With the Los Angeles Lakers already double-digit at the end of Wednesday in the first quarter, LeBron James lowered his head and led to the cup, looking to save a bit of momentum heading into the quarter-finals.
Joel Embiid, who was waiting on the rim, defeated the Philadelphia 76ers, who removed what appeared to be an easy 2 for James, triggering a transition opportunity that former Lakers guard Danny Green completed with a 3 from the top of the key to put Philly with 16.
This was the kind of sequence that could make those who seek to speak for themselves believe that Sixers are legitimate competitors this season.
There he was the 7-meter, 280-pound MVP candidate in Embiid, which anchored the top five defenses in Philadelphia and filled one of the best finalists in the history of the game in James – organizing an MVP campaign – leading to a fast-break 3 from a triple champion. Also like the new coach of the 76ers, with his own championship credentials, Doc Rivers, supervised the action from the sidelines.
That doesn’t mean the rest of the night was as dominant for the Sixers, of course. LA used a 13-0 run at the end of the fourth quarter to take the lead, with 11.2 seconds left of a nice dish from James to a cut Anthony Davis, and it looked like the Lakers he could keep his 10-0 start to the season going. Philly responded, however, with Tobias Harris connecting in a jump shot over Alex Caruso with three seconds left to win, 107-106.
“They know what they’re looking for,” he told reporters Marc Gasol, a Lakers reporter, after the game, which complimented the Sixers. “I think all the players have accepted their roles and they want to excel in them. I know what they want to live offensively and what they want to live defensively.”
Gasol, who entered the competition with a bit of a reputation as a stop Embiid – Sixers’ big man was only 3-5 in his career against Gasol before Wednesday, averaging 10.6 points to 30% in those games – could not This time will not disrupt the “Process”.
Embiid finished with 28 points, six rebounds, four assists and two blocks. Meanwhile, Gasol became ineffective, giving up 15 of those points while guarding Embiid as he came out 5-for-9 from the field and 4-for-5 from the foul line in possession, when the new starting center of the Lakers was tasked with defending him.
“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 leaving and they’re feeding someone else. I know who they will play with and how they will play and they feel comfortable with that.
“So we’re going to look at this and get better.”
A victory in January does not change the balance of power for the entire league. The Sixers will still have to prove themselves better than the Brooklyn Nets ‘big three, the Boston Celtics’ cohesive core and the Milwaukee Bucks with Giannis Antetokounmpo, a two-time vice president – just to get out of the Eastern Conference.
But a rematch of the 2001 NBA Finals between LA and Philadelphia is certainly a possibility 20 years later.
Wednesday’s win gave the Sixers a 10-1 home win this season – they’re now 41-5 at Wells Fargo Center since the start of last season – and they improved their overall record to 13-6, the best in the East. They have Embiid playing the best basketball of his career. They have Ben Simmons, a tough defender the size of harassing James. Green, Harris and Seth Curry – who didn’t even play on Wednesday – are constantly hitting from the outside.
A lot has to happen from now until then, but it’s not too exaggerated.
“I think it’s a very good team they put together,” James said of the 76ers. “It simply came to our notice then [general manager] Elton Brand and the things I do here. Obviously, Doc has always earned quite a lot wherever he has been. We’ll see as the season goes on. There will be a lot of teams in the Eastern Conference that will play basketball in the championship. I know I think I’m one of those teams. “
The Lakers, by virtue of being champions in defense, are already a proven competitor. However, last year’s team that proved to be able to handle Jusuf Nurkic, Nikola Jokic and Bam Adebayo on their way to the title was one of the biggest teams in the league.
The Lakers changed in the offseason – they changed JaVale McGee to the Cleveland Cavaliers and let Dwight Howard sign as Embiid’s backup, replacing them with Gasol and Montrezl Harrell.
“We’re different,” Lakers coach Frank Vogel said of the change in center. “And different doesn’t have to mean better or worse. I’d like to think we’re trying to be a better basketball team this year than we were last year when we won the championship.”
It remains to be seen if these Lakers are better than the 2019-2020 Lakers. Despite Wednesday’s result, they already believe they are better than the 2020-21 Sixers.
“I think our range and the group we have are very capable of beating this team in a series of seven games,” Davis said.