was the primary defender on him. He fought his way through screen after screen on the perimeter, doing an admirable job of confining the Sixers’ pick-and-roll defense to a two-man game so they didn’t need to send an extra defender Brunson’s way, while doing a great job of not biting on the pump fakes and misdirection moves that make Brunson such a tough cover.

It was a great first outing from a player poised to make the leap from the promising young defender that he showed as a rookie and into a potential lockdown guy you hope he becomes in his prime.

But the star of the night, defensively, was Joel Embiid.

With Embiid on the floor, the Knicks averaged just 85.9 points per 100 possessions, compared to 126.7 points per 100 when Embiid was on the bench. The Knicks had an effective field goal percentage of just 38.9% with the big man patrolling the paint, and the teams were even relatively close to a draw on the glass, with the Sixers’ offensive rebounding rate of 24.4% just below the 27.3% the Knicks collected in the 33 minutes that Embiid was on the court.

Beyond the stats, Embiid’s mobility was something we have not seen, legitimately, in years.

Embiid, while he finished the night with just 13 points on 4-15 shooting from the field, compensated the poor scoring night with 11 rebounds, six assists, two steals and three blocked shots. He found ways to contribute even when his own individual scoring was off the mark, in ways that combine the defensive impact we saw from early-career Joel Embiid alongside some of the new passing chops that we’ve seen the big man develop over the last few years.

But beyond any individual contribution that Embiid made in this game, it was the way that he moved on the court which was the most eye opening, and which should make Sixers fans reconsider what the team is capable of on that end of the floor.

Embiid was clearly more comfortable stepping out on the perimeter than what we’ve seen, at any point, since Jonathan Kuminga landed on his knee back in January 2024.

A couple of plays stood out.

Each of Embiid’s three blocked shots came after he stepped out on the perimeter to stop a ball handler, then recovered back to the rim to put out a fire. Stuffing Andre Drummond at the rim by itself isn’t necessarily cause for celebration in 2026, but the ability to change direction to get back into the play is something that we haven’t seen from Embiid since the meniscus injuries really started to take their toll.

Those second effort plays, the cat-and-mouse game he needs to play to both shut down the ball handler and still be able to get back to contest the shot, is Embiid used to do in his sleep earlier in his career, but that hasn’t really been in Embiid’s repertoire over the last few years. Not because the effort wasn’t there, but because the mobility wasn’t.

The injuries caused Embiid to drop from a perennial Defensive Player of the Year contender to a borderline defensive liability at various points over the last two+ years. Obviously, it’s only one game and we have to see whether Embiid can hold up over the course of a season and one bad fall could ruin it all and yada yada yada. That’s all fair.

But Embiid has not started a season with this high of an athletic baseline since Jonathan Kuminga ended his bid for back-to-back MVP awards back in January 2024, and if Embiid is able to get back even a semblance of his rim protection, his ability to defend in space and contest ball handlers coming off of screens, it would fundamentally change the Sixers’ defensive outlook almost singlehandedly, and that was about as optimistic of a first performance as you could have reasonably expected.

“If I want to be All-Defensive [team], like I used to be, that changes everything for our team. If I can play that way every single night, which I will, it changes everything,” Embiid said after the game.

If Embiid is back to being capable of anchoring a top-10 defense, look out.

Stray thoughts

What was encouraging about last night’s win was that everyone, even those who struggled offensively, found ways to impact the game.

Jaylen Brown was a big part of the Sixers’ defensive performance, and came up huge with 10 third quarter points when the Sixers took control of the game. Tyrese Maxey scored the first six points of the game, then a game-high eight in the fourth quarter to close the game out. LeBron was a big part of the Sixers’ much-improved second-half performance on the glass, and would have had double digit assists if the Sixers weren’t shooting cross-eyed for much of the night. VJ Edgecombe, despite having a relatively small role offensively, remained locked in and engaged on a tough defensive assignment. Anfernee Simons hit some massive 3s to get the Sixers’ offense out of the mud in the third. Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, who struggled for most of the night, hit a pair of key 3s down the stretch. Adem Bona was present.

Much of the basis for doubting this team specifically, and super teams in general, comes from the assumption that the total won’t be as great as the sum of its parts, that players whose value is derived from having the ball will inherently have less impact when they don’t have the ball as much, and that they frequently don’t have the ancillary skills needed to successfully transition to a lower usage role.

Again, the “it’s only one game” caveat applies, and both reproducing that level of success, and also keeping everyone happy with their roles and bought into doing all of the little things, is a year-long endeavor for Nick Nurse and his team. But them coming out on night one and immediately exceling at the little things is a heck of an encouraging way to start the season.

Stat of the game

Stat – The Sixers’ starting lineup of Tyrese Maxey, VJ Edgecombe, Jaylen Brown, LeBron James and Joel Embiid outscored the Knicks 31-23 in the 15 minutes that they were on the floor, good for a +24.2 net rating. This might be a stat that we track all season long. Just a hunch.

Quotables

“Huge, huge. Big shots by five. He did a good job. We’re looking for him. When he gets in the game, we’re hunting for him. We want him to hunt his shots, and he did a good job with that tonight.” — Tyrese Maxey, on Anfernee Simons.

“That’s what we wanted to do, be a little spoiler. Obviously, what the Knicks accomplished is great. But it’s a new season, new year. Just trying to come out and set the tone.” — Jaylen Brown, on spoiling New York’s ring ceremony.

“I think we have a lot of room for growth, room for improvement. I’m looking forward to building with my teammates but it’s always good when you can win and learn at the same time.”– Jaylen Brown, on the team’s performance.

“Everybody is willing to be so unselfish. I think in the preseason, we had a lot of unselfish turnovers, and that’s a great sign. That kind of showed today when the game got tight in the fourth quarter and the ball movement…We were able to come up with some big-time plays at the end of the game.” — Anfernee Simons, on what he’s learned of his new Sixers teammates.

“I just think we have more focus in everything we do.” — Joel Embiid, on what feels different about this team.

“I shot more last year, but for me I’m going to do whatever it takes to win. I just want to win. I want to know what it feels like to win at a really high level. I’m still going to get my shots. I’m around people that obviously pass the basketball. They’re going to look for me, and I’m going to be more open than I would think. I just got to shoot the ball with confidence and find my spacing.” — VJ Edgecombe, on his new role.

“I thought Joel was magnificent tonight at making the right play. He just kept making the right play, depending on what was there, and that’s really all we’re asking to do: hit the open man and read the defense.” — Nick Nurse, on Joel Embiid’s play.

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