Key Points
Bullet point summary by AI
- The 76ers must tighten their defense to prevent the Knicks from shooting 63 percent from the floor and 51 percent from deep as they did in Game 1.
- Philadelphia can disrupt New York's offensive flow by forcing their star guard to defend more frequently and creating mismatches on the perimeter.
- Forcing New York's key big men into foul trouble and exploiting their poor free throw shooting could swing the game in Philadelphia's favor.
There's one easy thing the Philadelphia 76ers can do to get themselves back in the series against the Knicks, and that's get some sleep. They finished off the Celtics in Game 7 on Saturday night and had to get to New York on Sunday for an early Monday tip for Game 1. That quick turnaround at least partially explains their 137-98 opening collaps.
Beyond hitting up the Sleep Lab at Jordan’s Furniture (not sponsored, never actually been there; also, do they even have Jordan’s furniture outside of New England? No? Really?), here’s what the 76ers can do to fix … whatever that was in Game 1.
1. New York’s shots cannot (and hopefully will not) be this open
I don’t care if you’re Warren Buffett, Jimmy Buffett, buffeting out a scratch on your car or at the Long John Silvers seafood buffet (the t is silent): no team can win a basketball game in which their opponent shoots 63 percent from the floor and 51 percent from 3-point land. That’s a non-starter, and while data suggests opponent 3-point shooting is mostly out of the defense’s control … that doesn’t mean you can allow your opponent to shoot with impunity! Run them off the line.
20 percent of the Knicks’ 3-balls in Game 1 were wide open, with the closest defender more than six feet away. Seven percent of their twos were wide open, which doesn’t sound that crazy until you realize that means five entire shots had literally nobody within six feet of the shooter. That’s quite a high figure; there aren’t that many feet in the half-court.
Teams may trick themselves into believing that there is nothing they can do to stop a 3-point barrage, but you can bail out to prevent shooters from just walking into rhythm shots. You might give up drives, sure, but then you scramble, rotate and recover. Otherwise, you may as well submit your resignation to the 3-point Gods and ask them to call you when they’ve made their decision.
2. The 76ers can make Jalen Brunson defend every time down the floor
I don’t care if you’re Warren Buf—you get the idea: there’s no world in which Jalen Brunson, a small guard who should be in almost every offensive action for Philadelphia, should have zero fouls in a game he played 31 minutes. It’s not like he’s parked on Matisse Thybulle or something; everyone in Philly’s starting lineup can create and score from all over the half-court. Find Brunson, and make him defend the pick-and-roll.
Lately, I’ve been nursing a pet theory of “foul determinism” in which your ability to get fouled or propensity to commit them is directly correlated with how effective a basketball player you are. Brunson is (partly) great because he can get fouled and doesn’t commit very many, while Karl-Anthony Towns is limited by how many fouls he picks up early. Brunson destroyed Philly in Game 1, partially because he shot the lights out but also because Philly couldn’t get him off the floor. Love it or hate it, the NBA playoffs can be swung by a superstar picking up two quick fouls. Which brings us to adjustment number three.
3. Joel Embiid can get every Knicks center in foul trouble (one way or another)
“Foul trouble” often means someone has a bunch of fouls, but there are other ways to get someone in “trouble” with fouls (see below). For the first case, the 76ers have the guy to quickly muck up New York’s game plan by materializing Karl-Anthony Towns fouls out of thin air like some Harry Potter character that can only conjure the sound of a whistle: nobody other than Shai Gilgeous-Alexander gets more touch fouls than Joel Embiid.
They actually did this pretty well in Game 1, and for reasons that will soon become clear, Ariel Hukporti played 17 minutes and was a +22 plus/minus. I’m in the “we’re okay with that” camp, and I’m generally not going to expect five points nine rebounds and two blocks from him. He’s an inexperienced player who barely saw the floor this year; if the 76ers can force him in, that’s good.
Ok, now for the second type of “foul trouble” and the reason for the major Ariel Hukporti runtime. Philadelphia managed to get Towns off the floor early with two fouls, forcing in Mitchell Robinson to begin one of the glorious sideshows of modern NBA basketball: playoff teams intentionally fouling Robinson literally whenever they can to force him to shoot free throws. They did it twice in a row, Robinson went 0-4 from the line and Hukporti thus got on the floor. I think this is a good strategy for Philly, as denying the Knicks both of their key bigs should work wonders.
But Philly also needs to make offensive changes in general to exploit less-tuned-up Knicks lineups. Run in transition, use Maxey — who, in Game 1 was as quiet as one of those “seen but not heard” corporate assistants for scary bosses in movies like The Devil Wears Prada — and play with the pace that allowed the overmatched Indiana Pacers to beat this very Knicks team last year. That, plus junking up their lineups, could get the 76ers back on track.
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