Instant observations: Sixers dominate Nets in Game 1 beatdown

The Sixers delivered a haymaker in Game 1 of their series against the Nets, overwhelming the underdogs from Brooklyn in a 121-101 victory. 

Here’s what I saw.

The Good

• Perhaps the only big question coming into this game/series was what James Harden would look and feel like. Based on his early finishing around the rim, or lack thereof, a bit of panic could have seeped into the fanbase. You can wash all of that away, though, with elite shotmaking, and Harden gave you plenty of that in a first-half fireworks display.

Toward the midpoint of the second quarter, Harden turned Game 1 into his own personal highlight reel. The first (and arguably the loudest) came with Harden on an island against Spencer Dinwiddie, with the Nets guard well underqualified to guard him. Harden made sure to highlight that fact, dropping him off with a wicked crossover before banging the stepback three in his face.

(I feel like I’ve seen Harden badly miss a lot of shots in similar situations over the last year or so, and it was nice to see one go down.)

It only got more ridiculous from there. In the final minute of the first half, Harden pulled up from the logo in a two-for-one situation, sending the arena into hysterics as the game inched toward halftime. Mikal Bridges was on a heater of his own on the other end of the floor, but as a result of Harden’s shotmaking, it never felt like the Sixers were letting the game slip from their grasp, with Bridges’ hot night necessary just to keep pace with Harden and Co.

With Brooklyn hard-doubling Embiid and often using Harden’s defender as the guy to pressure him, Philadelphia’s lead guard had plenty of opportunities to hurt Brooklyn as a passer, and the one constant during his time in Philly has been Harden burying teams who give him space to exploit as a playmaker. Against a team with as much recovery speed as there is in the league, Harden spent the game picking the Nets apart. 

If Harden had better luck finishing inside the arc, we might have been talking about a 30-point double-double to open the playoffs, and people would have started planning the parade route. As it was, an excellent start.

• There was not a lot of mystery to what Brooklyn would have to do in order to slow Joel Embiid down in this series. They don’t have the personnel to win with single coverage, but switching and doubling constantly is a sensible formula.

Playing that style of defense leaves you exposed in a couple of ways — shooters are going to get clean looks if the doubled player makes quick reads, and you’re susceptible to being pounded on the offensive glass. Both of those issues popped up for Brooklyn on Saturday, and Embiid’s reads were a key storyline for the Sixers. 

It is hard to overstate how badly the Nets wanted someone other than Embiid to beat them. They doubled off-ball, they doubled immediately on the catch at the elbow, and they invited him to try to beat them as a playmaker. And Embiid consistently made the right plays…