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

No answers.

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

The Nets’ defensive game plan of double-teaming Joel Embiid backfired. Passing out of the double-teams, Embiid found teammates, who in turn got open shots or swung the ball elsewhere.

“It didn’t matter where I was, halfcourt, three-point line, post,” Embiid said of Brooklyn’s double-teams. “So I got trust in my teammates. I’ve got to make the simple plays, and we took advantage of that scheme.”

Embiid still led the Sixers in scoring with 26 points, including going 11-for-11 from the foul line. The MVP finalist also had five rebounds, three assists, and two blocks.

“He’s going to get his buckets no matter what,” James Harden said. “That’s just how good he is.”

Harden had 23 points,13 assists, and four rebounds. Tobias Harris added 21 points, four rebounds, and four assists. Harris also did a solid job in the second half on Mikal Bridges. The Brooklyn Nets small forward finished with a game-high 30 points. However, the Philly native and former Villanova standout was held to seven points on just two shots after intermission.

P.J. Tucker also was solid on defense, finishing with a game-high five steals to go with a team-high seven rebounds (five offensive) and six points.

Meanwhile, reserve center Paul Reed added 11 points on 5-for-6 shooting to go with four rebounds. Sixers fans chanted “B-Ball Paul ... B-Ball Paul” as he made a foul shot to complete a three-point play with 8 minutes, 1 second remaining in the game to give the Sixers a commanding 20-point cushion.

The Sixers played 10 players in the first half. Nine of the 10 scored. And even that’s misleading, considering Danuel House Jr., the player who didn’t score, was only in for 8 seconds in the first quarter.

Up 23 points, the Sixers started emptying the bench with 3:15 to play when Shake Milton entered the game.

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, had a 14-5 offensive rebounding advantage, and outscored Brooklyn, 21-3, in second-chance points.

Those 21 threes are a team playoff record for a game. The 13 first-half threes also set a team record for a half.

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“Any time you can have 15, 16 more shots than the opponent, it helps a lot,” said Embiid, whose squad outshot the Nets, 89-70. “Any time you can get more possessions than the other team, is always great. So we took advantage of it. Like I said, we scored a lot out of doubles.”

The Nets must find a way to overcome the Sixers’ balance if they expect to win Monday’s Game 2 matchup (7:30 p.m., TNT).

The Sixers’ dominance was far from surprising to Brooklyn.

“It really is two contrasting styles, how they want to play and how we want,” Nets coach Jacque Vaughn said before the game. “So who’s going to be able to impose their will? In an ideal world, they shoot a ton of free throws, and they would play in the halfcourt and James would play pick-and-roll and destroy us that way. We don’t want to play that way. We want to be very scrappy, gritty, turn this game into more up-and-down and see who can survive the pace.”

The problem is the Sixers played at the Nets’ pace and won while sharing the ball.

For the Sixers to be successful, Harden has to know when to be the facilitator and when to look for his own shot.

While he started off a little shaky, he ended up figuring things out. Twelve of his points came while making 4 of 5 stepback three-pointers in the second quarter. Harden made his first four threes and scored the Sixers’ final nine points of the first half on a trio of threes. His miss came on the final shot attempt of the half with 0.6 seconds left.

“I was just trying to be aggressive,” Harden said. “They double-teamed Joel, so somebody else got to make shots and be aggressive. And just put in the work and you live with the results and make some shots.”

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The bench was a major question mark heading into the postseason.

Would De’Anthony Melton struggle in the postseason like he did with the Memphis Grizzlies? Would Georges Niang become a defensive liability? And would the moment be too big for Jalen McDaniels, who is competing his first playoff series?

With just one game in the books, it’s too early to get the full answer to those questions.

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But the reserves are off to a solid start.

They actually gave the Sixers a spark in the first half.

Melton was the first guy off the bench, subbing out Harden during a timeout with 5:43 left in the first quarter. Then Niang and McDaniels checked in for Harris and Tucker at the 4:04 mark.

IFor a while, the reserves played better than the starters. Not bad, considering the team struggled late in the regular season when Embiid was off the floor.

But Melton, McDaniels, and Niang all hit clutch threes during one stretch. Reed added two clutch baskets. And the Sixers won non-Embiid minutes in the first half. They outscored Brooklyn, 17-15, while Embiid was on the bench.