Knicks 118, 76ers 115: The big fish ate the little fish in its little pond
W + W + L + W + L + W = IND. MON.
Two games into what became an epic playoff series between New York and Philadelphia, Joel Embiid predicted the better team would come out on top. He was right. In a madcap, madhouse matchup, the decisive Game 6 was a microcosm of the series and the Knicks’ season as a whole: an incredible early run, followed by enough adversity to throw it all into question, ending on a high note. The two teams combined for 333 points last night and ended the series separated by a total of one — yet the biggest point was one the scoreboard merely echoed. When the moment called for everything they had to give, the two teams gave it their all. But only one still had something left in the tank after that.
After losing Game 5 in a decidedly non-2024 Knicks manner – mental mistakes and physical breakdowns – Game 6’s 118-115 come-from-ahead-then-from-behind win was a red-carpet return to reality. The Knicks exploded in the first quarter, up 33-11, fueled not by sweet shooting but by roughing it on the glass: New York ended the frame with nine offensive rebounds to Philly’s 10 total boards. I didn’t expect them to finish with two to three times as many points as the 76ers, though I did think, “All they gotta do the next 30 minutes is play Philly to a draw – which the series has been throughout – and they’re good.” Reader, they didn’t, and they weren’t.
Because the Sixers, led by forgotten man Buddy Hield, went on a 60-28 run from the first through third quarters, wind-aided by the Knicks forgetting Hield has over $100 million in career earnings despite not being much of a passer, dribbler or defender. What he is is a plus 3-point shooter, especially when defenders repeatedly rotate or double off him in favor of lesser threats. Sometimes the Knicks just left him completely alone, like in the weakside corner here.
The Knicks survived a second quarter where Jalen Brunson and Isaiah Hartenstein hit 5 of their 10 shots while the rest of the team missed 14 of 15. We don’t tend to bronze tourniquets or give them a place of prominence up on the mantle, but they’re lifesavers, and at times when the Knicks had nothing working and their lead was hemorrhaging, iHart’s floaters and putbacks scabbed the wound. Still, the Sixers played like a team that wouldn’t accept a fate of first-round fodder. Near the midpoint of the third quarter a Tyrese Maxey three – his only one on the night, after drilling seven in his Game 5 masterpiece – put Philadelphia up 10. Perhaps a little giddy having made his first second-half shot after missing five of six in the first half, Maxey took a heat check three on the Sixers’ next possession, but missed. They could’ve been up 13. Instead they were where they were the whole series: within reach.
After their hot start, the Knicks scored just 15 in the second quarter. Whatever Tom Thibodeau said at halftime should be bottled and kept in the Smithsonian, because his team went second-half supernova with 67 points after the break on 59/62/79 splits. Four Knicks scored double-figures in the second half alone. They had 17 assists to just five turnovers. It was disconcertingly wonderful to watch – if you didn’t see the game, I don’t know that I can convey how brutal the offense looked in the second quarter. Every single shot seemed out of sync, under duress, shots the defense wanted the Knicks taking. The second half offense was smooth enough to kink-shame, with one Knick in particular picking the perfect time to go Lazarus.
Donte DiVincenzo came into last night missing two-thirds of his shots in this series. In true Starks-ian fashion, he showed no memory of that; from the jump DDV was letting it fly and aiming it true. Sometimes you have to play a Game 6 like it’s Game 7 – Mets fans of a certain vintage know this as the Mike Scott Corollary. Given that two different Sixers already scored 50ish points in different games in this series and that Hield looked likely to make that duet a triplet, DiVincenzo’s performance not only helped the Knicks advance, it clears him to head into the next round with some confidence.
Maxey struggled much of the night, but cometh the moment cometh the man, pouring in 12 of his 17 in the fourth like a horror-movie monster that never stays dead. Even his misses paid dividends: this Nic Batum follow after Maxey missed from deep gave the 76ers their final lead of the game, the series and their season.
Kelly Oubre hit a couple of threes. Embiid gave the last of what he could to the cause. I’ve lost count in my lifetime of how many noble Knick seasons ended with a similar eulogy – A was terrific, B contributed, C did all you could ask, and ultimately none of it matters because the other team’s star just took over. Maybe if Sixer ownership had subsidized an actual third star and not 2,000 tickets for a supposedly big market team, things would have been different for them. That’s something they can debate heading into next year. This year, that “other team’s star” is ours.
After giving everything he had over a six-month regular season – most of those sans Julius Randle – even more was asked of Brunson in this series. He had to be the team’s leading scorer, distributor, ball-handler, running quarterback, engine coolant, prefrontal cortex and lodestone. Remember him shooting like 30% the first two games and calmly stating he just had to be better? The last four games he averaged 40 points on 50% shooting along with 10 assists – all despite being zero-blitzed more often than Jalen Hurts. What Bernard King did in 1984 is no less astonishing 40 years later; Brunson doing something similar while six inches shorter will be as blessedly bizarre to whatever homo sapiens survive the next 40 years of climate chaos and kleptocracy.
This OG Anunoby dunk didn’t clinch the win – another enormous effort from him, scoring, rebounding and defending, though again he missed a late free throw – but if nothing else it pushed probability more firmly in support of a Knick win. Plus as you can see if you watch the Philadelphia bench, it may have been the only time all series Nick Nurse had no choice but to sit down, shut up and accept reality.
And yet the story all season has been how every player on this potluck of a team brings something different but invaluable to the table. Isaiah Hartenstein and Mitchell Robinson combined for 16 points, 18 rebounds and three blocks. The Knick bench, probably the most consistent part of the team since Tom Thibodeau took over, was outscored 42-5 by the Sixer subs. Glass half-full? The Knick starters outscored the Sixers’ 113-73. And then, last and never least, there’s Josh Hart.
There’s never been a Knick like Hart. Oh, you can say that about any of us — hopefully your parents did, or a teacher or somebody — but it’s somehow more true of Hart than most. I think and feel in analogies, lust after patterns – I have none for him. He’s just simply water: whatever form or filling the team needs, whatever shape that need takes – that night, that quarter, that possession – Hart fills it. I can give you numbers. 16 points. A game-high 14 rebounds (remember: he’s 10 inches shorter and 70 pounds lighter than Embiid). Seven assists – only Brunson had more for either team. And yet, as always, it’s not Hart’s tangible star stuff but the invisible dark matter that matters the most. No boxscore will ever capture the magnitude of a guy’s hustle saving his team an absolutely catastrophic turnover up one late, two nights after an absolutely catastrophic endgame cost them the clinching win.
There’ll be plenty more to say about this one-of-a-kind 2024 Knicks team. In a couple of days we’ll be firmly ensconced in Pacer playoff triggers, sportshating Tyrese Haliburton and lamenting Randle not being there to put Pascal Siakam in his proper place. It’ll be tense, and tiring, and awful, the way each successive round of the postseason is. When Pat Riley said there’s winning and there’s misery, that was the wisdom of a man who’d been to the mountaintop enough to know what the journey demands. The longer it goes, the more emotions flatten. There is agony and ecstasy, and nothing in-between.
Before you move on, put on a cup of tea. Play some music – not on random; let an album run all the way through. If your television is on, don’t skip the commercials. Slow down. Let life unfold over you, slowly, lovingly. The Knicks just beat the strongest playoff team they’ve beaten since 2000. They’ve won a playoff series in consecutive years for the first time since then. While Cleveland and Milwaukee were tanking or stumbling to the finish line, New York never let up, and that’s why they’ll have homecourt against the Pacers next week instead of traveling to Boston. There’s soooo much speculation in a season, so much pontificating come the playoffs. Sometimes it’s best to appreciate the concrete simplicity of the joy right in front of you. Especially when that joy is a game-winning, series-winning, season-affirming Josh Hart three.
