The Philadelphia 76ers pulled out their fifth win in six games to start the 2026-27 NBA season with a 98-93 victory over the New York Knicks on Friday night. It was a pretty impressive performance for the Sixers to kick off NBA Cup play, but they won’t have long to linger on it, as they’ll be right back in action against the Hornets in Charlotte on Saturday night.
Before moving on to the game against the Hornets, though, let’s look at two key storylines from Philadelphia’s second win over New York on the season.
A sizzling sixth man
It has been a minute since the 76ers have had a bonafide bucket-getter off of the bench. Lou Williams comes to mind. But, it sure seems like they have one now in Anferee Simons, who has scored 20-plus points and dropped five-plus 3-pointers in consecutive contests for Philadelphia.
Simons dropped 20 points with six 3s in Philly’s 114-109 win over the Indiana Pacers, and then he dropped 21 points on five triples against New York. The Sixers outscored their opponents by a combined 20 points over those two games when Simons was on the floor. His point production against Indiana kept the Sixers in the game while the starters were struggling, and the same could be said about his output against the Knicks.
Simons’ ability to come in the game and score points quickly takes some of the scoring pressure off of the shoulders of the starters. It also helps to fill in the gaps when the Sixers are missing key contributors, like Jaylen Brown on Friday night.
Philadelphia’s signing of Simmons over the offseason flew under the radar because of the other high-profile moves that the team made, but it has already proven to be an impactful move. We’ll have to see if Simons can keep up the hot shooting against the Hornets on Saturday night.
A promising performance from The King
LeBron James turned in his best performance of the season so far on Friday night. He did a bit of everything for his team, just as he has throughout his lengthy career. James scored a season-high 20 points in the game, while also adding 9 rebounds, 8 assists, a block and a steal.
This was a pretty ideal performance from James in his 24th NBA season. The Sixers don’t necessarily need him to score a ton of points, but his fingerprints were all over the game, and his IQ and composure once again helped the Sixers come out on top in a close game.
The Sixers are now a league-leading 5-0 in clutch games this season. That’s not a coincidence. James is poised when the game is hanging in the balance, and that composure has started to permeate throughout the rest of the roster. How the Sixers continue to perform in clutch situations will be a storyline to follow throughout the season.
Get 76ers On SI straight to your inbox: sign up for our free newsletter here.
Add us as a preferred source on Google
