76ers thrive in the zone — the strike zone — in opening statement against Nets

PHILADELPHIA — The familiar blue backdrop, the one with “Playoffs” printed repeatedly in all caps, is back behind the podium. But with all the pressure expected to pack this Sixers postseason, Joel Embiid, James Harden and Philadelphia’s cast of outside shooters seemed to feel anything but tension throughout a wire-to-wire, 121-101 victory over the Brooklyn Nets in Game 1 of their first-round series Saturday. Connecting on 21-of-43 attempts from beyond the arc — a franchise playoff record — can certainly suppress the weight of mounting expectations.

Embiid stood patiently as Brooklyn sent second defender after second defender in his direction. With each of his touches around the foul line, some rangy Nets wing scrambled from a new spot on the floor, presenting a game of whack-a-mole, and the 7-foot center routinely raised the ball like the Statue of Liberty, then fired rockets toward open shooters. Whenever Brooklyn switched his high-screen action with Harden, Nets center Nic Claxton would zoom back onto Embiid’s hip for another double-team, as if dragged by some magnetic pull.

Embiid tallied only three assists, but his laser skips to the opposite corners and back above the break often sent Brooklyn’s defense into a reckless rotation, allowing the Sixers to whip the ball into an even cleaner look from distance. And Embiid still led Philadelphia in scoring with 26 points.

“He’s just seen it so much. I think if anything, the teammates around him have been able to eat off of him,” said Nets head coach Jacque Vaughn. “They have a bunch of shooters who can knock down shots. There’s just something you’re going to have to be able to give up going into a series, and you make adjustments along the way. But you can’t stop it all, for sure.”

The Sixers have found greater success with Embiid combating all that attention from his perch atop the key instead of grinding for position on the blocks.

“Putting him at the elbow where he can see it,” head coach Doc Rivers said.

Embiid didn’t know exactly where the help was coming from, but he knew it was coming. Philadelphia drilled for it throughout this past week of practice, with Rivers’ staff grading the team’s ball movement like umpires calling pitches behind home plate.

“Every pass was a ball or a strike,” Rivers said of his team’s drill work. “When you throw a lot of balls, you miss those shots. When you throw a lot of strikes, you make those shots.”

The coaches even heard P.J. Tucker shouting, “Strike two!” after one of his pair of assists against Brooklyn as the veteran forward jogged back on defense.

Harden may have seen the biggest strike zone of anyone donning Sixers red. A flimsy hamstring plagued his final days with Brooklyn before his trade-deadline move to Philadelphia in 2022, and it seemed to have sapped his explosiveness throughout last year’s playoff push. This afternoon, there was a bounce in his legs reminiscent of the younger, weaponized Harden who once carried the Houston Rockets to a pair of Western Conference finals.

He drilled four stepback triples in the second quarter en route to 23 points, shedding his man with ease and even sending Spencer Dinwiddie to the floor on one occasion.

“My legs, my body feel powerful. Feel strong,” Harden said.

At one point, he played 13 straight minutes from the end of the first and throughout the entire second frame, cooking to the point Philadelphia’s raucous crowd begged for an ill-advised heat check before the half concluded instead of Harden feeding a wide-open Paul Reed along the baseline. In transition, Harden whipped a flurry of pinpoint passes to running mates with spin that would have made a reliever blush.

“He’s the best playmaker in the league,” Embiid said. “By far.”

Philadelphia even found an adjustment at intermission to slow standout Brooklyn swingman Mikal Bridges. The Villanova product played 19 home games on this Wells Fargo Center floor during three collegiate seasons with the Wildcats, including 12 during his junior campaign as Villanova’s home, Finneran Pavilion, underwent renovations, and Bridges looked quite comfortable attacking Harden and Tyrese Maxey in that opening half.

He scored 23 points on 10-of-16 shooting, with few of his jumpers even touching the rim as they splashed through the net. He is so long, Bridges can hang in the air from midrange and along the baselines and fling gorgeous fallaways over any smaller defender without paying them much mind.

“He had a highway in the first half,” Rivers said. “In the second half, it was a traffic jam.”

The Sixers crowded Bridges instead of dropping off his pick-and-roll possessions. Embiid even hedged out on the perimeter to block Bridges’ path with his chest on several occasions. De’Anthony Melton crowded underneath Bridges’ gather instead of trying to disrupt his sightline. Tobias Harris found ways to prevent Bridges from drawing the one-on-one switch with Harden or Maxey he found so delectable in the first two quarters.

It’s a safe bet Brooklyn will continue sending waves Embiid’s way. The Sixers drilling 48% of their 3-pointers isn’t something Philadelphia coaches would wager happening on a nightly basis, either. The Sixers simply must find avenues to continue supplementing Embiid, hoping Harden’s effectiveness continues to spike, as these series evolve into chess matches and the board begins to shrink. Fifteen games still stand between Philadelphia’s true barometer of success, let alone the feeling of necessity to advance beyond the second round.

“The ultimate goal is to get to the Finals and win a championship,” Embiid told Yahoo Sports back in December. “It doesn’t matter if I lose in the first round, second round, conference finals, that doesn’t mean anything to me. There’s nothing to be happy about, about just getting to the conference finals or the Finals. You gotta win the whole thing. That’s the goal. And every single day it’s just trying to find ways I can make that happen.”