BROOKLYN, NY — Nick Nurse has his first (unofficial) win as the head coach of the Philadelphia 76ers. In a wire-to-wire victory over the Brooklyn Nets, the Sixers continued to exude Nurse's teachings with a wild display of up-tempo basketball.

Nurse has stressed a multitude of talking points to the Sixers as he prepares them for the season. One of them is to attack the rim often. After saying he didn’t like how they did that in their last game, Nurse acknowledged the improvement.

“I really liked just the way they were attacking the basket, attacking shot-taking as well,” Nurse said. “I really liked what we did in transition tonight too. I thought we were up the floor better and at the rim better too. So it's good. We've been putting a lot of work into some of that stuff, so it's good to see it play out in a game.”

The Sixers got a lot of shots at the rim by playing outstanding defense. Time after time, they made the Nets cough the ball up and got out in the fast break. But they also worked their way close to the hoop to get close shots, scoring on short jumpers, push shots and floaters. While they did settle for some mid-range shots, they did a better job at putting downhill pressure on Brooklyn's defense.

Taking it to the rim was an especially big talking point Nurse wants to hammer into the thought process of star-in-the-making Tyrese Maxey. The young guard attempted eight shots before getting back spasms and sitting out the second half out of precaution. Three came from deep and the other five (of which he converted on four of them) came from inside six feet. Paul Reed, Tobias Harris and Jaden Springer got their own interior shots to go, too.

The Sixers hunting for more efficient shots will go a long way as they look for ways to keep their effectiveness on offense deep into the playoffs. The time to work on the necessary skills is already underway.