Ignore what the two preseason meetings looked like on the scoreboard. Philadelphia won the exhibition opener 120-97 with LeBron, Embiid and Maxey all in street clothes, while Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns played under 15 minutes each. Brown said he wanted the bench auditioning and the last preseason game treated as a dress rehearsal. That makes Tuesday the first real look at either rotation.
The Sixers' problem is depth up front, and it got worse. Ariel Hukporti, one of the 2 former Knicks Philly brought in along with Dillon Jones, ruptured his right Achilles and is done for the season. Adem Bona (foot) is close but hasn't played, and Tacko Fall (hip) and Dominick Barlow (back) both sat the 125-120 overtime loss to Boston that closed the preseason. Anfernee Simons, signed to add guard scoring off the bench, has been nursing a hamstring. Edgecombe sat that Boston game for rest, so his tag looks like maintenance more than anything.
Put those together and the minutes behind Embiid are the soft spot on a roster stacked everywhere else. If Bona isn't cleared by Tuesday, Philly is relying on Embiid's legs, or on small lineups with LeBron or Brown at the 4, against a Knicks frontcourt that pounded them in May. New York has its own thin spot with Robinson gone, so the backup-center minutes on both benches could matter more than anyone would normally expect on opening night.
There's also the question of how 4 high-usage stars share one ball. That's the season-long story in Philadelphia, and opening night at the Garden is a tough first test. The Knicks have their championship continuity and the crowd that comes with it. The Sixers have more top-end talent than the team that got swept, and they've had all summer to think about it.