LeBron James’ subtle impact and ability to see ‘things before it happens’ help Sixers beat Knicks in his debut
James helped the Sixers make a key adjustment on defense, and he had a role in two big plays in the second half.
NEW YORK — As LeBron James exited the 76ers locker room, Joel Embiid was doing his postgame media session following the team’s 106-100 victory over the Knicks.
James said, “Big fella, I’ll see you soon,” smiled and walked out.
James was in a jovial mood after his first win in a Sixers uniform. He was joking with Tyrese Maxey about a fan who was heckling him courtside. That fan said he was soft because he’s from the West Coast, when he’s from Ohio. All in a night’s work at Madison Square Garden.
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“We will have some bumps in the road at times,” said James, who had 14 points, seven assists and nine rebounds as he began his 24th season. “But I mean, I think tonight when we had those bumps in the road, which is what good teams usually do, you’re able to use what happened previously and then make the adjustment.”
The Sixers made several adjustments throughout the game, and a lot of them revolved around James, his basketball IQ, and his versatility on the floor. If James’ first game as a Sixer was indicative of one thing, it’s what he brings in those hard-to-quantify areas.
“It’s a big difference when he’s on the floor,” guard VJ Edgecombe said. “I’d say he’s probably the most vocal. He sees the game, sees things before it happens. He’s obviously really talented.”
Take this adjustment. At halftime, Joel Embiid said he made a suggestion to the coaching staff: James and he should switch defensive assignments. That meant James would guard Knicks center Karl-Anthony Towns one-on-one while Embiid would take Josh Hart in a roaming role. Embiid would give Hart space to shoot while being near the lane to help on Towns.
“I just felt like the way they were calling fouls, I just felt like I wasn’t — and I was just being honest — I wasn’t going to be as aggressive as I should be on defense, having three fouls, wanting to stay on the floor,” Embiid said. “I just told them I thought we should do that.”
This was a page out of their playbook together for Team USA against Serbia and Denver Nuggets big man Nikola Jokic, with James taking on that assignment.
The Knicks scored just 18 points in the third quarter, and the Sixers took the lead after trailing for much of the first half. Embiid said it reminded him of when PJ Tucker would guard centers as an undersized forward.
“We’ve done that in the past, that’s a good thing to change [the defense] a little bit,” Embiid said.
There was another key moment at the end of that third quarter that James had a hand in creating. With 1.5 seconds left, the Sixers had the ball, side out of bounds, after a Knicks turnover. Coach Nick Nurse pulled James from the bench and asked him to inbound the ball. He found Jaylen Brown for a buzzer-beating three off a screen from Embiid that put the Sixers up 83-76 entering the fourth.
“We did that on the fly,” James said. “We just tried to get some movement going, and then get Joel setting a pin-down for one of our guys coming off, and JB knocked it down.”
James also made a move in the fourth quarter that flustered the Knicks’ offense and led to an important fast-break dunk for Tyrese Maxey that gave the Sixers a 104-98 lead with 1 minute, 52 seconds remaining.
After Towns had hit a pair of threes to keep the Knicks close, James blew up the two-man action between him and Jalen Brunson by jumping out to the perimeter. Brunson couldn’t throw it to Towns as he had done previous times down the floor. Instead, he passed to OG Anunoby, and after the Sixers defense rotated behind James, Maxey stepped in a passing lane and coasted for the slam.
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“That was more just like, read the play,” James said. “Obviously, KAT is very dangerous when he has space, and anytime that [Brunson] is head on the ball with KAT popping, it just creates a long closeout for guys trying to get to that shot. He catches it high, he shoots it high. He had a couple in the fourth quarter. So that was just me trying to read it.”
As the Sixers went through their postgame interviews, each emphasized there was still a lot of work left for this team to do.
There were things they needed to improve — and they especially have to hit more shots from three-point range after shooting just 28%. But they beat the defending champions even with a poor shooting night.
“I mean, it’s still going to take some time, and it’s one game, but obviously, we can learn from good things that we did,” James said. “We can learn from the bad things that we did tonight.”
But on Tuesday, there was more bad than good, and James had his large fingerprints on a lot of the good, even if it wasn’t always obvious.
