When the Philadelphia 76ers prevailed over the Boston Celtics in impressive fashion, coming back from a 3-1 series deficit, the consensus in the NBA universe was that this series was going to be much more competitive than what you would expect from a 3-vs-7 matchup. While the overall consensus had the Knicks prevailing, there was a loud minority who fully believed that this was finally the year for Philadelphia:

And why shouldn’t they believe that? After all, the Sixers were finally healthy and conquered their longstanding demons in the last round. A big sticking point for many Sixers fans and some national reporters was that the last time these two teams faced off in 2024, it was an instant classic of a series.

And they’re right about that. A six-game series full of hyper-competitive games, thrilling finishes, and heated moments between two regional rivals was fresh in everyone’s minds when this matchup was revealed, and they seemed to be fairly evenly matched on paper

But the thing about sports is that said paper can easily be ripped to shreds, similar to how the Sixers were in a devastating, historic four-game sweep that led to the axing of President of Basketball Operations Daryl Morey on Tuesday.

Whatever way you thought that these two teams were evenly matched, the Knicks showed that there were levels to this.

In 2024, Tyrese Maxey enjoyed his true breakout moment against the Knicks in the playoffs. In six games, he averaged 29.8 points and 6.8 assists on 48/40/89 shooting splits, headlined by a 46-point masterpiece to save Philly’s season in an improbable Game 5 comeback. After he had continued to improve in the two years since, there was no reason to believe that things would change, right?

Oh. Turns out the acquisition of Mikal Bridges, one of the league’s premier guard defenders, who has the speed to keep up with the dizzyingly fast Maxey around screens, made an impact.

That’s not all of how the Knicks boxed up one of the league’s best guards. They blitzed him 30 feet from the basket to speed up his decision-making, they showed everything, they refused to let him go over a screen and abuse drop coverage. There were fewer pull-up 3s attempted (4.6/game) than he did in 2024 (5.5/game) and he had less of his shot attempts register as “wide open” compared to just “open” and “covered”.

Joel Embiid averaged 30 a night in 2024, including a 50-piece in Game 3, on one knee and with Bell’s palsy. He’s healthier now and he grilled Mitchell Robinson during the season. How will the Knicks be able to stop him?

Well, the problem with ever predicting Embiid’s performance is that his health is never truly known. Sure, while he wasn’t playing on a torn meniscus or had anything truly major going on, he was very clearly hampered by knee, ankle, and hip soreness while recovering from an appendectomy. What you got in the end was an extremely immobile Embiid who was BBQ chicken on the defensive end and extremely reliant on pull-up jumpers on offense.

Was the Sixers supporting cast this year better than 2024? On paper, sure. Edgecombe and George are better than Tobias Harris and Kyle Lowry, but they suffer from inconsistency. As good as VJ is, he struggled at times, looking all the part of a rookie thrown into the spotlight. George shooting like prime Klay Thompson was never sustainable for that long anyway, either.

And thinking that the two biggest Sixers’ issues, the depth and the rebounding, wouldn’t rear their ugly head against a much deeper team that’s elite on the boards was always just foolish.

The Sixers were coached like Tom Thibodeau was on the sideline, going legitimately 6.5-deep on some nights with sixth-man Quentin Grimes struggling. It led to guys like Maxey looking gassed by the time crunch time comes around. In the games that they went down early and wound up being blown out, they didn’t have the second wind to go on a run.

Andre Drummond is the team’s only above-average rebounder, so it was no surprise when Josh Hart, Mitchell Robinson, and even OG Anunoby were bullying them on that end.

In the end, the Sixers were better than they were in 2024, but their level of improvement was microscopic compared to the overhaul in what the Knicks did, and the fact that people pretend like the Knicks didn’t have Donte DiVincenzo as their second option in that series was always incredibly disingenuous.

What the Knicks have figured out as of late is something truly different, something that makes them just as formidable as the vaunted OKC Thunder or even the upstart Spurs. As they wait to find their next opponents, Mike Brown knows that the formula he has used in this dominant, seven-game stretch has upgraded the Knicks from a regular No. 3 seed to a Terminator.