76ers Spoil Knicks Ring Night in MSG Season Opener

I want to talk about Knicks Sixers first. This was ring night for the New York Knicks. They received their rings. Their banner went up. They also, kind of crazy, they put up an NBA Cup banner after not putting one up initially. Chose to put an NBA Cup banner up there, John? Because you got an NBA championship banner. Yeah, listen, if they didn't win the title, it would not be up there. Yeah, they're going up. They're going up. You can put that mid-season tournament banner up now because you got the season banner. They go together. They're a good pair. You would have seen New Yorkers climbing up there and taking it down themselves. Ripping that thing down. You would have seen that. So the champs, obviously, they raised their first banner in 53 years. And then these new look Sixers, they walk into MSG and they take that win at MSG. Listen, I think the Knicks still looked okay. They looked sluggish. I think all teams on ring night and on opening ceremony night, they always look kind of down. I remember when the Lakers, this was right after they won that covid championship they played the clippers and the clippers just mopped the floor with them because they just didn't have any fight usually that's what you see from teams because they have to go through all these ceremonies before the game and all that so it kind of drains the energy a little bit but still it was it was a close game i mean you look at it the knicks swept philadelphia uh in the east semis last year so the the sixers that were returning they had a chip on their shoulder right they had some motivation coming into this they saw the banner being raised obviously lebron james's debut jalen brown's debut this whole new team is a lot of talk about it and you know the Knicks kind of led most of the first half and then they only scored 18 in the third and that is when the Sixers kind of took over in crunch time as veteran teams with really good players do John uh what was your thought about this whole game as a whole and then kind of this new look Sixers team I thought it was a well-played game by both teams to be a tip-off game the Knicks looked a little off at times in the game but that's the way that they played down the stretch last year during their run they look kind of off at times and then they find their rhythm when Jalen Brunson finds his rhythm and I thought the 76ers did a really good job defending him and I really thought that the bringing all that together it looked balanced I mean I thought Embiid was awful tonight but other than other other than Embiid being bad I thought the rest of the team really looked like they were on a string they really looked like they were communicating and really like they were active on both sides of the ball. And I think that's going to be the key for them is being active on both sides of the ball. Because the Knicks, they have synergy. Whatever they did last year carried over because they look like each other knows where the other one is going to be. And so the continuity on that roster looks like it's really going to pay dividends down the line as you go during the regular season if there's no injuries. And so I really felt like it was a good game played on both sides outside of Joel Embiid playing terrible. I really enjoyed the game. yeah I did too you know a big part of the Knicks and the talk in the offseason was how were they going to replace Mitchell Robinson because as bad as Mitchell Robinson is scoring wise he was so crucial to them on the boards he was so crucial to them on the defensive end and a lot of people like well hey they miss him I don't know if they can repeat well Andre Drummond was actually pretty good in this game he was 12 and 14 and four off the bench and he had to come in early because Carl Anthony Towns got into foul trouble early um but you look around that Nick's team like Anunoby had 10 points on 3 and 12 shooting uh Jalen Brunson 6 of 19 shooting Carl Anthony Towns 19 and 12 kind of standard for him um and a lot of talk about his weight in the offseason the non-contract extension that was not given out to him on the contract he's waiting and he had this he had this interview before the game with with Malika Andrews and he's talking about oh i'll take a discount i don't mind that i'll sign the deal then it's not like they're giving you a discount it's not huge but listen y'all it's about he waiting he wait he got his weight problem he's waiting on that contract man y'all better get it together then he'll get it together that's that James Harden fat suit in a week it'll be gone if you pay him that's how you fix that i i i thought that ring night carries a different level of energy to it yes and i really felt like That's kind of the reason why you saw the game do fits and starts. I really think that Philadelphia, the key to Philly going forward, is whether or not Joel Embiid is going to play on the block. Because historically, if you are on the team of LeBron James, he wants the lane clear to drive. I don't know if 40-year-old LeBron wants the lane clear for him to drive down it. If you have a guy like Joel Embiid, there is no matchup for him on the low block. I thought that was going to be the strategy. It appears that's not going to be the strategy. And they're going to have him shoot three. That didn't go well last year. And unless he tightens that up, I think that's going to be the monkey wrench is how the offense presents itself later in the season for them to take full advantage of the roster that they have. But if you want to keep that lane clear, he's going to have to shoot 40% from three to make that even worth his while.