The New York Knicks might be bad, but the Joel Embiid-less Philadelphia 76ers were playing the second game of a back-to-back and, as their record has shown, they are not so hot on the road, even when rested. That presented a visit to Madison Square Garden as a challenge.
The Knicks are packed with power forwards and not much else, so the Philadelphia 76ers got into a halfcourt slug-fest with the rare team bigger than them. New York was without its starting backcourt of Dennis Smith Jr. and R.J. Barrett due to injury, but Detroit castoff Reggie Bullock and multi-team castoff Elfrid Payton torched them in the second half.
So, instead of blowing them out, like most teams, the 76ers trailed the Knicks (the freakin’ Knicks!) by a point with less than 30 second to go in the game.
To avoid complete embarrassment and 48 hours of talk radio chatter about how Brett Brown should be fired, Tobias Harris hit a three-pointer with 27.7 seconds left to give the Sixers an 89-87 lead. Harris and Ben Simmons then pinned Julius Randle to the sideline and he dribbled out of bounds.
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Furkan Korkmaz made one of two free throws for a three-point lead and New York’s Marcus Morris Sr. had a half-court three-point attempt to send the game into overtime glance off the side of the rim to give the 76ers a 90-87 victory.
Philadelphia broke a six-game losing streak on the road and is now 28-16 on the season, sixth place in the Eastern Conference. The Knicks fall to 11-32 and lose their third straight.
The third period was mostly the Sixers turning the ball over, featuring players being paid a lot of money not doing much while the Knicks stole the ball. Entering the fourth quarter the Sixers clung to a 70-69 lead.
To the start the second period, the Knicks seemed helpless to stop the lineup of Raul Neto, Norvel Pelle, James Ennis, Josh Richardson, and Tobias Harris (really). Not a bang-up group of shooters, but great on defense as the Sixers bolted out to a 37-27 lead and forced New York to call time out. The Sixers put some more starters in, the offense got (shock) clunky, and the Knicks ended up tying the score. A couple late baskets did give the 76ers with a 52-46 halftime lead.
Simmons led the Sixers with 16 at halftime as the Knicks, a team composed almost entirely of power forwards, never were able to keep up with him.
In the first period, the score was tied at 23-23 with about a minute to go when steals by Matisse Thybulle (which resulted in a Korkmaz three) and Josh Richardson (and ensuing dunk) put the Sixers ahead 28-23 and they were up by three at the end of the quarter.
One injury note is Al Horford said he hurt his hand during the game and it was still sore afterward. With Embiid still out, the Sixers could be really short-handed if Horford is out for any decent period of time.
Next stop on the Sixers’ three-game road trip is a Monday afternoon visit to the Barclays Center to face Kyrie Irving and the Brooklyn Nets.
One last note of interest, the Sixers are 13-1 when they limit their opponent to less than 100 points, so defense really does win games.