Sixers beat champion Knicks 106-100 on opening night as Tyrese Maxey scores 28

The Sixers opened the LeBron James and Jaylen Brown era with a 106-100 win over the Knicks on Tuesday night at Madison Square Garden. It came on the same night New York raised its championship banner and got its rings.

Tyrese Maxey led all scorers with 28 points, five assists, three steals and three blocks. Brown added 19 points, eight rebounds and six assists. James is starting his NBA-record 24th season, and he had 14 points, nine rebounds and seven assists in his Sixers debut. Joel Embiid finished with 13 points, 11 rebounds, two steals and three blocks.

Five months ago, this Knicks team swept the Sixers in the second round on the way to a title. On Tuesday, Philly walked into the Garden on ring night and took the game anyway.

Good start.

Sixers come back from 10 down against the Knicks

JAYLEN TO LEBRON.
LEBRON.
JAYLEN.
MAXEY.
SIXERS WIN.
TOM MCGINNIS ON THE CALL. pic.twitter.com/TKSdG1nNOi

— Nick Piccone (@_piccone) October 21, 2026

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The first half was rough on offense. The Sixers started 3-for-20 from three, and the Knicks pushed the lead to 10 on a Jordan Clarkson layup. New York led 58-54 at halftime.

The third quarter flipped the game. The Sixers turned Knicks turnovers into points and got out in transition. A James fast-break layup put them up 64-63.

Anfernee Simons hit three jumpers in the quarter to end a long cold stretch. He finished with 13 points off the bench. Kentavious Caldwell-Pope added two threes. Both are new to Philly, and both made the Knicks pay for loading up on the stars.

The Sixers led by as many as nine early in the fourth. Karl-Anthony Towns hit a long three with 4:37 left to cut it to 96-95. Embiid answered with a three of his own, and Philly never gave the lead back.

The Sixers defense won it

The shooting was bad. The Sixers shot 41.9% from the field and 27.5% from three. You do not beat the defending champs in their own building shooting like that unless the defense carries you. It did.

After the Towns three, the Knicks scored on just two of their last eight possessions:

• Jaylen Brown switched onto Jalen Brunson and forced a tough miss.
• Embiid blitzed a Brunson pick-and-roll, and James rotated over to take away the pass to Towns.
• Maxey then intercepted an OG Anunoby pass and took it the other way for a dunk. That put the Sixers up six inside the final two minutes.
• After a Knicks timeout, James slid over from the weak side and got a piece of a Mikal Bridges layup.

Brunson, the reigning Finals MVP, scored 21 points on 6-for-19 shooting. The Knicks shot 37.2% as a team and scored 100 points on 102 possessions. Per NBA.com, they did that only six times all of last season.

New York spent the whole night trying to get Embiid onto Brunson in ball screens. That action killed the Sixers in the playoff sweep. On Tuesday, the Knicks got five points on 14 of those plays, according to NBA.com’s John Schuhmann.

VJ Edgecombe was excellent on defense all night and deserves credit for it.

What the Sixers need to fix

Embiid’s offense is the first thing. He went 4-for-15, took only four shots in the paint and got to the line four times. He settled for jumpers when he had a path to the rim. That has to change.

He still mattered on the other end. With Embiid on the floor, the Knicks scored 85 points per 100 possessions. With him off, they scored 126.

The four stars already look comfortable sharing the ball. Maxey, Brown, James and Embiid each had at least five assists. The first play of the game used all four in one screening action, and it got Maxey an open three.

The Sixers also won this short-handed. Dominick Barlow, Dean Wade, Ariel Hukporti and Tacko Fall were all out. Adem Bona played after missing the entire preseason.

James kept it simple afterward: “I liked the way we played… Good win for us.”

The Sixers host Cleveland on Thursday night. They are 1-0, and they got there by beating the team that ended their season.