How the Knicks are targeting Joel Embiid — and what the 76ers can do to get even

NEW YORK — To hear Nick Nurse tell it, it all came back to those high ball screens. Time and again in his postgame remarks after a tip-to-tail annihilation to tip off the 2026 Eastern Conference semifinals, the Philadelphia 76ers head coach pointed to a string of defensive possessions early in Game 1 on which it seemed his team had absolutely no answer for what the New York Knicks were trying to do. “I mean, we had, I think, five or six mid pick-and-rolls in a row that they scored on in pretty much every way they could,” Nurse said.

“Came off [the screen], hit a 3. Didn’t get through the screen, got a lob. Hit a couple floaters down the lane.

I think they scored six straight times off that, and that kind of extended [New York’s lead] a little bit. ” Nurse was right on. The Knicks scored on six consecutive possessions midway through the first quarter — a lob dunk for Mitchell Robinson, a pair of midrange pull-ups sandwiching a driving layup by Jalen Brunson, a pull-up Brunson 3, and a catch-and-shoot 3 in the strong-side corner by Deuce McBride — to take early control of the game.

“I think, most importantly the ball was going in, and I got a rhythm,” Brunson said of the hot start that propelled him to a game-high 35 points, in a performance reminiscent of the way he torched Philly’s drop coverage in New York’s Round 1 victory in 2024. “My teammates did a good job of setting screens and getting me open. ” When you take a look at how the Knicks got him open and scored on those plays, there’s one common denominator: They all came after involving Joel Embiid in the action, forcing him to prove he could contain the roll, bother the ball-handler or (ideally, for Philadelphia) both.