{"id":727820,"date":"2026-05-07T06:09:16","date_gmt":"2026-05-07T06:09:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/727820\/"},"modified":"2026-05-07T06:09:16","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T06:09:16","slug":"knicks-prove-they-can-win-a-slugfest-to-take-2-0-series-lead-over-76ers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/727820\/","title":{"rendered":"Knicks prove they can win a slugfest to take 2-0 series lead over 76ers"},"content":{"rendered":"

NEW YORK \u2014 Maybe you thought Joel Embiid<\/a> missing Wednesday\u2019s Game 2<\/a> of the 2026 Eastern Conference semifinals series between the New York Knicks<\/a> and Philadelphia 76ers<\/a> threatened to sap all the drama out of the Sixers\u2019 attempt to get right and get level after their Game 1 destruction<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Well, Mike Brown didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThey\u2019re still a good team, you know?\u201d the Knicks head coach said before Game 2. \u201cThey\u2019ve got a lot of guys that can put the ball on the floor and attack the rim. They can shoot 3s. They still like to get out in transition. They\u2019re a good team with [Embiid] \u2014 obviously, they\u2019re a really good team, because he\u2019s a Hall of Famer, All-NBA selection \u2014 but without him, they have some guys that are capable of stepping up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some of those guys did step up Wednesday. Tyrese Maxey<\/a> attacked off the bounce, scoring 15 of his 26 points in the second quarter, resting for just 72 seconds in the first half and playing the entire second half \u2014 a 46-minute, 48-second performance for the All-Star point guard. Paul George<\/a> came out scorching hot, drilling his first four shots on his way to a five-3-pointer evening, while also sliding across defensive matchups like the two-way star he\u2019s long been.<\/p>\n

VJ Edgecombe<\/a> and Kelly Oubre Jr.<\/a> each hit three 3-pointers and grabbed a handful of rebounds. Reserve center Adem Bona<\/a> pounded the offensive glass and protected the rim in the first half. Backup big man Dominick Barlow<\/a> had two dunks, a layup, two blocks, a steal and several stops against Jalen Brunson<\/a> on switches in the second half.<\/p>\n

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Two nights after getting absolutely shellacked, the shorthanded and overmatched Sixers were putting together a performance that dragged a Knicks team that had only played blowouts over the past couple of weeks down into the mud \u2014 a physical, foul-filled, aggressive slugfest; a fistfight in a phone booth in which neither team could gain more than three possessions of separation.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a playoff basketball game, you know,\u201d Brown said. \u201cThe game was ugly offensively throughout most of the game. You give the Sixers a lot of credit \u2014 we knew that they were going to come out, they’re going to be more physical, they were going to try to get in the passing lanes and activate the ball a little bit more. So you give them credit.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I also give our guys credit.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The Knicks earned that praise because, when hit with a real counterpunch for the first time since CJ McCollum called game for the second time<\/a>, they didn\u2019t buckle or fold. They withstood Philly\u2019s pressure, kept firing back and tightened the screws defensively, holding the visitors to just one field goal over the final six minutes and 52 seconds of the fourth quarter, authoring a 12-3 run in the guts of the game to score a so-grimy-it\u2019s-golden 108-102 win<\/a>. The Knicks took a 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven series. Game 3 tips off in Philadelphia<\/a> at 7 p.m. ET on Friday.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe got the stops that was needed,\u201d said Knicks center Karl-Anthony Towns<\/a>, who battled foul trouble throughout the first half but got going after intermission, finishing with 20 points, 10 rebounds, 7 assists and a steal in 27 minutes. \u201cGot the rebounds \u2014 I think that was something that was really hurting us, with their offensive rebounding \u2014 and we found a way to get the stops and end those possessions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those stops held up because the Knicks also got the buckets they needed \u2014 just enough of them, anyway.<\/p>\n

After struggling with his jumper throughout the postseason, Josh Hart<\/a> canned a corner 3<\/a> off an OG Anunoby<\/a> drive-and-kick to tie the game at 99 with 6:25 to go. Brunson continued attacking young big man Barlow on switches, getting to his spots for a pair of midrange<\/a> jumpers<\/a> to push the lead to four. Mikal Bridges<\/a>, whose early-playoff woes were so pronounced that Brown had to field questions about whether he\u2019d be benched, bailed out a possession that featured George blocking an Anunoby dunk attempt \u2014 a possession in which Anunoby appeared to hurt his right leg<\/a>, which will be a huge storyline between now and Game 3 \u2014 by making a key midrange pull-up<\/a> to put New York up by six with less than three minutes to go.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn offense, huge shoutout to [Mikal Bridges], to Jalen, making the big shots and giving us a lead like that,\u201d Towns said. \u201cBut our defense was something special.\u201d<\/p>\n

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After 33, 29 and 28 points in the first three quarters, Philadelphia managed just 12 in the fourth, shooting 4-for-19 from the floor and 1-for-10 from 3-point range, with stars Maxey and George missing 10 of their 12 shots in the deciding frame.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe played good enough defense to win that game,\u201d 76ers head coach Nick Nurse said. \u201cEspecially in the fourth. But again, you know, I mean \u2014 hold \u2018em to 19 in the fourth. You gotta hope you can score more than 20 in a quarter.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Sixers had their chances: a clean above-the-break look for Oubre<\/a> with Towns sagging back toward the paint; a corner 3 for Edgecombe<\/a> with Anunoby late on the contest; a wide-open Maxey 3 in the corner<\/a> off an offensive rebound; a George pull-up<\/a> in the final minute. But none of them went down, and combined with a pair of costly turnovers \u2014 Maxey losing the ball on a drive<\/a> with 2:39 remaining, and Barlow throwing the ball away<\/a> trying to feed Oubre on a baseline cut with 2:08 to go \u2014 that gave the Knicks just enough cushion to be able to get across the finish line.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just wish that a couple of those really good offensive [possessions], we would\u2019ve \u2026 you know, all\u2019s we needed was one or two. We didn\u2019t need all five of \u2018em,\u201d Nurse said. \u201cWe just needed one or two to kind of get the thing down to the end, where we at least had a chance.\u201d<\/p>\n

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On one hand, it\u2019s reasonable to wonder whether those late-game possessions didn\u2019t break the Sixers\u2019 way, in part, because the players executing them were dog tired. Maxey played the entire second half, facing aggressive Knicks coverages aimed at getting the ball out of his hands and preventing him from getting to the rim the whole time. George and Edgecombe both played more than 22 of the 24 minutes, balancing shot-making responsibility with significant defensive tasks, as the rookie served as the tip of the spear in Philadelphia\u2019s game plan on Brunson \u2014 a defensive effort that Nurse later graded as \u201cabove-average,\u201d with the Knicks superstar scoring 26 points on 21 shots with 6 assists and 3 turnovers \u2014 while George slid over to cross-match onto Towns in the fourth.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought we just might’ve ran out of gas a little bit in the fourth,\u201d said George, who finished with 19 points on 7-for-18 shooting, 6 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 blocks and 2 steals in 43 minutes. \u201cWe could’ve did a better job of getting some easier ones, but I think we did just run out of gas a little bit in the fourth.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the other, with Embiid unavailable, offense at a premium, and the threat of a 2-0 deficit staring him in the face, you can understand why Nurse decided to stick with the stars he still had.<\/p>\n

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\u201cTyrese played almost the entire game, and he\u2019s a plus-minus of zero in a six-point loss,\u201d Nurse said. \u201cSo even the minute and [12] seconds he was out obviously wasn\u2019t very good.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Sixers gave themselves a much better chance Wednesday than they did in Game 1. They tested New York\u2019s defense early, beginning Game 2 with a long-range barrage \u2014 six 3s in the first quarter, 58.8% shooting as a team in the opening frame \u2014 to jump out to a 33-31 lead after 12 minutes. Despite finally cooling off from distance themselves, the Knicks kept generating good looks and scoring with Philly, particularly when Towns was on the floor.<\/p>\n

Which, admittedly, was not often. Even with Embiid sidelined, New York\u2019s All-Star center picked up three fouls in the first half, limiting him to just over eight minutes of floor time through the opening two quarters.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don’t want to lose the physicality \u2014 that\u2019s just something that’s done us well in the last game,\u201d Towns said. \u201cI’ll look at the tape, I’ll get better, more disciplined. You know, I don’t want to put my team in that position again, so I got to do a better job.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Towns wasn\u2019t alone. Reserve New York center Ariel Hukporti<\/a>, elevated into the backup slot with Mitchell Robinson<\/a> ruled out for Game 2 due to illness, picked up four fouls in less than seven first-half minutes. For Philadelphia, Andre Drummond<\/a>, starting in place of Embiid, committed four fouls in under 15 minutes, while the energetic Bona was called for five in 16 \u2014 part of a whistle-filled affair that featured 43 fouls and 53 free throws, and forced both coaches to go deeper into their rotations in search of a different way to win.<\/p>\n

The Sixers come away knowing they can make New York sweat, with or without Embiid \u2014 that the Knicks\u2019 desire to slow Maxey at all costs can be exploited; that they can generate good 3s against a Knicks defense that can at times over-help in the paint; that Bona and Barlow can give them a jolt of athleticism, shot-blocking and switchability on the defensive end; and that the Knicks are not, in fact, just going to shoot 70% on 2s and 50% on 3s every game.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think you learn a lot through each game,\u201d Nurse said. \u201cI think it took us a couple of games to figure out some of the rotations and matchups last series [against Boston<\/a>], and I think the same thing is happening.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe definitely feel like we can pull ourselves out of this one,\u201d Maxey said. \u201cGotta go home and get two.\u201d<\/p>\n

“We felt like we should’ve won it,” Edgecombe said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe like where we’re at,\u201d George added.<\/p>\n

So, too, do the Knicks, who find themselves two wins away from a second straight trip to the Eastern Conference finals. They got there behind a balanced effort, with Brunson, Towns, Anunoby and Bridges all scoring at least 18 points, and by reminding themselves that, even on a night when they don\u2019t play a perfect game, they\u2019ve still got more than enough to get the job done.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was just us executing, being disciplined, finding a way to get a gritty win,\u201d Towns said. \u201cSomething that, for better or for worse, hasn’t been in our cards the last four games, but you know, this showed a lot about our locker room and our team.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK \u2014 Maybe you thought Joel Embiid missing Wednesday\u2019s Game 2 of the 2026 Eastern Conference semifinals…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":727821,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3768],"tags":[1262,3845,4990,7,45,7046,559,7479,288,936,327,563,6462,304,1260,1247,6,1136,191,3810,3806,6724,741,526,678,207,1263,971],"class_list":["post-727820","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-knicks","tag-adem-bona","tag-andre-drummond","tag-ariel-hukporti","tag-basketball","tag-boston","tag-cj-mccollum","tag-clippers","tag-dominick-barlow","tag-jalen-brunson","tag-joel-embiid","tag-josh-hart","tag-karl-anthony-towns","tag-kelly-oubre-jr","tag-knicks","tag-mikal-bridges","tag-mitchell-robinson","tag-nba","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-knicks","tag-newyork","tag-newyorkknicks","tag-nick-nurse","tag-og-anunoby","tag-paul-george","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-76ers","tag-tyrese-maxey","tag-vj-edgecombe"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116531807290075071","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/727820","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=727820"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/727820\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/727821"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=727820"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=727820"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=727820"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}