Knicks get hot, and keep their cool, when they needed it most while ousting 76ers
PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA - MAY 02: Jalen Brunson #11 of the New York Knicks shoots over Kelly Oubre Jr. #9 of the Philadelphia 76ers during the fourth quarter of game six of the Eastern Conference First Round Playoffs at the Wells Fargo Center on May 02, 2024 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Tim Nwachukwu/Getty Images) Credit: Getty Images/Tim Nwachukwu
PHILADELPHIA — Whew!
The Knicks have done it. They have dispensed with Joel Embiid and the Philadelphia 76ers. They have won one of the most crazy and entertaining first-round playoff series in recent memory and they have done it in a way that can give them confidence going forward.
For the second straight year, the Knicks advanced to the second round of the playoffs. They did it by eliminating the 76ers on their homecourt, clinching the series in six games with a 118-115 win at Wells Fargo Center on Thursday night.
The Knicks will open play against the Indiana Pacers on Monday at Madison Square Garden. There will be time to think about that tomorrow. But after the win, Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau told his team he wanted them to take a moment to soak it all in.
“I told them to enjoy it until midnight,” Thibodeau said at his late-night news conference. “I guess we’re already past midnight so we have to start thinking about what we’re doing next.”
The Knicks learned a lot of lessons in this series. They learned how to bounce back from a devastating loss like the one they had in Game 5 when they blew a six-point lead in the final half-minute at the Garden. They learned how to contain a wily, sharpshooting guard like Tyrese Maxey. And they learned that they have the type of centers that can go toe-to-toe with one of the toughest and sometimes dirtiest big men in Embiid.
Perhaps the most encouraging part of the win is that it was a group effort that pushed them past the finish line.
Yes, Jalen Brunson came up big as usual. Brunson led the Knicks again with 41 points and 12 assists — his third straight game of at least 40 points in the series, just the second Knicks player and the seventh player in NBA history to achieve that in the postseason.
But it was Josh Hart, another former Villanova player, who knocked down a three-pointer at the top of the key with the score tied and 24.4 seconds left when Brunson was being swarmed by defenders.
And it was Donte DiVincenzo, yet another Villanova player, who played killer defense on Maxey, the player who killed them in Game 5, holding him to 17 points. DiVincenzo also rediscovered his three-point shot, giving the Knicks the second scoring weapon that they lacked in a couple of losses in this series. DiVincenzo finished with 23 points and shot 5-for-9 from three.
“Honestly, it had nothing to do with shooting,” DiVincenzo said after the game “I got myself going early in the game guarding Maxey. We made that adjustment and I was locked in ready to go. Having a tough matchup like that, you have to be locked in from the very beginning. So I think that got me going early. And you know when you’re playing with unselfish guys, you’re gonna get open looks, so I’m never worried about making or missing shots. I think for me it was to be locked in on the defensive end, and that got me going.”
The Knicks looked as if they were going to roll to the first blowout of the series, compiling a 22-point lead with more than two minutes to go in the first quarter. But, if ever there was proof that no lead in the NBA is safe, you saw it happen over the next 14 minutes as the 76ers outscored the Knicks 43-15 to finish the half with a 54-51 lead.
When the two teams entered the final quarter tied at 83, it only seemed right. With how close the first five games of this series had been, everyone in the arena seemed to know this was a game that was going to come right down to the end.
The 76ers had done everything they could to reclaim their homecourt advantage and keep the Knicks fans who had invaded their arena in Games 3 and 4 out of Wells Fargo Center.
With their team facing elimination on their homecourt, famous 76ers fans pulled out all the stops in an attempt to eliminate — or at least cut down the number of — orange-and-blue jerseys in their arena. The Sixers’ ownership group, along with Fanatics CEO Michael Rubin, a former team minority owner, purchased 2,000 tickets to Game 6 with the plan of giving away those seats to “first responders, health care professionals and other Philadelphia-based organizations.”
The atmosphere this time was clearly pro-Philadelphia, which is why it was so encouraging to see the Knicks pull it out the way they did.
“A lot of our guys don’t have a lot of playoff experience,” Thibodeau said. “Going through a series like this is invaluable to them. It was high intensity, there’s a lot of emotion to it and crazy things can happen, good and bad, and you have to be ready to handle both.”
On Thursday night, the Knicks were.
Barbara Barker is an award-winning columnist and features writer in the sports department at Newsday. She has covered sports in New York for more than 20 years.
