It would appear being the home team is a massive disadvantage in this series.
The Sixers, sunk by a bad third quarter again, fell 112-109 the New York Knicks Saturday afternoon.
Joel Embiid set the tone
with a brilliant first half before cooling off in the second, leading all scorers with 38 points and 11 rebounds on 13-of-21 shooting. Tyrese Maxey was quiet outside of the first and fourth quarters going for 22 shooting 8-of-15 from the floor including a missed potential game-tying three with nine seconds left.
Paul George didn’t score outside the second quarter, putting up nine points going 3-of-10 from the floor. VJ Edgecombe’s late heroics fell short, he finished with 14 points on nine shots. Jalen Brunson led the Knicks all scorers with 30.
In an extremely rare sight these days, both teams went into this contest at full strength.
Here are some thoughts at the buzzer.
First Quarter
- Not the best defensive start for the Sixers with the Knicks scoring on eight of their first nine trips down the floor, getting their fans who made the trip down loud early. There was one breakdown where it looked like Edgecombe forgot to step out to Brunson, but New York also hit plenty of contested threes early as well.
- Behind Embiid making four of his first five shots of the game the Sixers started nearly as hot and needed every bit of it. The Sixers made good use of him as a hub, with both Maxey and Kelly Oubre Jr. using his attention to get baskets.
- There was plenty of juice in the building for this one, and both Embiid and Mitchell Robinson seemed to have some extra juice for their matchup. After Robinson blocked him a couple of times, Embiid wanted to get him back before taking his first rest, waving off Adem Bona for a few more minutes. He got his statement play on offense when Quentin Grimes found him rolling in transition, and threw down a dunk more ferocious than anyone would have thought him capable of at the beginning of the year. His 15 in the first was all needed to match Brunson’s 14, as a pair of Maxey free throws tied the game at 34 as the quarter ended.
Second Quarter
- Karl-Anthony Towns came into this game questionable with back spasms. It already seemed to be bothering him to start the game, and the hard fall he took after getting fouled by Adem Bona to start the second didn’t help. Nick Nurse went back to staggering Maxey with Embiid, leaving George and Edgecombe to run the second unit. George fueled the offense with his midrange pull-ups falling, going for nine points in the quarter.
- Bona ran down a block and George came up with a steal, but the Sixers finally getting some stops did boil down to the Knicks being very ineffective with Brunson on the bench. He picked right back up when he subbed back in, but Embiid did as well. The stepback three he hit over Robinson felt like a sign he was feeling good, and blowing by him for a layup on the following possession even more so.
- Everyone is saying it now, but it is still unbelievable to see Embiid move the way he can compared to where he was in October. He just remained in control of everything offensively, including another acrobatic finish, this time a reverse layup to reach 28 points in the half. The Knicks struggling at at the free throw line in the second didn’t just give fans an early 8-count of chicken nuggets, but gave the Sixers a four-point lead at the break.
Third Quarter
- The big adjustment for the Knicks didn’t come to start the second half, but rather a couple minutes in when Towns picked up his fourth foul. Embiid made a couple mistakes, throwing a pass out of bounds after a miscommunication with Maxey and missed pretty bad on a pull-up jumper while the Knicks took advantage with eight straight points.
- That run would eventually turn into an extended 15-0 run, giving Knicks’ fans the chance to takeover the building again as well. Shooting regression hit the Sixers hard, which was bad because they were only settling for pull-up jumpers. Not only did their patience for working good shots slip as the Knicks started pulling ahead but their focus on defense did as well, allowing too many cutters to get to the basket wide open.
- Perhaps calling more timeouts sooner would have helped, but at no point in the quarter were the Sixers able to stop the bleeding. The offensive ineptitude was stunning given the first half they had had. It took a Bona putback and Dominick Barlow three to get them over double digits as they shot 23% in the third, falling into a 13-point deficit.
Fourth Quarter
- Even after getting Towns to pick up his fifth foul just as quickly into the fourth, Embiid and the Sixers offense couldn’t get it going. It didn’t help that Embiid appeared to tweak his knee drawing a foul against backup Ariel Hukporti. He didn’t leave the game but did limp around a bit.
- The Knicks were on the verge of hitting the kill shot, but a three from Embiid and a transition bucket helped the Sixers cut it to 12. After a timeout, the Sixers got a couple of and-1s that got themselves right back in the game, the second fouling out Towns with still over five minutes to go.
- A five or six point lead was where it stayed as both teams traded baskets for a couple of minutes. A bucket inside from Embiid cut it three with about two minutes to go, but OG Anunoby stuck by him on the following possession to put back the offensive rebound for a three. Naturally the ball was swung to Edgecombe for a big three and he drilled it, but again Anunoby answered with one of his own.
- A missed bunny from Embiid followed by a wide open Shamet three appeared to end the comeback hopes. Maxey hit a ridiculous three out of the timeout though. Not only did Edgecombe tie up Brunson for a jump ball, but drew a foul on Brunson during the jump, those two free throws cutting the lead to three with 33 seconds left.
- Brunson appeared to foul Edgecombe on the inbound, but after a long challenge the call was reversed to a foul on Edgecombe, making it an away-from-play foul as well. Converting on that free throw plus the subsequent free throw Anunoby made looked like another nail in the coffin. The Sixers won a challenge though on the following possession to get a stop. Down three with nine seconds, they went really quick for some reason, Maxey chucking up a long deep three that didn’t come close. Somehow Brunson missed both free throws but Embiid turned it over and that finally was it for this game. A very tough game to let go where all of the recent frustrations of this rivalry were on display.
