Follow-Up: NBA Opening Night, Late Games: 76ers Spoil Knicks' Ring Night 106-100 Behind Maxey's 28 and James's 14 in His Philadelphia Debut; Thunder Beat Spurs 116-104 as Gilgeous-Alexander Scores 32
NEW YORK — The New York Knicks picked up their NBA championship rings, but the Philadelphia 76ers left Madison Square Garden with a 106-100 victory on Tuesday in the teams' season opener, NBC Sports reported.
The Knicks received the rings for the franchise's first NBA championship in 53 years and raised the 2025-26 title banner in a pregame ceremony of about 30 minutes. Tyrese Maxey had a game-high 28 points for Philadelphia. In their 76ers debuts, LeBron James had 14 points, nine rebounds and seven assists, and Jaylen Brown added 19 points, eight rebounds and six assists; Joel Embiid finished with 13 points, 11 rebounds and six assists. Philadelphia won despite shooting 41.9% from the field and 27.5% on 3-pointers. After trailing since late in the first quarter, the 76ers won the third quarter 29-18 and closed it on an 11-0 run capped by a Maxey 3-pointer as the horn sounded, taking an 83-76 lead into the fourth. Knicks coach Mike Brown said his team looked like it was "running in mud" on offense and defense and credited the 76ers with 24 fast-break points, USA Today reported. Late in the game, Maxey picked off a pass and went coast-to-coast for a layup to make it 104-98 with 1:52 left; with 9.7 seconds remaining, Jalen Brunson missed a 3-pointer, James grabbed the defensive rebound and made both free throws to seal the win.
"Personally, I feel a lot better, still getting my rhythm," James told NBC Sports about beginning his 24th season with his fourth team. "Obviously, just a little bit over two weeks with the new squad. But I like the way we played. I think we played exceptionally well, especially defensively." Asked whether he liked winning on another team's ring night, he said: "Yeah, I do. It's pretty special." Brown told the New York Post: "It's good, what we wanted to do, be a little spoiler." For New York, Brunson led the team with 21 points but made only 6 of 19 shots as the Knicks shot 37.2%; Karl-Anthony Towns added 19 points but played only 24 minutes while in foul trouble in the first half, and backup center Andre Drummond added 12 points and 14 rebounds.
SAN ANTONIO — Shai Gilgeous-Alexander poured in 32 points as the visiting Oklahoma City Thunder built a huge first-half lead and held on for a 116-104 victory over the San Antonio Spurs on Tuesday in the season opener between last year's top two teams in the Western Conference, Reuters reported. The game was a rematch of last season's Western Conference finals, in which San Antonio eliminated Oklahoma City.
Jared McCain added 20 points and matched his career high with six 3-pointers for the Thunder. Chet Holmgren had 14 points and Jalen Williams finished with 12. Oklahoma City led by 21 points at halftime, 65-44, after going 10-for-14 from beyond the arc in the first half, and led by as many as 26. The Spurs closed to within seven points in both the third and fourth quarters, the latest on Stephon Castle's 3-pointer with 4:18 remaining, but Oklahoma City made the plays down the stretch. Castle led San Antonio with 24 points, Dylan Harper added 18, De'Aaron Fox scored 14, and Victor Wembanyama had 12 points, 13 rebounds and six blocked shots while going 1 of 13 from the field, his only basket a dunk on a lob to end the third quarter.
Tensions flared in the second quarter when Fox threw Holmgren to the floor while battling for position in the lane; Fox received a flagrant-1 foul and four players were assessed technical fouls, and Oklahoma City went on a 9-0 run to extend its lead to 46-30 with 8:09 left in the second quarter. "Obviously, it's the team that eliminated us from achieving our goal, but for us, I think it was more we're just happy to be back," Gilgeous-Alexander said on the NBC broadcast after the game. "One of 82. This doesn't prove anything."
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 麦迪逊广场花园外观（资料图，非本场现场图），Alberto-g-rovi 摄，CC BY 3.0（Wikimedia Commons）
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