After an eventful first-round series against the Atlanta Hawks wrapped up with a historic beatdown on Thursday, the Knicks got to kick their feet up and enjoy an exciting Game 7 at TD Garden in Boston, where the underdog shocked the powerhouse Celtics (without Jayson Tatum) to set up an unlikely second-round clash.
It’s the No. 3 seed New York Knicks (53-29) against the No. 7 seed Philadelphia 76ers (45-37) for a spot in the Eastern Conference Finals, kicking off on Monday night at the World’s Most
Famous Arena.
Here’s everything you need to know about this matchup.
Season Recap
You know how the Knicks’ season has gone. After all, you’re reading this on a Knicks site, but just to sum it up.
After firing Tom Thibodeau, engaging in a long coaching search, and keying in on Mike Brown, the Knicks mostly ran back the same team, albeit with new faces Jordan Clarkson and Guerschon Yabusele, while drafting Mo Diawara. It was supposed to be a deeper, offensive powerhouse, and, for the most part, it was. The Knicks started 23-9 and even got some hardware along the way, beating the Spurs in the NBA Cup Final in December. Everything was coming up New York as 2025 turned into 2026.
And then everything fell apart. Starting with a New Year’s Eve collapse in San Antonio, the Knicks lost nine of their next 11 games, capped off by a terrible effort on Martin Luther King Jr. Day at MSG against the tanking Mavs. The sky was falling, we had podcasters saying he couldn’t wait to blow up this core, we had loud calls for Mike Brown’s job, the defense was abhorrently bad, and the season was in a tailspin.
Then, they mollywhopped the Nets by 54 and everything calmed down. After going from 23-9 to 25-18, the Knicks won 28 of their final 39 games, powered by the NBA’s second-best defense over the final 2.5 months of the season. They swapped the disappointing Yabusele for Jose Alvarado and finished the season strong. After struggling through three games with the feisty Hawks, they made the last three games look like varsity playing JV.
The Sixers season has been defined by the status of Joel Embiid. After a lost season in 2024-25 and a slow start, his constantly nagging knee injuries knocked him out for much of November, where the Sixers predictably struggled. The emergence of Tyrese Maxey as the franchise’s face and the tremendous rookie campaign of VJ Edgecombe could only do so much to weather the storm.
But Philly started to find their stride after Embiid seemed rejuvenated once returning in December, getting up to 30-22 in early February before shin and oblique issues, on top of load managing his knee, caused them to stumble back into the play-in as his availability waned in the second half. It didn’t help that Paul George got a 25-game suspension for PEDs.
A three-game losing streak in early April solidified their play-in fates in a tough Eastern Conference, but a pitiful Game 82 performance by the Magic allowed them to obtain home-court advantage in the 7-8 game and won them a date with Boston.
With Embiid sidelined with an appendectomy, the Sixers stole Game 2 in Boston before going home and losing Game 3. With Embiid back, the Celtics blitzed the Sixers in Game 4 to take a commanding 3-1 lead, only for the proverbial East favorites to continue to struggle at home and lose Tatum to a knee injury in Game 7, sealing their fate in the first round to a rejuvenated Sixers team.
Regular Season Series
12/19/2025: Sixers win 116-107 (H)
1/3/2026: Sixers win 130-119 (H)
1/24/2026: Knicks win 112-109 (A)
2/11/2026: Knicks win 138-89
The first meeting between the two teams, just before Christmas, saw the Sixers snap a six-game winning streak as the Knicks were coming down from the high of winning the NBA Cup a week prior. It was the second game of a back-to-back after a shorthanded Knicks team survived the undermanned Pacers in Indiana the night before.
The two teams were even through three quarters, but Philly pulled away thanks to a fantastic game by the backcourt duo of Edgecombe and Maxey, who combined for 53 points on 50% shooting and nine threes with Embiid sidelined. The mostly-healthy Knicks got 20 apiece from Jalen Brunson, Karl-Anthony Towns, and Mikal Bridges, as well as a 21-16 masterpiece from Mitchell Robinson, but they struggled late defensively.
The next meeting was also the second game of a back-to-back during the three weeks of hell that the Knicks experienced in January. A healthy Sixers squad outmatched a Josh Hart-less Knicks team that was playing as bad defense as humanly possible, spending much of the second half down by 15+ points. After a rough first matchup, Brunson scored 31, but it didn’t matter with Embiid, Maxey, and Edgecombe all scoring at least 26 points on a combined 62.2% from the field.
After losing both games at MSG, the Knicks went on the road to Philadelphia for the third meeting after that bludgeoning of the Nets, and it marked the first game against a real team that sparked a turnaround. A 23-point turnaround in the second half had the Knicks rolling and up by 17 in the fourth quarter, but the offense completely shut down at the eight-minute mark of the fourth, allowing the Sixers to claw back.
While the Knicks hit a number of timely shots (particularly from OG Anunoby and Landry Shamet) to go up eight with 42 seconds left, an epic meltdown ensued that gave the Sixers two different chances to tie in the final ten seconds that went awry. Brunson scored 32, Anunoby scored 23, and Towns was limited to just 16 minutes as he struggled with foul trouble.
Embiid put up an efficient 38-11-5, but Maxey and Edgecombe were relatively muted as the Sixers shot just 9-for-29 from three.
The final meeting of the year was on par with the Hawks and Nets blowouts. The Knicks were without Anunoby, while the Sixers didn’t have Embiid or Paul George as the team readied for the All-Star break. It seemed like Philly left early, as the Knicks completely demolished them from buzzer-to-buzzer. This was the game in which Alvarado made eight threes in his first week as a Knick and was one of the biggest wins in franchise history.
Playoff History
(Note: Prior to 1963, the Sixers were known as the Syracuse Nationals)
1950 Eastern Division Finals: Nationals win 2-1
1951 Eastern Division Finals: Knicks win 3-2
1952 Eastern Division Finals: Knicks win 3-1
1954 Eastern Division Round Robin: Nationals won both meetings, advanced with Boston
1959 Eastern Division Semifinals: Nationals win 2-0
1968 Eastern Division Semifinals: Sixers win 4-2
1978 Eastern Conference Semifinals: Sixers win 4-0
1983 Eastern Conference Semifinals: Sixers win 4-0
1989 Eastern Conference First Round: Knicks win 3-0
2024 Eastern Conference First Round: Knicks win 4-2
Key Stats (Regular Season)
Sixers:
Offensive rating: 114.3 (16th)
Defensive rating: 114.4 (17th)
FG%: 46.2% (23rd)
3pt%: 34.9% (23rd)
FT%: 80.9% (4th)
Pace: 100.4 (15th)
OREB%: 30.6% (11th)
TOV%: 13.4% (6th lowest)
Points in the Paint: 50.2 (16th)
Opponent PITP: 49.6 (13th)
Opponent 3pt%: 35.3% (10th)
4th Quarter Net Rating: +4.6 (7th)
Clutch Record/Net Rating: 23-18, +16.6 (4th)
Knicks:
Offensive rating: 118.7 (T-3rd)
Defensive rating: 112.3 (7th)
FG%: 47.8% (11th)
3pt%: 37.3% (4th)
FT%: 79.2% (T-10th)
Pace: 97.5 (25th)
OREB%: 32.8% (7th)
TOV%: 13.9% (T-10th lowest)
Points in the Paint: 47.8 (22nd)
Opponent PITP: 43.4 (3rd)
Opponent 3pt%: 36.2% (20th lowest)
4th Quarter Net Rating: +11.7 (1st)
Clutch Record/Net Rating: 21-13, +20.5 (3rd)
Trends:
Knicks since 1/20: 118.5 ORtg (6th), 108.2 DRtg (2nd), +10.3 net rating (3rd)
Sixers with Joel Embiid: 27-16, 121 ORtg, 115.8 DRtg, +5.2 net rating, +7.7 On-Off
Coaching Breakdown
Mike Brown (NYK):
Season with team: 1st
Season as head coach: 12th
Career teams coached: CLE, LAL, SAC, NYK
Career record: 507-333 (.604)
Career playoff record: 54-42 (.563)
Best finish: 2007 Cavaliers (Finals appearance)
Mike Brown is entering the postseason as the head coach of a third different team. He’s never won a game past the Eastern Conference Finals, but he’s certainly experienced deep playoff runs as an assistant under Gregg Popovich from 2001-03 and an assistant under Steve Kerr from 2017-22, winning four championships as an assistant coach.
Brown’s philosophy is a stylistic change from former head coach Tom Thibodeau, in that he prioritizes ball movement, spacing, and a drive-and-kick to open shooters (which he calls “sprays”). He was mostly unsuccessful in increasing the Knicks’ pace, showing that the team’s slow play is rooted in the way their captain operates in the offense, rather than the scheme. His biggest success has been increasing three-point attempts, but those have slowly decreased as the season has gone on.
Defensively, Brown has been flexible in his scheme. While Thibodeau always required a true rim protector on the floor, Brown has been more willing to mix up lineups in certain areas. After starting the season with a scheme that funneled the ball towards the middle of the floor into the help, Brown switched the scheme to look to send the ball towards the sidelines after the Knicks endured a month-plus stretch of abhorrent defense, powered by other teams driving and kicking to open shooters.
Nick Nurse (PHI):
Season with team: 3rd
Season as head coach: 8th
Career teams coached: TOR, PHI
Career record: 343-293 (.539)
Career playoff record: 30-23 (.566)
Best finish: 2019 Raptors (NBA Champions)
Nurse served as an assistant under Dwane Casey for several years and took over after the Raptors canned the one-time Coach of the Year in 2018. In his first year as a head coach, Nurse lifted a Larry O’Brien Trophy as Kawhi Leonard’s memorable one year in Toronto. Even after losing him, he led the Raptors to a 53-19 record in the COVID-shortened 2019-20 season, but that would prove to be a one-off. Aside from a 48-win season in 2021-22, Nurse’s final three years in Toronto were mediocre and he was out the door in 2023.
He’s spent the last three years as the head honcho in Philly, previously coaching against the Knicks in the playoffs two years ago before surviving a lost year in 2024-25. He’s back this time playing a very thin rotation that is heavily reliant on his stars, which he’ll look to deploy over and over again. There are no stylistic oddities with Nurse, who will most frequently be seen in his spats with the referees.
Projected Rotations
Knicks:
Jalen Brunson
Mikal Bridges
Josh Hart
OG Anunoby
Karl-Anthony Towns
–
Jose Alvarado
Deuce McBride
Jordan Clarkson
Mitchell Robinson
Situational: Mo Diawara, Landry Shamet, Ariel Hukporti, Jeremy Sochan
Sixers:
Tyrese Maxey
VJ Edgecombe
Kelly Oubre Jr.
Paul George
Joel Embiid
–
Justin Edwards
Quentin Grimes (OAKAAK Alert)
Dominick Barlow
Andre Drummond
Situational: Adem Bona
Injury Report
For the Knicks, they had a few players get nicked up in their six-game series with the Hawks, but Jalen Brunson (ankle), Mitchell Robinson (ankle), and Josh Hart (back) all seemed to be in good shape by the end of Game 6 and should be good to go.
For the Sixers, it all revolves around Joel Embiid. The appendix surgery is in the past, but that knee continues to be a major issue. He banged his knee repeatedly and came up hobbled over and over again in Game 7, including a scary hyperextension in the final minute. I assume he’ll be good to go, but he’ll be one to watch all series long.
Broadcast Schedule
(The full schedule has yet to be released, this will be updated)
Game 1: Mon, May 4, 8 pm (NBC)
Game 2: Wed, May 6, 7 pm (ESPN)
Game 3: Fri, May 8, 7 pm (Prime Video)
Game 4: Sun, May 10, 3:30 pm (ABC)
Game 5*: Tues, May 12, TBD (TBD)
Game 6*: Thu, May 14, TBD (TBD)
Game 7*: Sun, May 17, TBD (TBD)
