DETROIT -- LeBron James and the Philadelphia 76ers are off to a great start to the 2026-27 season. In a season in which they had high expectations because of the major additions made to the roster, they are passing each test with flying colors to begin the season.
The Sixersknocked off the Detroit Pistons on the road on Wednesday 112-106 to improve to 8-1 on the season. Among those eight wins, they've beaten the Pistons once, the Cleveland Cavaliers once, and the defending champion New York Knicks twice. It's an impressive start to the season as James and Co. just continue to chug along.
"Our defense is going to be our identity," James said after the win. "We have a lot of scoring. Obviously, we know that from individuals, but we're still figuring
that side of the floor out on the offense side. But defensively, that's where we're going to make our mark. It's the point of attack. It's us communicating, it's us helping one another. We're nine games in, so this is a marathon."
For sure. Nine games in. 73 more to go, but this has been an impressive start for Philadelphia. One could have assumed the Sixers would have gotten off to a bumpy start just based on James' previous first year starts with the Miami Heat or his return to the Cavs or with the Los Angeles Lakers in the past. Those starts were a little uneven. Not here.
"I guess just trying to buy in on what we want to do as a whole, offensively, defensively, special teams, everything," James explained. "And everybody has bought into that. Everybody's bought into that. Everyone pretty much know their role, but we're still learning. We're still learning each other. But like I said, defensively, we've been super in tune on game plan each and every night and that's definitely helped us out even when sometimes it kind of looked a little rugged offensively."
The Sixers certainly have had some rough patches offensively with this new group, but one cannot argue with the results. Philadelphia received big games from Jaylen Brown and Joel Embiid while James stuffed the box score. Tyrese Maxey came alive in the fourth and VJ Edgecombe did what he does. All in all, the Sixers did what they had to do defensively against a Pistons team that has continued to win despite missing All-Star big man Jalen Duren. They are continuing to do a great job of communicating as a group and pushed the team forward.
"We know we got a long way to go, but we want to just try to get better each and every day, each and every game and not take too many steps backwards," James finished. "It could happen because we're a new group. We have to understand and have to give ourselves some grace, but at the end of the day, we have to pick it back up and find ways to not take steps backwards as much as possible throughout the course of the season."
The Sixers will take on the Cavaliers on Friday to continue the road trip and continue their play in the NBA Cup as well.
This article originally appeared on Sixers Wire: LeBron James reacts to Sixers knocking off Pistons to improve to 8-1
