Nick Nurse Opens Up on Sixers' Plans to Slow Knicks Star's Pace

What does Nick Nurse have in store for Jalen Brunson?

Mar 10, 2024; New York, New York, USA; New York Knicks guard Jalen Brunson (11) looks to pass the / Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports

The Philadelphia 76ers are set to start their playoff campaign, as they prepare to take on the New York Knicks in the first round, with the first game slated for Saturday night at the prestigious Madison Square Garden.

While the Sixers had to take down the Miami Heat in order to get into the seventh seed, they’ve spent time making plans on how to deal with a Knicks team that proved to be quite the handful for them during the regular season.

Philadelphia only managed to pick up one win against New York in the regular season, with their Eastern Conference rivals blowing them out on two separate occasions. One of the main factors for the Knicks’ success was the higher level that Jalen Brunson played throughout the regular season.

The former Villanova guard averaged a career-high 28 points on 48 percent from the field, with his stats against the Sixers being very similar, as he would average 22 points and seven assists in his four appearances this season.

Given this, Nick Nurse and Philadelphia’s coaching staff put aside time to break down what Brunson does and how to play against it. One of the big points of emphasis for Nurse is that of the 27-year-old’s control of the pace of play, which he used to hurt the Sixers at different points of transitional play throughout their meetings.

“I think that he’s unique in that he’ll play any pace that he feels is necessary, there’s a lot of time where he has the ball, and he’s throwing it ahead, pushing pace, which they obviously did to us a couple times,” explained Nurse, “We’ve been talking about that for weeks, that’s high on a lot of team’s boards against us, let’s get it up the floor and attack the rim before Joel [Embiid] is back, so we have to be good in our transition defense.”

Further elaborating on Brunson’s dictation on the pace of play, Nurse explains that it is essential for his playmaking on the offensive end of the court.

“There are long segments of the game where he’s going to walk it up, get the pieces exactly in place and they’re going to give him space and he’s gonna go to work,” said Nurse, “It almost goes into two extremes and everywhere in between with him.”

As stated previously, Brunson made his money from dishing out assists against the Sixers, averaging eight in each of their meetings, which is above the average in which he creates against other Eastern Conference sides.

While Nurse made an emphasis on getting a grip on the pace of play, as Nurse previously alluded to, another spot of weakness for the team is their transition defense, which is something that he put more focus on during planning.

“I’m not controlling the pace, I just want to make sure we’re back,” stated Nurse, “I want to make sure we work him if it’s slow.”