76ers 112, Knicks 106 (OT): How do I lose thee? Let me count the ways
Never jump toward a shooter when you’re defending and up six late, kids
The New York Knicks versus the Philadelphia 76ers was already a barnburner of a series four games in, but Game 5 reached new levels of drama, turning on a most unexpected cameo – the return of 2019 Mitchell Robinson. With 25 seconds left and the Knicks up six, Mitch inexplicably jumped out at Tyrese Maxey and fouled him taking a 3-pointer; Maxey made the basket and the free throw to make it 96-94. The Knicks inbounded and passed the ball around a bit, until OG Anunoby, who shoots 79% from the foul line but had just missed one of two, gave it up to Josh Hart to get fouled and go to the line. Hart is listed as a 79% free-throw shooter. A lot of 5-foot-10 men are listed as six feet tall. A woman in heels exposes certain truths. So too late-and-close playoff free throws.
The Knicks didn’t lose because of Mitch’s exuberance. Nor because Hart, in position to ice the series with a pair of free throws, missed one. Nor because the incandescent Maxey drilled an outrageous 40-foot game-tying longball (speaking of 40, Maxey is the first Knick playoff opponent to score 40 against them – in any playoff game and in one at Madison Square Garden – since Michael Jordan in 1996). Nor because Miles McBride failed to foul Maxey dribbling up the floor beforehand, even with Thibs yelling it loud enough for the other 20,000 in the building to hear – to be fair to McBride, you can’t foul what you can’t catch, Maxey moves like a light particle, and he’d just duped a defender into an and-one.
No, despite all that and much like a rosebush, the reason these Knicks are so enthralling when they win is the same reason they’re now bloodied and bound for a Game 6 in Philadelphia rather than basking after a hard-fought gentleman’s sweep.
Early in the fourth, after the Sixers went up five, the Knicks ripped off a 13-2 run. Ingredients: four points apiece for Deuce McBride and OG Anunoby, three for Brunson and a pair from Hart. Per usual, Brunson was the offense throughout, scoring 40 on a night no other Knick hit 20. But contrast the balance on display when the Knicks pulled ahead with their final possession of regulation and then through a jelly-legged overtime:
Brunson’s shot blocked
Brunson three
Brunson two
Brunson missed three
Brunson missed three
Hart missed two
Brunson turnover
Brunson’s shot blocked
Brunson makes one of two free throws
Brunson three
Brunson missed lay-up
Brunson turnover
Brunson missed lay-up
McBride missed three
Brunson did enough over 48 minutes to will this team to the series win – 51 minutes, in total – but exhausted as he was, the other Knicks weren’t exactly knocking one another over angling for looks. He was taking all the shots because that’s mostly what’s left in the tank at this point. The longer a series goes, the more it becomes about attrition, and the Knicks are starting to run low on what carried them for 82 games. Whether they go on to win this series or lose it, either way tonight’s collapse hurts.
They’ll play the rest of the way minus two forwards who averaged 20+ points for a team this season in Julius Randle and Bojan Bogdanović. Donte DiVincenzo hasn’t shot like himself. OG and Hart generally avoid bad shots, though prudence isn’t always the better part of valor, especially when needs must, i.e. when you just need somebody, anybody to take pressure off the big dog. Brunson can’t score 40-50 every night if this team has aspirations beyond winning a round. Embiid shot poorly, didn’t even score 20 and his team found a way to keep hope and their season alive. Other Sixers stepped up, for once outrebounding the Knicks – overall and on the offensive glass.
Getting over the hump might mean getting a little experimental. After the success of the Anunoby/Precious Achiuwa frontcourt in the fourth quarter of Game 4, Achiuwa played as many minutes last night as your mom. Thibs did go small for literally one single minute in the middle of the fourth, when Embiid took a breather; OG played the 5 then, surrounded by four guards. Maybe the Knicks go back to what worked so well Sunday.
Or maybe they go even farther back to an early-season twist, and return DiVincenzo to the bench. The 76ers won the first quarter by nine points, a recurring trend in this series – starting McBride means having your best defensive guard opposite Maxey from the jump, which could help the Knicks not start every game losing. DiVincenzo may find his touch easier to resurrect as a gunslinger off the bench rather than a conscientious starter whose struggles may be harder to heal alongside a teammate taking 30+ shots a night – which, again, is the best option available at the moment.
Not that any Knicks fans would have complained, starting with your humble narrator, but if we’re being honest beating the 76ers in five – which would have been nice; no one’s saying it wouldn’t have been nice – wouldn’t have felt representative of the series. It’s been a 245-minute dogfight, two teams separated by just two points with either one or two games left. Philadelphia’s won about 80% of its games this year Embiid’s played, about the same rate New York’s come out on top in Anunoby’s games. This is the rare first-round series that promised to be one helluva fight and has exceeded expectations.
Not for the Knicks, though. This loss was more jarring than painful – this team just doesn’t lose like this. They have until Thursday to get over it, because then they’re in Philadelphia, a win away from advancing, a loss away from their first Game 7 at Madison Square Garden since 1995. They’re tired. They’re shorthanded. They had their eyes on the prize but stumbled and fumbled it away. One way or the other, the Knicks will play again after Thursday’s game. Where that is, what’s at stake and how we’re feeling? We’ll know soon enough.
