NEW YORK — In Nick Nurse’s 2020 memoir, “Rapture,” he recounts and reflects on decades of being a basketball vagabond. There are stories from his many years coaching in England and the G League (then the D-League), his brief stint in Belgium and the two seasons he spent as an assistant coach at South Dakota.
When you coach for as long as Nurse has, you’re bound to witness some real stinkers. In one game, he writes that his team came out “like we were half-asleep,” and that he “barely recognized whatever we were trying to do” on offense. In another, he writes that his team was “a step too slow all night on just about everything,” which is the same sentiment Nurse shared after his Philadelphia 76ers lost Game 1 of their second-round series against the New York Knicks in a 137-98 thrashing on Monday.
The stinkers I just referenced weren’t overseas or in the minor leagues, by the way. In both instances, Nurse was describing losses in the 2019 NBA playoffs. He was coaching the Toronto Raptors at the time. After the game in which they were a step slow, they found themselves in a 2-0 hole against the Milwaukee Bucks in the conference finals. They won the next four games against Milwaukee, and then they won the championship.
Ahead of Game 2 on Wednesday, then, maybe it doesn’t matter how terrible the team looked in the opener. The Sixers looked pretty hopeless in their two 32-point losses against the Boston Celtics in the first round, too, and, considering the circumstances, it shouldn’t be surprising that they weren’t their best selves on Monday. They were less than 48 hours removed from the end of a physically and emotionally draining seven-game series, and their opponents were well rested.
On Tuesday, Philadelphia forward Kelly Oubre Jr. noted that the Sixers didn’t have a full practice leading up to Game 1. “I think we’re still trying to adjust from last series,” he said. He added that they “owe it to the city of Philadelphia, to our families to just go out there and put on a better display of basketball.”
There is something to be said for the old “play better” adjustment. No matter what tweaks Nurse’s staff makes to the game plan, it won’t work if it’s not executed well. “Intensity, effort, physicality: That’s the main thing,” Philadelphia guard VJ Edgecombe said. “That’s where it starts.”
At the very beginning of the Game 1, when the Knicks were playing through Karl-Anthony Towns like they had in the last few games of their first-round series against the Atlanta Hawks, Philly seemed to be prepared for the challenge. Then the Knicks simplified things, targeting Joel Embiid in high pick-and-rolls. It is hard to overstate how comfortable they — and Jalen Brunson specifically — were when doing so.
New York’s shot-making was insane. The Knicks shot 51% from beyond the 3-point line and, somehow, 77% from inside the 3-point line. But this was not just shooting variance. The Knicks consistently generated far better looks than the Sixers did. No matter what Philadelphia threw at them, they had answers. Since falling behind 2-1 against Atlanta, they have been playing at an absurdly high level offensively. New York has outscored its opponents by 119 points in the last three games, the best three-game point differential (regular season or playoffs) in 33 years. One cannot just assume that the Sixers will disrupt this rhythm. The Hawks clearly couldn’t do it.
In Game 2, Nurse’s coaching staff could choose to blitz and hard-double Brunson right away, in an effort to get the Knicks on their heels. Philadelphia could put Embiid on Josh Hart or play more zone in order to keep its rim protector near the basket. After the blowout loss, though, Nurse said that it was “really hard to evaluate” from a tactical perspective because “we were just kind of stuck in mud on both ends.”
Edgecombe, confident as ever, said that “we control the shots they get, if you think about it.” The Sixers had just had a film session in which they’d discussed what they can do to make things harder on New York. He said he personally needs to do a better job of staying in front of Brunson and getting over screens, so Embiid and Philadelphia’s other bigs “won’t have to run around as much.”
Other than getting the Knicks’ bigs in foul trouble, the Sixers never put much pressure on New York on Monday. In theory, Tyrese Maxey and Edgecombe can do that in transition, but you can’t run if you’re not getting stops. If Philadelphia is going to use its speed, it needs to find a way to slow the Knicks like it slowed the Celtics.
As lopsided as Game 1 was, both teams know from experience that series can turn quickly. Oubre said the Sixers didn’t play their brand of basketball on Monday, but they also had games like that against Boston, a series that forced Philadelphia to get better as it went on.
“I expect the same from this series,” Oubre said. “Only up from here.”
