{"id":556739,"date":"2026-01-24T01:40:14","date_gmt":"2026-01-24T01:40:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/556739\/"},"modified":"2026-01-24T01:40:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-24T01:40:14","slug":"struggling-knicks-draw-76ers-as-joel-embiid-rounds-into-mvp-form","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/556739\/","title":{"rendered":"Struggling Knicks draw 76ers as Joel Embiid rounds into MVP form"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Knicks<\/a> beat up their little brother. On Saturday, they\u2019ll have an opportunity to pick on someone their own size.<\/p>\n

After a franchise-record 54-point win over the Nets<\/a> on Wednesday snapped a streak of nine losses in 11 games, the Knicks have a real test when they travel to Philadelphia to face a 76ers team that\u2019s won 8 of its last 11 games.<\/p>\n

The run directly correlates with Joel Embiid<\/a>\u2018s return to form following offseason knee surgery. Embiid is averaging 27.2 points on 54% shooting from the field in the month of January. He has three straight 30-point games leading into Saturday\u2019s matchup against the Knicks and had 26 points, 10 rebounds and 5 assists on 9-of-15 shooting in their last meeting.<\/p>\n

\u201cEmbiid\u2019s a Hall of Famer. He\u2019s an All-Star, and he knows all the tricks of the trade. He can beat you shooting the three because he has great touch, he can beat you from the free throw line, he\u2019s getting there eight times a game,\u201d head coach Mike Brown said after practice at the team\u2019s Tarrytown training facility on Friday. \u201cSo we have to make sure we continue to lead with our chest and show our hands. But obviously, he can beat you in the post. So we have to be on point, try not to give him anything easy, especially sending him to the free throw line knowing he\u2019s great at drawing fouls.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 76ers have a 2-0 record against the Knicks with a 10-point average margin of victory this season. As Embiid rounded into form, Philadelphia leaned heavily on its first-time All-Star starter Tyrese Maxey and 2025 No. 3-overall pick VJ Edgecombe.<\/p>\n

Maxey, who is averaging 30 points and close to 7 assists while converting on 39% of his nine 3-point attempts a game, is a known speed demon who has given the Knicks issues. He hit six 3s in each of the first two games against the Knicks and has scored 30 and 36 points, respectively, in those meetings.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaxey is probably one of the fastest guys in the league, a really good three-point shooter. He does a great job in terms of getting to the line,\u201d said Hart. \u201cIt\u2019s going to be a challenge but we need challenges right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Knicks also had a hard time containing Edgecombe, who hung 23 and 26 points, respectively, in the first regular season games against the Knicks of his career. Former Knick Quentin Grimes also scored 10 timely points in Philadelphia\u2019s Jan. 3 win.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve got a lot of talent over there \u2014 Maxey, VJ \u2014 then guards with QG and wings with Paul [George] and Kelly [Oubre Jr.],\u201d said Mikal Bridges. \u201cThey\u2019ve got a lot of talent.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Sixers enter Saturday\u2019s matchup 1.5 games behind New York in the standings and tied for fifth in the Eastern Conference with the Cleveland Cavaliers. Starting forward Josh Hart didn\u2019t put too much stock in Philadelphia\u2019s two-game advantage in their season series.<\/p>\n

Hart sat with an ankle injury when the Knicks lost to the Sixers<\/a>, 130-119, on Jan. 3.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know. The first one was on the second half of a back-to-back. [We were] a little tired, a little rugged,\u201d he recalled. \u201cThe next one, I didn\u2019t play, I think we didn\u2019t play our best. We lacked attention to detail and focus. It\u2019s always a good matchup. With us two, we\u2019re playing talented teams.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Sixers, however, have been struggling to consistently put points on the board in the New Year. They have only scored more than 115 in regulation since a Jan. 7 victory over the lowly Washington Wizards.<\/p>\n

Yet they\u2019re averaging north of 123 points a game against the Knicks, who know they need to tighten up on the defensive end of the ball if they\u2019re going to leave Philadelphia with a win.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s gonna take a team effort, so we have to be on point with our team defense. It can\u2019t just be one guy stopping them, stopping those guys. Because that\u2019s impossible for anybody to do,\u201d said Brown. \u201cI don\u2019t care how good you are as an individual defender. With the amount of space teams are able to create and how tricky those guys and everybody else is when it comes to one-on-one situations in terms of drawing fouls and stuff like that, our team defense has to be on point throughout the course of the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe thing is focus on ourselves and know to help each other on the defensive end. It\u2019s never 1 v 1. It should be 1 v 5,\u201d added Bridges. \u201cWhatever guy\u2019s got the ball should see the guy on ball and four help defenders helping each other out. So just mainly focused on what we\u2019ve gotta do to help each other and do our principles.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Knicks beat up their little brother. On Saturday, they\u2019ll have an opportunity to pick on someone their…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":556740,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3768],"tags":[7,936,304,6,1136,191,3810,3806,96],"class_list":{"0":"post-556739","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-knicks","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-joel-embiid","10":"tag-knicks","11":"tag-nba","12":"tag-new-york","13":"tag-new-york-knicks","14":"tag-newyork","15":"tag-newyorkknicks","16":"tag-sixers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115947531642370059","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556739","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=556739"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556739\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/556740"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=556739"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=556739"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=556739"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}