With the Los Angeles Lakers already double-digited by the end of the first quarter on Wednesday, LeBron James put his head down and drove to the cup, looking for a bit of momentum toward the quarter-break.
On the edge, Philadelphia 76ers colossal Joel Embiid was waiting, who smashed away what appeared to be an easy 2 for James, creating a transition opportunity that former Lakers guard Danny Green completed with a 3 from the top of the key to turn Philly. up 16.
It was the kind of series that could lead viewers to believe the Sixers are legit contenders this season.
There was the 7-foot, 280-pound MVP candidate in Embiid who anchored Philadelphia’s top-five defenses and stuffed one of the best finishers in the game’s history into James – who set up his own MVP campaign – leading to a fast-break 3 of a three-time champion. All as the 76ers’ new coach with his own championship credentials, Doc Rivers, oversaw the action from the sidelines.
That’s not to say that the rest of the night was, of course, so dominant for the Sixers. LA used a 13-0 run late in the fourth quarter to take the lead with 11.2 seconds to go after a nice platter from James to a cutting Anthony Davis, and it looked like the Lakers had their perfect 10-0 start away from the season. to go. However, Philly replied with Tobias Harris connecting with a pull-up jump shot over Alex Caruso with three seconds left to win it, 107-106.
“They know what they’re looking for,” Lakers ‘big man Marc Gasol told reporters in a post-game video conference in compliment to the Sixers’ leadership. “I think all players have accepted their role and want to excel in it. They know what they want to live by offensively and what they want to live by defensively.”
Gasol, who came into the game with a bit of a reputation as an Embiid stopper – the Sixers’ big man was only 3-5 in his career against Gasol before Wednesday, averaging 10.6 points on 30% shooting in those games – couldn’t disrupt ‘The Process’ this time.
Embiid finished with 28 points, six rebounds, four assists and two blocks. Meanwhile, Gasol was rendered ineffective, giving up 15 of those points while guarding Embiid as he went 5-for-9 off the field and 4-for-5 off the foul line when the Lakers’ newly acquired start center was charged with him to defend.
“They played through him, and they played through him a lot, and they will continue to feed him,” Gasol said. “It’s not like they’re going to feed someone else. They know who’s going to play them and how they’re going to play, and they feel good about that.”
“So we’ll look at it, and we’ll get better.”
A victory in January does not shift the balance of power for the entire league. The Sixers will still have to prove themselves better than the new big three from Brooklyn Nets, the cohesive core of the Boston Celtics and the Milwaukee Bucks with two-time MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo – just to get out of the Eastern Conference.
But a rematch of the 2001 NBA final between LA and Philadelphia is a possibility at least 20 years later.
Wednesday’s win gave the Sixers a 10-1 score at home this season – they are now 41-5 at the Wells Fargo Center since the start of last season – and improved their overall record to 13-6, the best of the East. They let Embiid play the best basketball of his career. They have Ben Simmons, a tough defender with the format to bother James. Green, Harris and Seth Curry – who didn’t even play on Wednesday – are consistently hitting from the outside.
There is still a lot to be done between now and then, but it is not far-fetched.
“I think it’s a really good team they’ve put together,” James said of the 76ers. “Give it a lot of credit [general manager] Elton Brand and the things they do here. Doc has clearly always won no matter where he’s been. We’ll see as the season goes on. There will be many teams in the Eastern Conference playing championship basketball. I know they believe they are one of those teams. “
The Lakers are already a proven contender because they are the defending champions. However, last year’s team that proved it could take on Jusuf Nurkic, Nikola Jokic and Bam Adebayo on its way to the title was one of the biggest teams in the league.
The Lakers changed in the off-season – they traded JaVale McGee to the Cleveland Cavaliers and signed Dwight Howard as Embiid’s backup and replaced them with Gasol and Montrezl Harrell.
“We’re different,” said Lakers coach Frank Vogel of the shift in the middle. “And otherwise doesn’t have to mean better or worse. I would like to think that this year we are trying to be a better basketball team than last year when we won the championship.”
Whether these Lakers are better than the 2019-20 Lakers remains to be seen. Despite Wednesday’s results, they already believe they are better than the Sixers 2020-21.
“I think our line-up and our group we have are very capable of beating this team in a run of seven games,” said Davis.