NEW YORK -- For 29 teams, opening night represents a new beginning. For one, it's closer to a conclusion. A period, or in the case of the New York Knicks, an exclamation point, at the end of a championship season. It was October for the Philadelphia 76ers on Tuesday, but for everyone else at Madison Square Garden, it might as well have been June 13.

Fans were given mini championship banners upon entering the arena, a fitting token as roughly 20,000 awed onlookers watched the Knicks raise their first properly-sized championship banner in more than 53 years. The celebratory haze of New York's last game on that court, the legendary 29-point Game 4 comeback that gave the Knicks a nearly insurmountable NBA Finals lead, still hung in the air of the world's most famous arena. Even the team played along with gauche golden jerseys, as if they felt the need to wear last year's trophy on their chests.

Whatever magic the Knicks captured en route to that trophy seemingly expired on Tuesday as the 76ers so helpfully reminded them that this is, in fact, a new season. Final score: 76ers 106, Knicks 100. 

It won't be as simple to survive Karl-Anthony Towns' foul trouble now that Mitchell Robinson is wearing green and white as a member of the Celtics. The Knicks won't overcome seemingly every single fourth-quarter deficit as Jalen Brunson so forcefully ensured last spring. And of course, the field this time around is a good deal stronger than it was during New York's last title push.

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In that sense, Philadelphia represented a fitting opponent for opening night. The Knicks tore through last year's 76ers like wet tissue paper. These are not last year's 76ers. The presence of LeBron James and Jaylen Brown meaningfully changed the equation on Tuesday, and it easily could do so in April and May as well. Look around the Eastern Conference and you'll find similar talent practically everywhere -- teams just as eager to knock the Knicks off of this perch.

Kawhi Leonard is back in Toronto. Giannis Antetokounmpo will attempt to revitalize the Heat. Famed Knicks-slayer Tyrese Haliburton will make his long-awaited return from a torn Achilles tendon on Wednesday for the Pacers, and Celtics star Jayson Tatum, now presumably back to full strength after returning from his own Achilles tear last season, would surely love to exorcise his own Madison Square Garden demons in a rematch of the 2024 series in which he was injured in the first place. 

There are new challengers everywhere, all aiming for a Knicks team that now knows none of them can be taken for granted if they hope to hold their crown. Their captain, at least, is embracing the competition.

"I think it's good for us to kind of get knocked down off the mountain, humble ourselves, put our egos in check and see what's going to happen," Jalen Brunson said after Tuesday night's loss. "I've told you guys since Day 1: whatever happens these first couple of weeks of the season, that's gonna show who we truly are."

He's right about that last part, as the NBA conveniently loaded the beginning of New York's schedule with exactly these sorts of tests. The Knicks see the 76ers again in 10 days. They'll face all seven of the teams widely projected to join them in the top eight of the Eastern Conference standings (the 76ers, Celtics, Pacers, Heat, Raptors, Pistons and Cavaliers) by Nov. 27, and will play those teams in 12 of their first 19 games. If these Knicks are up to the task, they'll prove it in the weeks to come.

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Doing so will require far more disciplined play than they brought to opening night. Mike Brown said his team's transition defense was "not good," and that's an understatement by the standard this group set last spring. New York all but turned off the transition tap in the playoffs, allowing less than 10 fast-break points per game. By Brown's measure, the Sixers scored 19 in the second half. The Knicks shot just 17-of-29 in the restricted area, bleeding points on missed finishes at the basket. Towns' fouling came back to bite them in the second half when Andre Drummond, who miraculously posted a double-double in the first half alone, ran out of gas playing half of the game.

These are solvable problems. The Knicks were, obviously, great in transition in the playoffs, and Drummond was spectacular early in his Knicks debut before his minutes total ticked too high. It's easier to finish at the rim when you're making every 3 as the Knicks did in the playoffs. That wasn't sustainable, but there's a middle ground, and playing at a better, more intentional pace will help create cleaner looks at the basket. 

The Knicks, according to Brown, "looked like we were running in mud." From Game 4 of last year's Hawks series on, that wasn't a problem in the playoffs. It's easy to take that for granted on a single night out of 82, especially one earmarked for celebration.

But the season they celebrated is over, and the 76ers gave the Knicks a harsh welcome into this new one. The "running in mud" version of the Knicks stands little chance in this Eastern Conference arms race. The championship bar is higher now, and the 2027 Knicks have a ways to go if they hope to clear it as easily as their 2026 counterparts did.