Joel Embiid struggles in return, Sixers lose NBA Cup game to Knicks

Joel Embiid finished 2/11 from the field and sputtered through his 2024-25 season debut, allowing the Knicks to win a FINAL SCORE game to open the Sixers’ NBA Cup schedule.

Here’s what I saw.

The Good

— Paul George looked outgunned and overmatched trying to lead the Sixers as a solo star. What a difference a little bit of help makes. In a matchup that should be designed to slow him down, with Mikal Bridges and OG Anunoby on the wing, George opened the game with the best half of his short Sixers career so far. The Knicks had nothing for him.

It didn’t hurt that the Sixers immediately ran a play to get George off the ball for an easy basket against New York. With Embiid stationed at the elbow, the Sixers used a screen to free up George running across the lane, and the big man fired the ball to George as he crept past a napping Jalen Brunson. For elite players, sometimes it’s as simple as watching the first shot go in, and George busted out a 17-point half to open things up, flying past his season average in just 16 first-half minutes.

It was honestly kind of jarring to watch him blow past Mikal Bridges as easily as he did on Tuesday night, and George did a lot more with those opportunities than look to score. Although I think he has flaws as a passer, one thing he has done at a high level since arriving is making the skip passes to the corners, unlocking defenses in a way most of their players simply cannot. It’s the advantage of having a tall playmaker at the controls, and it has allowed George to bring a lot of value as a driver even without scoring a ton of points by the basket.

You may have to deal with some severe cold spells with George, but you’ll also get to ride some insane hot streaks, where nothing the defense does matters against his high-arcing shots. With the Knicks draped all over him on one first-half possession, George put up a prayer and had it answered, with the ball floating through the hoop off the glass as if pre-ordained.

His game wasn’t spotless, though, and I continue to be a bit mystified by how they’re using his minutes. It feels like Nurse is keeping him off of the floor for way too long, so hopefully the minute restriction will be lifted soon.

— One thing that seems clear to me is that this group has a chance to be special defensively if they can keep everyone on the floor long enough to realize their ceiling (I know, that’s a big ask). Their lack of synergy leads to some moments where assignments are botched and switches aren’t as clean as they need to be. But they are already starting to put some electric possessions together on that end of the floor, finding a happy medium between turnover creation and defensive discipline.

As bad as he has been on offense for much of this year, Caleb Martin has looked like a completely different player on defense since George entered the lineup. It felt like anytime he was even close to a Knicks pass, they were in danger of turning it over or at the very least watching it trickle out of bounds from a deflection. A game after they combined for six steals, Martin and George were back to the same tricks, coming up with seven takeaways between the two of them.

— Joel Embiid has made some small shooting guards look real damn good in dribble handoffs, operating clinical two-man actions with JJ Redick, Seth Curry, and Tyrese Maxey over the years. Jared McCain looks to be the next guy in that lineage to eat good off of the attention Embiid draws, and he got right to work in his first-ever minutes with the big man. One big screen from the big guy, one wide-open three from the top of the key, and one made shot. Easy money.

It wouldn’t be the last clean look at the basket he got in the first half. Every time Embiid came up to screen for McCain on the wing, it felt like he was getting 5-10 feet of space from the closest defender. That didn’t necessarily translate to results, but over the long-term that will probably turn into a lot of free money for McCain and the Sixers.

Once again, McCain’s perseverance was hard to miss. Playing through a fairly long shooting slump, the rookie continued battling, pulling down a rebound Andre Drummond failed to get and driving into the teeth of New York’s defense to try to make something happen. He finally found his footing in the back half of the third quarter, getting a favorable matchup against former Sixers guard Cam Payne and bullying the smaller defender. As he got an and-one to drop attacking the basket, it started to become clear that McCain was already a fan favorite, with the crowd roaring as the rookie’s shot went down.

I am already beginning to move off of my preconceived stances on who he can or can’t play with in the Sixers’ lineup. I’m much more interested in watching him play with Tyrese Maxey now than I was in the summer, as I think they can probably cover up some defensive issues with the Embiid/Martin/George trio behind them. His shooting and his feel are already very good, and they need both of those things in a big way.

The Bad

— “First game back Joel Embiid” has always been an adventure, but there was at least some hope he would avoid the first-game struggles after returning from a long layoff. Unlike in some previous instances, Embiid looked to be in fairly good shape coming into this one, but it didn’t make a whole lot of difference with his jumper and his offensive feel.

On the offensive end, everything was just a step or two slow for Embiid. Maybe that circles back to what he said about trust in his knee being the biggest hurdle — there just didn’t seem to be commitment to any move he tried to make as a scorer, and it led to a fair amount of possessions where he couldn’t properly leverage good early positioning. It didn’t help that his jumper was way off most of the night, with Embiid trying and failing to live on threes and middies rather than touches by the basket. I’m not sure how hard to read into the opening game on this front, but it feels like he may end up taking more threes than many would want to see out of their seven-foot behemoth. They made up nearly half of his shots, which is not a ratio even the biggest three-point zealot would support.

There’s also clearly going to be a learning curve for the guys playing off of Embiid because something as simple as post-entry passing was a struggle all night. Embiid managed to get a favorable position in the post quite a few times and only got the ball on a small handful of possessions. It’s not that his play necessarily warranted playing through him a ton in the post, but those touches can turn into open jumpers and wide-open cutters even if it’s not going to end with an Embiid bucket.

The one big positive that I saw in this game was Embiid’s movement on defense. If there is a lack of trust in his knee to make certain moves on offense — Euro steps, blow-bys, and the like — I did not see that whatsoever on the other end of the floor. Embiid made several recovery plays that I didn’t think we’d have a chance to see for weeks at a minimum, and that’s probably more important than whether he could find the range on his jumper.

Still, this was a disastrous game for him on offense, putting them in a hole the rest of these guys are mostly unequipped to dig out of. He gets a rust game, maybe two, and then it’s time to get back to business.

— I could probably do individual blurbs on a bunch of different guys for this section, but the truth is the Sixewrs didn’t get a lot of good performances, period. Outside of George, Martin, and McCain (and maybe Drummond), this group looked lost playing in a ton of new lineup combinations.

Perhaps the most disappointing based on his previous form was the faceplant from Guerschon Yabusele, who could not figure out a way to impact this game outside of rebounding. His work on the glass was helpful, certainly, but he struggled with the defensive responsibilities of moving back to the four and compounded that with a horrible shooting night. You can maybe get away with one of those things, but it’s damn near impossible to do both and win his minutes.

Kelly Oubre is up there on the list of biggest disappointments, too, though that was a continuation of a season-long trend. He remains absolutely ice-cold from three, and his inability to see or make easy passes to open shooters is a fairly massive problem for a guy with his skill set. When Oubre can hit tough shots from midrange and get all the way to the rim, it doesn’t necessarily matter that he’s a limited creator, but you’re not going to get a ton of games of super scorer Oubre. His playmaking issues are compounded by the team’s general absence of playmaking, but I would honestly prefer to get a look at someone else in his spot with Oubre moving to a bench attacker role.

I suppose we can end with Kyle Lowry, who got to the rim for an early layup and did almost nothing of consequence the rest of the game. Without turning into a broken record, it’s the same thing every game. His mind moves him into favorable spots on both ends of the floor, and his body can’t do the necessary work once he’s there. Lowry had a moment where he rotated in as the low man on one possession Tuesday and I can’t imagine a player in the NBA with as little chance to do something in that spot as Lowry has. So it goes.

They will figure out some combinations that work, and Embiid will play better (presumably). But you aren’t going to win many games when you’re completely anemic on offense, and unlike last season, the Knicks have been a fairly brutal defensive team. They somehow made a team that gets carved up at the rim look like the Ben Wallace-era Pistons.

The Ugly

— The Sixers had to use a challenge to overturn a heinous goaltending call on Kelly Oubre in the first half, and a second one to try to overturn a charge on Caleb Martin where Jalen Brunson seemed clearly not set. I blame the officials for the first one, and Nick Nurse for a ridiculous use of a challenge on the second one. What is the upside of challenging a block/charge call on Caleb Martin in the second quarter, removing your ability to use one the rest of the game?

— I suppose you weren’t likely to get two good games in a row for Jeff Dowtin.

I don’t blame Nurse for trying to get something out of him after a solid outing against the Hornets, but I do blame Nurse for some absolute tire-fire lineups that were put on the floor in this game. There was a stretch where the five-man group was Drummond, Yabusele, Oubre, McCain, and Dowtin, and you can argue none of those guys played well in this game. Maybe avoid playing the “everyone is playing terrible” lineup 2.5 quarters into the game?

(Okay, that’s harsh on McCain, but still.)