There were too many stories to count on Tuesday night at the Wells Fargo Center: Joel Embiid made his season debut, and he did so in the headlining contest of the opening night of this season's NBA Cup. Oh, and the Sixers faced the New York Knicks for the first time since the Knicks eliminated the Sixers from last year's playoffs. It was 194 days ago that the Knicks emerged as the victors of an epic, hellacious six-game first-round series on this very floor. (The only difference is that on Tuesday, the court had much more blue to signify an NBA Cup game was taking place).
The players donning jerseys in this one, though, were much different. The Sixers and Knicks each experienced significant roster overhauls during the offseason, with the Sixers signing nine-time All-Star Paul George in free agency and New York acquiring Mikal Bridges and four-time All-Star Karl-Anthony Towns via trades to start and end a chaotic summer.
As the Sixers and Knicks jockey for positioning to unseat the Boston Celtics as the Eastern Conference's best -- they are not alone in that pursuit -- a budding rivalry was set to continued, with a new chapter waiting to be written.
For the Sixers, it was not such an enthralling chapter to be part of. They never mustered more than a few consecutive minutes of good two-way play. They were able to hang around for three quarters, but the Knicks blew things open in the final dozen minutes of action. Embiid looked every bit like someone who had not played in an official basketball game since May 2. And so, the Sixers have only won two of their first 10 games in 2024-25.
Here is what stood out from the Sixers' 111-99 loss against the Knicks:
Embiid gets off to a slow start, but George finds an early groove
The Sixers' very first offensive possession was picture-perfect: Embiid got a touch, faced up and found a cutting George for a basket (courtesy of an excellent Kyle Lowry screen). Exactly what everyone hoped to see:
After that opening play, though, Embiid very much looked like someone who had not played in a real game in more than six months. He was rusty, he was winded, and he was facing a particularly difficult matchup, as Towns' ability to space the floor makes any center's life more difficult on the defensive end -- especially one whose mobility is limited.
Sixers head coach Nick Nurse said before the game that Embiid would be limited to 25-30 minutes and that he would likely play in short stints -- similar to the arrangement that George has had since returning from his knee injury.
Embiid's first spurt of action only lasted four minutes and 50 seconds, and by the end of it he appeared to signal to the bench that he needed a breather. Towns thoroughly outplayed him on both ends of the floor during that opening stretch, even giving Embiid fits as a defensive player -- not something Towns has been able to do often in his career.
The Sixers could have fallen far behind immediately, but George showed the sort of dynamic scoring juice he had lacked for much of his first handful of games. George scored 11 points on 4-of-5 shooting, and got buckets in a variety of ways. He drove to the rim, he pulled up for mid-range jumpers and he bailed out a stagnant possession by migrating into open space and knocking down a three on the move:
George did more than put the ball in the basket, though, grabbing three early rebounds and playing outstanding defense -- including two steals and a block. His nine minutes and 46 seconds of action to open this one represented his best stretch of basketball as a Sixer to date by far.
Embiid develops early chemistry with some new faces
Embiid still struggled to score in his second stint on the floor -- his four points during that period all came at the free throw line -- but did begin to look more comfortable. More importantly, his teammates were able to reap the benefits of playing alongside one of the most dominant forces in recent basketball history.
Rookie guard Jared McCain -- the star of the Sixers' dramatic win on Friday -- probably felt like he had to wait years to come off a simple dribble hand-off from Embiid and knock down a triple on the move. He aced the test on his first try displaying the first of a host of similar actions Nurse has surely been waiting to unlock in his playbook:
On the prior play, Embiid fed Guerschon Yabusele for a triple. Nurse has been insistent that Yabusele's long-term home from a positional standpoint is power forward. He indicated that using Yabusele and Embiid as a pairing enticed him, understandably so. This was also a matchup that made it easy to justify trying out that unit.
Sixers respond to Knicks run with one of their own
Midway through the second quarter, the Sixers experienced one of their frequent offensive lulls, only making one basket in a span of nearly three minutes. It allowed the Knicks to turn a two-point lead into a nine-point lead with two and a half minutes left before intermission. But Embiid, who failed to make a basket in the first half, was naturally able to draw foul after foul. He made all eight of his free throw attempts in the first half, but the two most important ones came when he drew Towns' third personal foul.
Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau removed Towns from the game for the remainder of the half in an attempt to protect him from any further foul trouble. With shaky backup Jericho Sims on the floor to close the half, the Sixers had an opportunity to make inroads on the New York lead.
They did exactly that, as Embiid converted another pair of free throws, George knocked down another triple and McCain scored off another Embiid assist. A miraculous long step-back two-pointer to beat the buzzer from Josh Hart extended the Knicks' lead to four points at the end of the second quarter, but those final two and a half minutes were strong for the Sixers.
Towns was spectacular in the first half, but Knicks superstar point guard Jalen Brunson struggled to find any sort of rhythm early on. Brunson scored just four points in the first half, shooting 1-of-7 from the field and only attempting two free throws. Brunson absolutely torched the Sixers over the final four games of last season's playoff series.
More early third quarter struggles for Sixers
It feels like this is the sixth or seventh time this has been written this season: the Sixers could have used a strong surge to open the second half, and instead they allowed one. They briefly took the lead on another George triple, but then came a Knicks run. New York outscored the Sixers 12-3 over the next few minutes, forcing a Nurse timeout.
The Sixers have made some strides as an offense -- George continuing to get more comfortable and Embiid returning to the floor help accelerate that process, and Tyrese Maxey's eventual return will do the same -- but far too often, these segments of multiple minutes with next to no life on the offensive end appear for the Sixers, and it is incredibly difficult to win games when you can't score for minutes at a time on multiple occasions during a game.
Sixers respond with a push to close the quarter, led by McCain
The Sixers faced a bit of a gut check, looking to trim which had grown back to eight points. Luckily, their calm and composed rookie helped them stay afloat. McCain drew a foul and knocked down two free throws, then converted an and-one that got the Philadelphia crowd on its feet.
Moments later, he assisted an Embiid basket that led to the former NBA MVP inciting even more noise:
These calls to the crowd were once commonplace for Embiid, but he has shied away from them a bit in recent years. It was by far the most animated he had looked all night.
Sixers crater in fourth quarter
What was I saying about those offensive lulls? It took the Sixers more than four minutes to score a single point in the final frame. Meanwhile, New York's offense got hot. Miles "Deuce" McBride added to his long list of impressive shots made against the Sixers, OG Anunoby dominated around the rim and a controversial overturning of a foul call went against the Sixers, the Knicks had created a 14-point lead, their strongest margin yet.
McCain did his best to keep the Sixers alive, sticking with it and knocking down a pair of threes -- giving him another 20-point game -- but New York's onslaught combined with the Sixers' offensive ineptitude was far too much to overcome.
Up next: There will be no time to rest for the Sixers, who will host the 12-0 Cleveland Cavaliers on Wednesday night in the second leg of the Sixers' first back-to-back of the season. Cleveland has enjoyed a dream season to date, with new head coach Kenny Atkinson leading them to heights previously unseen in the second post-LeBron James era.
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