An enticing pre-season match-up: LeBron James' unofficial debut for the Philadelphia 76ers against the reigning champions. The 76ers are clearly targeting a win in this friendly against the New York Knicks, but their key players need to protect their fitness.
Philadelphia 76ers
In last season's play-offs, the promising Philadelphia 76ers were eliminated by the New York Knicks in a four-game sweep. The 76ers made sweeping changes: after firing Morey, the front office signed Brown, and LeBron James joined the club some time later. As early as their first pre-season game, the 76ers could start Maxey, Brown, James and Embiid together — Nurse needs to get his stars clicking quickly.
New York Knicks
The newly crowned champions achieved their main objective in the off-season. The New York Knicks kept their core almost entirely intact, bringing in Drummond to replace Robinson. They need to get through the entire regular season without injuries — the Knicks already have a squad ideally suited to the play-offs. Despite four convincing wins over the Philadelphia 76ers in the play-offs, the Knicks could not pull ahead of them in the regular-season series, which finished level at 2:2.
Philadelphia 76ers vs New York Knicks Prediction
Big names in the line-ups do not guarantee a high-scoring shootout between the Philadelphia 76ers and the New York Knicks. Both teams have very little depth, so their stars will head to the bench early as they look to conserve their energy.
