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With the Los Angeles Lakers already losing double digits at the end of the first quarter on Wednesday, LeBron James ducked his head and headed for the cup, looking to save some momentum before the break.
Awaiting him was the massive Joel Embiid of the Philadelphia 76ers, who knocked out what seemed like an easy 2 for James, triggering a transition opportunity that former Lakers goalie Danny Green completed with a key 3 from the top. to put Philly. from 16.
It’s the type of streak that could get spectators to convince themselves that the Sixers are legitimate contenders this season.
There was the 7-foot, 280-pound MVP contender in Embiid, anchoring the Philadelphia top five defense and placing one of the greatest finishers in the game’s history in James – setting up his own MVP campaign – leading to a fast-break 3 of a triple champion. While a new 76ers coach with his own championship credentials, Doc Rivers, oversaw the action from the sideline.
That’s not to say the rest of the night was so 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 a nice flat from James to a cutting Anthony Davis, and it looked like the Lakers could keep their perfect start to the season. 10-0 season on the road. To go. Philly responded, however, with Tobias Harris logging in on a pull-up shot on 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 on a post-game video conference, complimenting Sixers management. “I think all the players have accepted their role and want to be good at it. They know what they want to experience offensively and what they want to experience defensively.”
Gasol, who entered the contest with some reputation as an Embiid scorer – the Sixers big man was only 3-5 in his career against Gasol before Wednesday, averaging 10.6 points on 30% shots in these matches – could not 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 keeping Embiid as he passed 5 for 9 from the field and 4 for 5 from the foul line in possessions where the Lakers’ newly acquired starting center. was responsible for defending it.
“They played through him, and they played a lot through him, and they’re going to continue to feed him,” Gasol said. “It’s not like they’re going to leave and feed someone else. They know who they’re going to play with and how they’re going to play, and they’re comfortable with that.
“So we’ll look at this, and we’ll get better.”
A victory in January doesn’t change the balance of power for the entire league. The Sixers will yet have to prove themselves better than the three new greats of the Brooklyn Nets, the cohesive core of the Boston Celtics and the Milwaukee Bucks with two-time MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo – just to come out of the Eastern Conference.
But a 2001 NBA Finals rematch between Los Angeles and Philadelphia is certainly a possibility 20 years later.
Wednesday’s win gave the Sixers a 10-1 score at home this season – they’re now 41-5 at Wells Fargo Center since the start of last season – and improved their overall record to 13-6, the best ever. from the East. They have Embiid playing the best basketball of his career. They have Ben Simmons, a robust defender with the size to harass James. Green and Harris and Seth Curry – who didn’t even play on Wednesday – are constantly hitting from the outside.
It would still take a lot of things to do by then, but that’s no exaggeration.
“I think it’s a really good team that they’ve put together,” James said of the 76ers. “Give a lot of credit to [general manager] Elton Brand and the things they do here. Obviously, Doc always won pretty much everywhere he was. We will see as the season progresses; there will be a lot of Eastern Conference teams playing championship basketball on the home stretch. I know they believe they are part of these teams. “
The Lakers, as the defending champions, are already a proven contender. However, last year’s team that proved they can handle Jusuf Nurkic, Nikola Jokic and Bam Adebayo on their way to the title were one of the biggest teams in the league.
The Lakers changed in the offseason – they traded JaVale McGee to the Cleveland Cavaliers and let Dwight Howard sign as Embiid’s replacement, replacing them with Gasol and Montrezl Harrell.
“We’re different,” Lakers coach Frank Vogel said of the change of center. “And different doesn’t have to mean better or worse. I would like to think that we are trying to be a better basketball team this year than even we were last year when we won the championship.”
It remains to be seen if these Lakers are better than the 2019-20 Lakers. Despite Wednesday’s result, they already believe they are better than the 2020-21 Sixers.
“I think our roster and our squad that we have are very capable of beating this team in a seven game series,” said Davis.
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