Sixers’ priorities in Game 2 include rebounding, supporting cast, and ... ‘tricky stuff’?

NEW YORK — The film largely confirmed what Nick Nurse saw in real time as his 76ers’ down-to-the-wire Game 1 loss to the Knicks unfolded Saturday night.

The coach remained pleased on Sunday afternoon with much of the Sixers’ schematic execution. He wished that his team had made more wide-open shots down the stretch, and that the Knicks had not drained theirs. And he lamented that the Sixers allowed New York to dominate the boards, aka “play to one of their strengths, like, absolutely to the max.”

In what Nurse expects to be a long first-round series, it’s always fascinating to monitor the adjustments both teams make from Game 1 to Game 2. Here are three areas the Sixers must clean up, if they hope to even the series at 1-1 when it heads back to Philly.

» READ MORE: Sixers-Knicks takeaways: Disastrous minutes without Joel Embiid, rebounding woes, and more

Veterans Kyle Lowry and Nico Batum were even more blunt than their coach when asked about required improvements, immediately uttering the word rebounding.

The Knicks finished the regular season ranked fifth in the NBA in that category (45.2 per game), and first in offensive boards (12.7 per game). But on Saturday, they blasted the Sixers on the boards, 55-33, which led to an overwhelming 26-8 edge in second-chance points.

“In a playoff game, that’s way too much,” Batum said from the Sixers’ team hotel in Manhattan. " … The worst part of it is we still have a chance [to win the game], but we’ve got to control the rebounds. We knew it. They’re maybe the best at that in the whole league. They play great. They play aggressive. They go chase every ball.

“We lost the game on that.”

Lowry added that, while Knicks big men Mitchell Robinson and Isaiah Hartenstein understand how to gobble up rebounds down low, wings Josh Hart and OG Anunoby also angle themselves properly to grab their share. Nurse said the Knicks understand when teammates are about to shoot the ball, allowing them to “rev up” to take the proper route to the rim at the perfect time. And “gang” rebounding can be inherently contagious, the coach added, noting the Knicks’ first points came on a kick-out three-pointer off an offensive rebound, and can make up for a sub-40% shooting performance.

Lowry said the guards need to be more involved in crashing the glass, after collectively accounting for six rebounds in Game 1. Though Nurse would not reveal details about the more tactical options the Sixers could deploy to put themselves in a better position Monday, he acknowledged it’s a “possibility” that high-effort rebounder Paul Reed and Joel Embiid could share the floor.

The coach also maintained that basics such as physicality while blocking out, and having the numbers advantage, remain paramount.

“And at some point … you’ve got to be able to match their athleticism and jump,” Nurse said. “The ball goes up in between all of us right now, whoever jumps the highest might get it. That’s not a whole lot of strategy in those three things right there.”

A potential pitfall of sending extra bodies to crash the glass, however, is leaving a recently shaky transition defense even more vulnerable. The Sixers surrendered 27 fast-break points in Game 1, after ranking 28th in the NBA in that category over their last 10 regular-season games.

» READ MORE: Despite a Game 1 loss, the Sixers showed they are the more talented team. Is that enough?

The Sixers recently spent two months playing without the reigning NBA Most Valuable Player. Yet those non-Embiid stretches are when Game 1 slipped away, particularly during a second quarter when a nine-point advantage flipped into a 12-point deficit. The Sixers combined for seven bench points, compared to 42 from the Knicks.

“Find a way to score anyway,” Batum said. " … We can’t give up. We’ve got to find a way to be effective. We cannot be up 12, and then down 10 because he’s not on the court.”

Lowry emphasized the importance of immediately pushing the pace with whoever grabs the rebound, and in being more decisive and communicative on that end of the floor. Nurse, meanwhile, candidly assessed the struggles of individual role players.

The coach said that Kelly Oubre Jr. was not “nearly the athlete he needed to be” in Game 1. Nurse called Reed’s outing “OK,” adding the big man was regularly out of position while going for blocked shots that led to putbacks after he left his man. And Nurse added veteran sharpshooter Buddy Hield “didn’t play good” in his first career playoff game, when he went scoreless on 0-for-2 shooting in 11 minutes.

“It’s a game where you can’t extend minutes when a guy has three or four mistakes,” Nurse said. “But I do say this, he’ll be a factor in the series.”

And Nurse did not only speak frankly about those complementary players. When asked how All-Star guard Tyrese Maxey can get off to a better start in Game 2, the coach said, “He’s got to play harder. He needs to get involved and play more physical and get involved in rebounding.”

When asked about Nurse’s coaching style during a playoff series, Batum hinted there could be some “tricky stuff” on tap for Game 2.

“We know what we did wrong,” Batum said, “and we [found] a way, I think, this morning to do something special with us. … I won’t tell you what.”

Nurse has a reputation for creativity and experimentation during the postseason, perhaps most famously when he deployed a box-and-one defense during the 2019 NBA Finals.

» READ MORE: Joel Embiid channels Willis Reed in Game 1 loss to the New York Knicks