Sixers Cut Down Defending Champion Knicks On Opening Night

NEW YORK, NY — Under glossy lights, under new hung banners, buzzed by celebrities of every rank and file seemingly emergent from the Madison Square Garden hardwood like 53-year cicadas, the Sixers aggressively asserted Philadelphia style into the national conversation.

The buzzing and clicking crowd was riotous through the opening half, in which the Knicks built up a 10 point lead, Karl Anthony-Towns held out long palms blamelessly after every violent clash under the rim was whistled in favor of New York, and Ben Stiller's Zoolander smirk lengthened like the Grinch.

But while the Sixers looked awkward and uncoordinated at times, and while both teams were atrocious beyond the three point line, Philly's glut of stars clawed them back into the game. New York could never double team anyone and Maxey, Brown, and Embiid took turns leading the scoring. LeBron led all players with 7 assists.

For several moments James jawed with an unidentified fan sitting near courtside. It's not clear what the fan said, but James appeared animated.

“I’m not from the West Coast," he snapped back. "I’m from Ohio. Baby, (expletive) is you talking about?!"

It grew heated enough that Spike Lee, dressed in a suit striped Knicks orange and blue, stepped between them to intervene as peacemaker.

"Now I've seen everything," Reggie Miller said on the broadcast.

The Sixers drew within four by the half and then came out rolling to start the second half. Brown forced a turnover after a Knicks rebound, spun around, and fed James on a charging alley oop. A few moments later, James flew down the wing on a breakaway and dropped in a layup.

But the icing came in the final 1.5 seconds of the third, when the Knicks lofted an in-bounds pass the length of the court and straight out of bounds again without touching the hands of a player. The Sixers got the ball back with the full 1.5 seconds left. They gave LeBron the quarterback role and he quickly found Brown, who drained a fadeaway three at the buzzer.

On the back of three swishes from beyond the arc from new sixth man Anfernee Simons, the Sixers lead grew to 9 in the fourth. The Knicks trimmed it to 2 with just over two minutes to go, but a VJ Edgecombe dunk and Maxey breakaway gave the Sixers a commanding lead they would not relinquish. They won 106-100.

It wasn't perfect. And 81 games remain. But the questions about whether or not the Sixers new array of superstars can mesh together successfully has been put to rest. And there is no finer point to that than to defeat a team that swept them out in the Eastern Conference semifinals last spring en route to the championship.

NBC analyst Zora Stephenson spoke to LeBron for a moment at center court after the buzzer after he finished a celebratory dance with Maxey, the game's leading scorer.

"Does it feel good to get a win on someone's ring night?" she asked.

"Yeah," James said, looking like he may add something else, but demurring. "It does."