The New York Knicks' beatdown of the Philadelphia 76ers in Game 1 was, in part, a "schedule loss" for the road team. The 76ers were playing Game 7 against the Boston Celtics less than 48 hours before Round 2 tipped off at Madison Square Garden.
Mike Brown's Knicks were glad to take advantage, early and often, of the Sixers' (reasonable) level of exhaustion. While 2023 MVP Joel Embiid is a two-way force when at his best, he started looking a bit slower as the Boston series played out. And in Game 1 of the Semi-Finals, New York put him in pick-and-roll actions 27 times according to the ALL NBA Podcast.
That's the exact adjustment that Celtics fans wanted to see more of from Joe Mazzulla as their first round series played out. Brown getting straight to it in Game 1 of the series is a great sign for the Knicks. And it makes complete sense why Boston fans may have been driven crazy by New York's immediate success on Monday night.
Knicks infuriated Celtics fans by instantly taking advantage of Embiid
On average, New York scored 1.62 points per direct action when they ran pick-and-rolls that included Embiid's matchup as the screener. The chess move by Brown was an objective success. The coach may not have been expecting his Knicks to rack points up on the Sixers' big man to such great extents, though.
If one were to zoom out and lay out Joel Embiid's entire career's worth of performances thus far, the 1.62 points per direct the Knicks scored while putting him in motion defensively would be the fifth-worst result of every single game in which he defended at least 25 ball screens, also per the ALL NBA Podcast.
New York's willingness to ignore Embiid's reputation for wreaking havoc on teams defensively, and instead showing awareness of the 76ers' exhaustion and playing to the situation, is a strong indicator that this team is ready to practice what they preach.
As opposed to ignoring new information, such as Embiid's struggles with mobility because of the recent surgery he's still recovering from, the Knicks have, for the most part, been making the most of the data they've been getting.
Once they realized their best offense against the Atlanta Hawks came from Karl-Anthony Towns' playmaking from the top of the key, they stuck with it. The 76ers have the same amount of time to rest before Game 2 that they did ahead of Monday. It wouldn't be surprising to see the Knicks continue to challenge Embiid and force him to get stops on his own.