Knicks 128, 76ers 92: Got a new crack in the Liberty Bell
One of the East’s top-3 teams showed up & showed out in Philadelphia last night. The other team was the 76ers.
Did you get enough for what you gave up? The New York Knicks and Philadelphia 76ers may be more familiar with this question than most. After years of enough self-imposed suffering to make the staunchest flagellist beg for mercy, the Sixers boast Joel Embiid, who could win his second straight MVP award. Tyrese Maxey could pull a Julius Randle and win Most Improved Player and land on an All-NBA team. Tobias Harris is averaging 17 points on 51/35/89 splits. And yet, “The Process” Sixers have ended up where most teams who half-try do: good — quite good, at times — but not even a top-five title favorite. They’ve reached as many conference finals the past 20 years as the Knicks.
Have they gotten enough? For what they gave up? If they never sniff a title with Embiid, was punting on half a decade worth it? What if he plays another six dominant seasons, wins two more MVPs and cements himself as one of the top-10 centers of all-time? Would getting to watch a generational player keep a fan base entertained across 15 winters make up for failing at the primary objective?
Eight teams are winning 60% or more of their games: Boston, Milwaukee, Philadelphia, Minnesota, Oklahoma City, Denver, the L.A. Clippers and Sacramento. Before the Anunobdy trade, the Knicks were 2-9 against them. They’re 2-0 since, 3-0 overall after a 128-92 statement win in Philadelphia. To say Anuobdy has been a perfect fit might even be understating it.
Maybe even more exciting than winning by 38 in a (light) heavyweight’s building was how many different Knicks had stand-out nights. One mustn’t judge a trade after three months, much less three games. But in a dark time on a darkening world, one welcomes the light whenever and wherever one can. In the home of Villanova, a constellation of Knicks went supernova.
While Randle shot poor from the floor in just his second sub-20 point outing in two months, Jalen Brunson made up for it with 21 in the first half, drilling two-thirds of his shots – and he was only the second-hottest shooting Knick point guard. Miles McBride spread the wealth draining all four of his first half long-distance looks, hitting from the left corner, the left wing, the right wing and the right corner. Around the world with Deuce.
Like McBride, Quentin Grimes figures to see a bigger role and more minutes with RJ Barrett and Immanuel Quickley gone. A lot of fans thrill at the sound of that. That thrill rose to an angelic chorus in Grimes’ fourth quarter apotheosis, a 19-point, five-rebound brilliance. If heaven were a moneyshot . . .
When New York entered this season with nearly the exact same rotation as last season, Grimes was a player many saw as someone who might take a leap, whose individual development would echo across the team’s play as a whole. He has the canvas to work with now. He had five rebounds in the fourth. In and of itself, not a tremendously meaningful stat, given the Knicks were up as many as 39. But I’m willing to bet all the money in my wallet against all the money in yours Grimes hasn’t had five rebounds in a quarter since high school.
The platonic Grimes, Quentin unleashed, is a brilliant 3-point shooter who pairs alongside Anunoby for both doubleplusgood spacing and defense. NBA history is full of guys who exploded once there was some space for them. Fingers crossed Grimes turns out like a former Knick wing who couldn’t get minutes in New York but did elsewhere and went on to four All-Defense teams, one Douglas Dale Christie.
If poetry didn’t exist before Josh Hart became a Knick, that’s when it would have been invented. Prose can no better grasp the truth of Hart’s meaning than numbers, and they can’t either. A lotta nights, Hart shines across the entire spectrum, and the box score can only see infrared points and ultraviolet dimes. Some nights, even the dead catch sight of 10, 15 and six with an outrageous +46 plus/minus. The Knick bench outscored the Sixers’ 49-15, and don’t think they weren’t aware of their recent struggles as a unit.
In a few hours the Knicks head to Washington to face the Wizards, in a trap game so blatant and hackneyed you’d think Michael Bay wrote and directed it. On paper, it should be a Knicks win. As the Sixers know, on paper’s a thousand light years from here. See you, space cowboy . . .
