Looking to be the smartest in the office on Monday when it comes to Sixers talk?

Why not start on getting up to speed in the aftermath of the team’s 121-101 win today ahead of Monday’s Game 2 at the Wells Fargo Center (7:30 p.m., TNT).

David Murphy opines on just how good James Harden was in Game 1 and on Saturday was the Sixers believed was the Harden the Sixers believed they acquired last season.

The Sixers cooked the Nets in Game 1 of the NBA Eastern Conference playoffs, with a performance our Sixers writer Keith Pompey said Brooklyn had “no answers” for.

It’s the latest Inquirer insight ahead of the Sixers hoping to go two-up in the series when it hosts Brooklyn again in Game 2.

Looking for even more Sixers and NBA playoff coverage? We got you.

An excerpt from the analysis of Inquirer Sixers beat writer Keith Pompey:

On Saturday, the Brooklyn Nets had no answers for the 76ers’ balance and depth. And so the Sixers took a 121-101 victory in Game 1 of the first-round series at the Wells Fargo Center.

Joel Embiid had 26 points while going 11-for-11 from the foul line. The MVP finalist also had five rebounds, three assists, and two blocks. James Harden had 23 points,13 assists, and four rebounds. Tobias Harris added 21 points, four rebounds, and four assists.

In all, the Sixers played 10 players — all in the first half. Nine of the 10 players scored. And even that’s misleading, considering Danuel House Jr., the player who didn’t score, was only in for eight seconds in the first quarter.

The Sixers made 21 of 43 three-pointers and were 16-for-16 from the foul line. They also scored 31 points off 20 Brooklyn turnovers.

Brooklyn’s Mikal Bridges, a Philly native and former Villanova star, led all scorers with 30 points. But the Nets must find a way to overcome the Sixers’ balance if they expect to win Monday’s Game 2 matchup (6:30 p.m., TNT).

The Sixers’ dominance was far from surprising for Brooklyn.

Read Keith’s complete game analysis below. 👇

» READ MORE: Sixers cruise to 121-101 win over Brooklyn Nets in Game 1 of their first-round playoff series

The Paul Reed love affair on social media came in bunches after his reverse two-handed jam put the Sixers ahead 102-83 with a little over 8 minutes remaining in the fourth quarter.

Needless to say, a dunk like that, not only had Reed feeling himself but also got the Wells Fargo Center crowd and Twitterverse into a frenzy. Reed dropped 11 off the bench in 13 minutes of play.

It should be noted that the assist from James Harden was his 10th of the game and stamped his double-double performance with authority. Harden was on 20 points and those 10 boards after the jam. He finished the game with 23 points and 13 assists.

— Kerith Gabriel

The Sixers held Mikal Bridges scoreless for the last 8 minutes of the third, thanks largely to the defense of De’Anthony Melton. Bridges has 25 for the Nets. Sixers lead by 12 entering the fourth. He finished with 30 points.

— Marcus Hayes

The Nets and Mikal Bridges are targeting James Harden, who gave up five points in the matchup. Of course, Harden also scored nine straight, so …

And the Sixers happen to have a 67-58 halftime lead behind Harden’s 17 points and six assists.

— Marcus Hayes

The Sixers are having some trouble keeping Mikal Bridges from doing whatever he wants. That said, he might need to finish with 80 points in order for it to matter. Seven different Sixers knocked down a three-pointer in the first 13 minutes of the game. That’s a difficult thing to do.

— David Murphy

The Sixers have seven offensive rebounds in the first eight minutes. P.J. Tucker has three of them. They lead by a point, and that’s why.

And then there’s Joel Embiid, who led the NBA in scoring. He has altered or discouraged three shots in the first nine minutes. That’s why he’s the real MVP … the past three seasons.

» READ MORE: "You need a P.J. on your team: Former teammates, coaches explain what makes P.J. Tucker so special

— Marcus Hayes

Mikal Bridges is 3-for-4 and he probably got fouled on his miss. The Sixers simply don’t have an answer for him. The Philly native and Villanova champion isn’t shrinking from the moment against his hometown team.

— Marcus Hayes

It started 15 minutes later than it was scheduled to begin, but the Sixers playoffs are officially underway. Keep it locked here for live updates and analysis throughout Game 1 — and head over to Gameday Central for live stats and play-by-play action.

— Matt Mullin

Which is fitting because of his strong friendship with Doc Rivers. The two have become “pen pals,” checking in over text and discussing coaching principles, as The Inquirer’s Gina Mizell noted in our pages and on Twitter.

The Sixers are in full postseason mode, and they have the fits too match. PJ Tucker’s purple crochet piece is a winner, and Georges Niang makes his mark with an Awake NY x Carhartt active Jacket and Pine Green Jordan 4s.

And now, we rate the ‘fits...

— Earl Hopkins

Point guard Tyrese Maxey pulls up to Wells Fargo Center decked out in a matching cotton candy mint fit.

Maxey’s rating: 6/10

Meanwhile, backup big man Montrezl Harrell came out strong during pregame warmups. But P.J. Tucker — no surprise — stole the show with his kicks.

— Earl Hopkins

Steph Curry said it best. I heard it in an interview: The playoffs are like two regular-season games in one. That’s how freaking hard you’re playing. Guys’ minutes may go down. Guys’ minutes may go up. But that’s how hard you’re playing. It’s super physical. There are not ticky-tack fouls being called. It is very intense. There’s no helping people up off the floor. It’s cut-throat. Everybody wants to win it. It’s the most intense part of the season. When I first got into the NBA, Kevin Pritchard in Indiana told me there’s five stints in the season. Preseason. The beginning of the season, when everybody’s kind of feeling each other out. Pre-All-Star break, when everybody’s exhausted and can’t wait until the break. After All-Star break. And then playoffs. Playoffs are when young boys get exposed, and the men really flourish. I’ve always taken that to heart and realized that playoff basketball is just so intense with the attention to detail. You’re going to know everything that they run. They’re going to know everything that you run. It’s just who’s going to fight through the crap and all that to come out victorious. It’s like going into the room and being like, “All right, who’s coming out alive?”

Down in the bubble with Utah, we were up 3-1 against Denver. You’re thinking we’re going to beat them, and anything can happen. Then you kind of realize the knockout game is the hardest freaking game. All we’ve got to do is get one out of the next three, and they come back and we lose three straight because the unexpected happened. So you always have to prepare to cover all your bases. There’s no taking your foot off the gas. Sometimes, in the regular season, you can get away with doing that. There’s no place for that at all in the playoffs.

» READ MORE: ‘This is an opportunity that we’ve all been waiting for’: Georges Niang’s Inquirer diary lifts curtain on Sixers’ playoff run

— Georges Niang, as told to Gina Mizell

FanDuel has assembled a full menu of betting options for how the series might unfold.

All signs point to an easy Sixers win.

But how many games will the series go? Will the Sixers win the series by more than 2 games? Will they win it in four games and award bettors laying +270 odds?

There’s no reason to get overwhelmed by all these betting options, as it’s best to begin your process by identifying a winner in this series (likely the Sixers) and then assessing how you can extract the best value.

According to our Action Labs database, the Sixers are 24-11 straight up against the Nets in the past 35 meetings. That includes a 4-1 series win in the first round of the 2019 NBA Playoffs.

Moreover, Philadelphia won all four games against Brooklyn this season.

While backing the Sixers to win the series at -800 odds offers little value, if you like the 76ers to overwhelm the Nets in this series, you can back them on the series spread of -2.5 (-162).

We’d also recommend taking a shot with a 76ers sweep, or the series ending with a Sixers victory in five games.

» READ MORE: Is there any value in betting on the series in Sixers vs. Nets? We have a few ideas.

— Jeff Neiburg and Michael Arinze, The Action Network

Look up in the sky! It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s ... a dog?!

If you’ve ever been to a Sixers game, you’ve seen Franklin’s high-flying antics before. But you’ve probably never seen him get this high — or fall back to earth this quickly.

That’s because the Sixers mascot teamed up with the Red Bull Air Force on Friday, ahead of Philly’s playoff opener against Brooklyn, and decided to dive out of a plane and head-first into the postseason.

Unlike with the Phillies or Eagles, Franklin wasn’t able to land on the playing surface prior to the game — you know, because of that pesky Wells Fargo Center roof — but that doesn’t make the feat any less impressive.

— Matt Mullin

P.S. Do you have any idea how hard it was to write this without making a “raining cats and dogs” reference?

The Sixers are a sizable favorite in Saturday’s opener, which isn’t shocking, given that Philly swept the season series from the Nets and finished nine games ahead of their Atlantic Division rivals in the standings.

What might be a bit of a surprise? We’re taking the points with the road underdog in Game 1.

There’s not a lot of head-to-head data to support a hypothesis that Brooklyn will keep it close.

After all, Philadelphia dominated various iterations of the Nets this year, going 5-0 SU and 4-1 ATS. That includes one meaningless 19-point victory that kicked off the preseason and one meaningless 29-point victory that concluded the regular season.

It didn’t matter if Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving and Ben Simmons were on the court in Nets uniforms (as was the case to start the season) or not (as will be the case in this series). Philadelphia took care of business each and every time.

So what’s the logic for fading the Sixers in Game 1 — especially since they finished with the NBA’s best overall ATS record (48-34) and fourth-best ATS mark at home (25-16)?

Three words: Inflated point spread.

» READ MORE: Nets vs. 76ers prediction: Betting value is with Brooklyn in Game 1 in Philadelphia

— Matt Jacob, The Action Network

The Brooklyn Nets, in just a little more than two months, have gone from a tiresome group of mercenaries to an interesting young team led by a rather amiable Villanova alumnus. They may not have enough firepower to make a deep run as when they had Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant, but with Mikal Bridges leading the way, the Nets definitely are more tolerable. At least until that first hard foul on Joel Embiid.

Of our 25 things to ponder as this first-round series gets under way, several related to Sixers playoff opponents who played in the Big 5 — including Bridges, who won big at Villanova before almost becoming a Sixer on draft night ...

» READ MORE: 25 things to know about Sixers-Nets as Game 1 of their first-round series approaches

— Ed Barkowitz

There are plenty of reasons to think that the 76ers will have a pretty easy time beating the Brooklyn Nets in the first round of the NBA playoffs. The Sixers have Joel Embiid, who led the league in scoring and is likely to be voted its most valuable player. They have James Harden, who led the league in assists and is healthier and playing better ahead of a postseason tournament than he has in years. They have the better roster, home-court advantage, and the motivation that comes with being a team that has been tagged with high expectations and that often has fallen short of those expectations.

But there is one reason to think that the Nets can give them a tough go of it in this series.

The Nets won’t have Ben Simmons. ...

Simmons suited up in just 42 games this season and last played for the Nets — in an actual NBA game, I mean, not in one of those social-media videos intended to hoodwink everyone into believing he really can shoot a jump shot this time! — on Feb. 15, nearly two months ago. Ostensibly, he has a back injury. In reality, he very well might have a back injury. Or he might be undergoing genuine mental health issues. Or he might be so mentally and emotionally fragile that, if given his preference at the moment, he’d rather not play. And it might just be that he was so sheltered and arrogant for so long and treated his coaches and teammates and people around the Sixers so badly that it’s difficult to find anyone who thinks of him as anything other than a sheltered and arrogant person whose misery is his comeuppance for treating people badly.

So yeah, the Nets might be better off without a guy like that.

» READ MORE: Ben Simmons (remember him?) won’t play for the Nets. Which means the Sixers face a tougher challenge.

— Mike Sielski

Tyrese Maxey recently told P.J. Tucker that, last year, he “couldn’t stand” the veteran forward.

That’s because, during the 76ers’ second-round loss to the Miami Heat, Tucker was seemingly everywhere. Tapping out rebounds. Hitting corner three-pointers. Banging inside.

“He had like eight points and five rebounds, but it felt like he had 25 points and 10 rebounds,” Maxey recalled earlier this week. “Because the impact that he was making in every single game that we played against them was huge.

“Now, I’m just glad he’s on our team.”

Tucker’s first season in Philly has been up and down at times, while battling health issues and finding spots within the offense. Yet much of the 37-year-old forward’s influence on winning basketball cannot be measured in the box score, and is perhaps unnoticeable to more untrained eyes.

The physical and mental toughness, which Joel Embiid lamented the Sixers did not have last season while mentioning Tucker by name. The defensive communication and willingness to guard MVPs such as Nikola Jokic and Giannis Antetokounmpo, despite being undersized at 6-foot-5 and not exactly an athletic specimen. The veteran leadership and championship pedigree, after winning a title with the Milwaukee Bucks in 2021.

Those qualities are most valuable during the playoffs, when the Sixers hope the best version of Tucker is fully activated, starting with their first-round series against the Brooklyn Nets. And those details are best described by teammates and coaches who have been in the thick of it with Tucker with the Bucks, Miami Heat, Houston Rockets and Phoenix Suns, as described in exclusive conversations with The Inquirer throughout the 2022-23 season.

» READ MORE: Why players around the NBA want P.J. Tucker on their side — and hate to face him

— Gina Mizell

In a Q&A with The Inquirer, former Sixer JJ Redick, now the host of a popular podcast and an NBA analyst, touched on the MVP vote, Embiid’s dominance, Philly’s title chances, and his post-basketball career in media.

Here’s are his thoughts on the Sixers’ first-round series:

Redick: I think it’ll be a really fun series.

It’s gonna be interesting to see how they double-team (Embiid). They’re going to have to double-team him. Then, when they do switch, [Nic] Claxton on [James] Harden — Claxton was second on my most-improved player list and I had him second-team All-NBA — that matchup is going to be interesting.

I don’t think Brooklyn has enough firepower to beat the Sixers. Will it go four games, five games, six? I don’t know. But Philly is going to win the series.

» READ MORE: ‘He’s an all-timer’: JJ Redick talks MVP vote, Joel Embiid’s dominance, Sixers’ title chances and more in a Q&A

— Jeff Neiburg

As expected, 76ers center Joel Embiid, Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokić, and Milwaukee Bucks power forward Giannis Antetokounmpo were announced as finalists for the NBA MVP award during Friday’s NBA Tip-Off show on TNT.

The hosts also announced the finalists for the defensive player of the year, sixth man of the year, rookie of the year, most improved player, clutch player of the year, and coach of the year. The nominees were voted on by a panel of sportswriters and broadcasters from around the world.

The award winners will be announced throughout the postseason.

Embiid is expected to win the award after finishing as runner-up to Jokić in each of the last two seasons. Embiid won his second consecutive scoring title with 33.1 points per game. He was also eighth (10.2) in rebounding and seventh in blocks (1.7).

Jokić was 18th (24.5), second (11.8) in rebounds and third (9.8) in assists. He also led the league with 29 triple-doubles. Antetokounmpo was the best player on the league’s best team. He was fifth (31.1) in the league in scoring and third (11.8) in rebounds.

» READ MORE: Sixers center Joel Embiid is a finalist for NBA MVP for third consecutive season

— Keith Pompey

The 76ers are set to square off against the Brooklyn Nets at the onset of what is expected to be a long NBA playoff run. And while we don’t know where that campaign will end, we now know the course the Sixers will chart in their first-round series against the Nets.

Listed below is the schedule for the Sixers’ best-of-seven series, with full time, date and TV information for Games 1-4. If necessary, information for Games 5-7 will be provided at a later date.

Full schedule

» READ MORE: Sixers-Nets playoff schedule: NBA releases full details for first-round series