LeBron James played his best game as a Sixers player yet, scoring 20 points to go with nine rebounds and eight assists in a 98-93 victory over the New York Knicks. Philadelphia secures a 2-0 lead in the season series and a critical victory to open the midseason tournament, thanks in part to a game-leading 27 points from Tyrese Maxey.

Here’s what I saw.

Signs of growth

After a clunky offensive game against the Indiana Pacers, Friday night’s approach against the Knicks was a breath of fresh air in the first half. Jaylen Brown’s injury simplified the chain of command, with the Sixers opting to play through LeBron James and Joel Embiid heavily to start the night, to the benefit of the entire group. Shocking but true — running the offense through two of the great all-time talents on offense often leads to good things.Embiid continued a run of strong play as a decision-maker, where he seems to be going quicker and quicker with each passing game. He racked up three quick assists in the first seven minutes of the game, hooking up with LeBron and Edgecombe on some beautiful give-and-go sequences where he baited in the second defender before releasing the pass at the optimal moment for his teammate.

None of it really works as well, though, without LeBron holding up his end of the bargain as a scorer. He knocked down a pair of first-half threes and looked a tad more explosive driving downhill, shrugging off Josh Hart on one particularly rambunctious drive in the first half. For anyone concerned about how LeBron has looked to start the year on offense, a performance like this appears to support the belief that he’s easing into the year. That was his approach to the last few years in L.A., and in fairness, he has left a huge imprint on games even while scaling back on offense.

With the elder statesmen cooking in the middle of the floor, the natural byproduct was Tyrese Maxey getting easier looks as an off-ball shooter and slasher. The Sixers were able to generate some easy looks for Maxey with an initial LeBron/Embiid ball screen with LeBron finding Maxey relocating around the right wing and right trail spots, where he could either rise into a spot-up three or attack a sliding defender downhill. He did an excellent job of balancing both, and neither Knicks big felt like they had a good feel for when to stay home near the rim or flash out toward their man in spacing positions. That afforded Maxey open lanes that he is overqualified to punish.

That may well be the best setup for Maxey and the team. Although they cannot abandon him as a point-of-attack partner with Embiid, he’s a “do not leave” threat as an off-ball shooter and basically impossible to contain as a second-side guy, assuming you can create the initial separation before the ball swings his way.

Unfortunately, the big problem on offense was that Embiid’s outside touch was completely absent. The Sixers showcased the high-low power of the Embiid/LeBron combination early, as Philly used rub screens and off-ball actions to generate deep seals against mismatches vs. New York. Mikal Bridges had a particularly tough time dealing with LeBron in the weight room. But getting to those looks was a lot tougher as the Knicks began sagging off Embiid on the perimeter and daring him to shoot. And after taking a shot to the head late in the first half, Embiid was off the pace in the third quarter, giving away some costly turnovers as New York made a comeback bid. It didn’t get much better in the fourth — the Sixers kept going through Embiid late, and he missed jumper after jumper as the Knicks

But Philly’s depth stepped up with some meaningful second-half minutes to offset the star struggles. Kentavious-Caldwell Pope has been a consistent source of bench energy and brought it again on Friday, chasing Jalen Brunson around screens and forcing him into a decent, but unspectacular night from the field. Anfernee Simons was the louder contributor, carrying the momentum from his heater in Indiana back to their home arena. The Sixers leaned heavily on Simons as a movement shooter against New York, running him off pindowns and in DHOs with Embiid to get him spot-up looks all over the floor. He even deposited a runner off the glass in the lane as a cherry on top, giving him his second 20+ point game in a row.

And when the chips were down in the final minute, with the Sixers barely clinging to a one-point lead, they found just enough winning plays to close it out. First it was LeBron with a mid-post turnaround over the outstretched arms of OG Anunoby, and then it was the young man with ice in his veins who ultimately sealed the win for Philadelphia. New York sent the kitchen sink at Maxey, daring VJ Edgecombe to try to beat them with a late-clock three. As he did so many times during his rookie season, Edgecombe managed to knock down the shot that mattered most:

After a suspect foul call and challenge ruling, the pendulum swung again. Three-point game with under 40 seconds to play, no timeouts for the Sixers to use, the team running on fumes. In swooped the wily old veteran, with LeBron grabbing an offensive rebound on a Maxey miss to put the Sixers up five. That was all she wrote.

Setting the defensive tone

The best reflection of this team’s mission and culture has shown up in how the role players have defended to start the year. When a player with the defensive reputation of Anfernee Simons is drawing ovations from the home crowd for sinking down in a stance and walling off Jalen Brunson, you know they are setting a high bar of expectations in the locker room.

It helps that two of their best players are leading by example. Tyrese Maxey led all first-half scorers with a scorching 18 points and didn’t use that to let go of the rope on the other end. Jalen Brunson got the best of him with a high-arcing jumper along the baseline, but Maxey battled him for the better part of 20 seconds in one noteworthy first-quarter sequence, pinning Brunson into a corner that he managed to shoot his way out of. It was one of a handful of plays that featured Maxey getting into his opponent’s chest, disrupting New York’s offense at the point of attack repeatedly.

Embiid’s confidence in his lower body is most evident in his willingness to sell out for loose balls, injuries of the past far from his mind. He dove to the floor for two different possessions in the first half alone, securing extra possessions for the Sixers as he fought off Josh Hart, Karl-Anthony Towns, and other Knicks players who tried to beat him to the ground. And with Embiid doing a better job of hitting a body with shots in the air, the Sixers did fairly well as a group to keep the Knicks off of the offensive glass.

The amount of extra rotations the Sixers are able to make because of Embiid’s increased mobility is, frankly, staggering. Possessions that would have been over after one incisive pass are now cycling through four and five rotations before opposing teams are eventually forced into end-of-clock madness. With Embiid playing his part to get out to shooters and then back to the rim, their speedier guards and wings don’t have as far to go to close off gaps and get reconnected.

How long is this sustainable for? That I cannot tell you. But I do think it looks materially different from the version of the Sixers’ defense that was blown apart by the Knicks in round two last spring, and if they can get this group to the playoffs in one piece, they are building a case that you can trust them to get stops when it counts.

Other notes

— Every time I have to watch a nonsense flagrant review for a credible play at the ball during a fast break, I will remember Josh Hart hitting Embiid with a wild elbow without so much as a foul call late in the first half. I don’t understand why NBA officials have so much trouble tracking this stuff on plays that aren’t in midair at the rim, but if head contact is supposed to be taken seriously, take it seriously all of the time and not just situationally.

— Adem Bona somehow fought himself for a defensive rebound and lost in the third quarter. Watching him flail helplessly on the baseline as the ball squirted out of bounds may be my breaking point with him. Another backup big, please!

— As Nurse begins to get a better feel for this group, he appears willing to turn to three-guard looks to open second and fourth quarters, which worked well against the Knicks in both halves of their Cup battle. Maxey, Edgecombe, Simons, and Philon were able to get the Knicks in rotation and produce some good offensive moments. Keeping an eye on this.