Round #2 - Tracker#4 | NYK vs. PHI

My prediction: 76ers 4-2

Latest Game:

Game 4: 25 Three-Pointers. 30-Point Win. Zero Resistance.

76ers 114, Knicks 144 · Knicks win Series 4-0

The New York Knicks made 25 three-pointers in Game 4 Sunday night in Philadelphia. Twenty-five. That ties the NBA postseason record for a single game. They did it in an opponent's building, in front of a crowd that had already half-surrendered its tickets to Knicks fans. They did it to close out a sweep.

The 76ers didn't lose this series. They got run out of it.

The Machine Was Running From Tip-Off

New York made 12 of its first 13 three-point attempts. By halftime, the Knicks had 18 threes — tying the NBA postseason record for a half. The lead was 24. The game was over. The series had been over for some time.

Miles McBride started in place of the injured OG Anunoby and hit seven triples, going 4-for-4 from three in the first quarter alone. Jalen Brunson scored 22. Josh Hart added 17. Karl-Anthony Towns had 17 points and 10 assists. This was not a team with a star carrying the load — it was a collective dismantling, executed without emotion, with the detachment of a team that expected to be here.

"No relief, no jubilation," Hart said afterward. "Just another step in the process."

The 76ers Problem Has a Name and a Knee

Joel Embiid finished with 24 points on 8-of-8 from the field. On paper, that's a fine game. In reality, it is the most misleading line in the box score. Embiid had an emergency appendectomy a month ago. He missed Game 2 with right hip and ankle injuries. When Tyrese Maxey fell into his legs in the final game of the Boston series, it set off a chain of injuries that never resolved.

He played all four games of this series at less than full capacity, and Philadelphia still lost three of those four by double digits.

"Everything else is out of place," Embiid said after the game — the hip, the adductor, all of it traced back to the appendectomy recovery. He has now played 490 games over 10 seasons — an average of 49 per year — and missed the first two years of his career entirely to injury. The franchise has not reached a conference finals in 25 years.

Embiid says he's "as confident as I've ever been" about his knee going forward. He says he'll be able to attack the offseason working on his game rather than rehabbing for the first time in years.

The Knicks didn't beat a healthy 76ers team. That changes nothing about the scoreline.

New York Is Not Playing Like a Team That Can Be Stopped

The Knicks have outscored opponents by 19.4 points per game this postseason. That is the largest differential of any team entering the conference finals since the playoffs expanded to 16 teams in the 1983-84 season. The only comparable marks in that table led to titles: the 1986-87 Lakers, the 2016-17 Warriors.

They've won seven straight playoff games. They now await the winner of the Pistons-Cavaliers series, with at least a week off — time OG Anunoby needs for his hamstring, time the rest of the roster needs to reset after a deep run that started ten days ago in Atlanta.

Brunson averaged 29 points in this second round, outplaying Maxey at every turn. Towns averaged 7.5 assists from center despite never crossing 30 minutes in any game — foul trouble, managed load, didn't matter. The system absorbed every problem and kept producing.

What Philadelphia Leaves Behind

Josh Hart told reporters in the aftermath that he used to think Philly was a sports town. He's not sure anymore. Knicks fans took over Xfinity Mobile Arena for the second straight road closeout game. Maxey said the noise was louder for the visitors than it had been at Madison Square Garden.

The 76ers have now lost in the second round for the sixth time in nine postseason trips in Embiid's decade with the franchise. The conference finals drought is at 25 years. This summer, the question isn't whether to rebuild — it's how far back the clock has to go.

"We just got to get better from top to bottom," Embiid said. "Ownership, front office, players, coaches — everybody just got to get better."

The Knicks are already there.

Series History:

Preview: The Upset Nobody Planned For

Joel Embiid is the first player in NBA history to score 100 points in a playoff series while missing the first three games. He is 18 days removed from an appendectomy, improving with every game, and now faces a series against a Karl-Anthony Towns who has not been asked to guard a 7-foot center of Embiid's caliber this postseason.

New York won Game 6 against Atlanta 140-89. Their largest lead was 61 points. That is an excellent way to advance and a terrible way to prepare for a team that just beat the East's second seed in seven games.

The Embiid Problem New York Has No Answer For

Embiid's shot distance is moving toward the paint as he recovers — more post-ups, more elbow jumpers, fewer contested threes. Against Boston's Neemias Queta, that approach produced 34 points in Game 7. Against KAT — a center whose defensive instincts are offensive — the paint access becomes even easier.

Towns can guard Embiid on the perimeter when Embiid drifts to the three-point line. He cannot contain him in the post. The Knicks have no one else to put there. Mikal Bridges switching onto Embiid in isolation is a better option than it sounds, but it creates corner three opportunities for Tyrese Maxey that Bridges cannot simultaneously prevent.

New York's Counter

OG Anunoby guards Maxey. That matchup — the East's most electric guard against its most complete two-way wing — defines the series on Philadelphia's offensive end. If Anunoby limits Maxey to under 20 points, New York controls tempo. If Maxey goes off for 25+, the Knicks' perimeter defense collapses toward Embiid, and VJ Edgecombe gets corner threes that a tired Paul George cannot rotate to quickly enough.

Jalen Brunson is better than anyone on Philadelphia's roster at manufacturing offense in the half court without help. Brunson vs. Philly's switching schemes — Nick Nurse loves switching — will determine whether New York can score efficiently enough to stay with a team playing with the emotional momentum of eliminating the defending East finalists.

The Conditioning Gap

Philadelphia played seven brutal games against Boston. New York played six, with the last one requiring essentially no effort. The Knicks' legs are fresher. In a series that goes six or seven games — which this will — that advantage compounds in the fourth quarters that Embiid, managing his post-surgery body, may struggle to dominate consistently.

Prediction: PHI 4-2

Embiid is the best player in this series. Maxey is the most important player on the floor when Embiid needs rest. The Knicks have the depth and the defensive intelligence to extend it, but New York's inability to contain Embiid in the post — without a true rim-protecting center — costs them in Games 5 and 6 when the series is decided.

Philly advances. The city that waited through Embiid's appendectomy gets a Conference Finals.

Game 1: The 76ers Still Haven't Figured Out a Way to Stop Him

Knicks 137, 76ers 98 · Knicks lead 1-0

Jalen Brunson scored 27 of his 35 points before halftime. The Knicks led by 40 at some point in the fourth quarter. Philadelphia had one full day of rest after completing the most emotionally draining comeback in recent memory — and it showed in every single possession.

New York 137, Philadelphia 98. The Knicks have won four consecutive playoff games by a combined 135 points. They are the first team in NBA history to win three straight postseason games by at least 25 points.

Philadelphia still hasn't figured out a way to stop Brunson. After averaging 35.5 points against the 76ers in the 2024 playoffs and closing that series with three straight 40-point games, he opened this one with 27 in 31 minutes — before sitting the entire fourth quarter with the game already decided.

What New York Is Doing That Nobody Can Answer

The Knicks shot 63% from the field and 51% from three. Their largest lead was 40. They led for 91% of the game. These are not numbers that describe a competitive playoff game — they describe a team in a different operational category than their opponent.

OG Anunoby had 18 points on 7-of-8 shooting and was +22. Mikal Bridges added 17. Karl-Anthony Towns played only 20 minutes, finished with 17 points, 6 rebounds, and 6 assists, and posted a +11. New York pulled 11 players into positive plus-minus territory. The Knicks' bench outscored Philadelphia's starters in the fourth quarter.

The Knicks scored 58 points in the paint against a 76ers defense that couldn't contain penetration, couldn't close out on threes, and couldn't slow Brunson without fouling him into free throws that he converted at 79% across the game.

The Embiid Problem New York Created

Joel Embiid shot 3-of-11 for 14 points and was -24. He is 18 days removed from appendectomy surgery, improving game by game — but "improving game by game" looks different when the opponent is playing at this level. The Knicks forced Embiid into perimeter situations where his recovery limitations are most visible, denied him comfortable post position, and made every catch a contested one.

Tyrese Maxey had 13 points and didn't make his first basket until five minutes into the second quarter. Paul George finished with 17 on 6-of-11 shooting. Both players, against a healthy opponent in a competitive game, would look better. Against New York's defensive structure in the current form, they looked like the team that lost twice by 32 points in the first four games before their Boston comeback.

The One Variable Philadelphia Still Has

The 76ers had one day off between a seven-game series and Game 1. Embiid's body needed a week. Maxey's legs needed three days. Philadelphia played Game 7 in Boston on Saturday night and Game 1 in New York on Monday. That schedule alone explains some portion of the margin.

What it doesn't explain is 41% field goal shooting, 37% from three, and a defensive effort that allowed Brunson to score 27 points before the halftime buzzer. Game 2 is Wednesday. The series shifts to Philadelphia for Games 3 and 4.

Game 2: 25 Lead Changes. Brunson Ended All of Them.

Knicks 108, 76ers 102 · Knicks lead 2-0

Twenty-five lead changes. Fourteen ties. Neither team led by more than seven. This was not the Game 1 that Philadelphia played — and it still wasn't enough.

New York 108, Philadelphia 102. The Knicks lead 2-0. OG Anunoby left late in the game with a right hamstring strain and did not return. Joel Embiid was ruled out before tip-off with a sprained right ankle and sore hip, discovered after he woke up with soreness and couldn't get through the morning shootaround.

The most competitive game of this series ended exactly the way the least competitive one did — with Philadelphia unable to close it.

What Philadelphia Built and Couldn't Keep

Embiid's absence forced Nick Nurse into a rotation built around Tyrese Maxey, Paul George, Kelly Oubre Jr., and VJ Edgecombe — and for three quarters it worked. Playing without their best player, the 76ers found a level of collective defensive intensity and offensive fluidity that Game 1 never produced. Maxey scored 26 points in 47 minutes. George had 19. Oubre added 19. The 76ers shot 45% from the field and matched New York's physicality on the glass.

Philadelphia led 99-96 late in the fourth quarter. The moment felt like a team discovering something about itself under pressure — playing their most complete game of the series without the player they need most.

Then Brunson found his spot.

The Brunson Sequence That Ended It

Jalen Brunson started Game 2 shooting 2-of-8 from the field. At the moment Philadelphia led by three in the fourth, he made the tiebreaking basket, added a jumper to put New York ahead 103-99 at 3:45, and Mikal Bridges' basket made it a six-point lead shortly after. Final margin: six. Philadelphia's lead evaporated in the span of three New York possessions.

Brunson finished 9-of-21 for 26 points. Bridges added 18. KAT had 20 points, 10 rebounds, and 7 assists in 27 minutes. The Knicks shot only 27% from three — their worst three-point game of these playoffs — and won anyway. That is the most damaging fact in Philadelphia's Game 2 box score.

The Injury Questions That Define Game 3

OG Anunoby, averaging 21.4 points per game in these playoffs, left with a right hamstring strain and was listed as day-to-day. Embiid missed Game 2 entirely. The Knicks can absorb Anunoby's absence better than Philadelphia can absorb Embiid's — but losing their best wing defender against a 76ers team that found genuine offensive rhythm in Game 2 is not a trivial adjustment.

Game 3 is Friday in Philadelphia. Embiid's status is unknown. The 76ers played their most complete basketball of the series without him. With him on the floor in a hostile arena against a New York team potentially missing Anunoby, the possibility of a competitive series still exists — barely.

Philadelphia still hasn't led after the first quarter in either game. That number, more than any injury update, defines how far they have to go.

Game 3: Paul George Had 15 Points in Nine Minutes. Then Bridges Took Over.

76ers 94, Knicks 108 · Knicks lead 3-0

Paul George scored 15 points in the first nine minutes. He started 6-of-8 from the field, hit threes off the dribble, and for one brief stretch looked like the reason Philadelphia gave him $212 million.

Then Mike Brown switched Mikal Bridges onto him. George missed 10 consecutive shots after that. The 76ers never led after the first quarter.

New York 108, Philadelphia 94. The Knicks lead 3-0 and need one win to reach the Eastern Conference Finals for the second consecutive year. The 76ers need to win four straight games to avoid being swept — a feat that would require them to become a completely different team than the one that has played three games in this series.

What New York Did in Philadelphia

Brunson started 2-of-8 from the field again, shook it off again, and finished with 33 points on 11-of-22 shooting with 9 assists in 38 minutes. Three consecutive playoff games, each one requiring him to overcome a cold start. Three consecutive wins.

Bridges added 23 points and was the single most important defensive presence in the game — not just for what he did to George, but for the way he disrupted Philadelphia's entire offensive structure once the Sixers' lead vanished. KAT had 12 points, 12 rebounds, and 7 assists. Josh Hart played with an injured left thumb that he X-rayed before the game, confirmed wasn't broken, and then spent 40 minutes doing what Hart always does: 12 points, 11 rebounds, relentless physicality.

New York grabbed 13 offensive rebounds and generated 20+ second-chance points. Landry Shamet — who had 14 total points in the entire postseason entering Game 3 — scored 15 off the bench. Every Knick who was supposed to contribute did. This is a team that wins in enough different ways that Philadelphia cannot devise a single defensive scheme capable of stopping all of them simultaneously.

The Embiid Return That Changed Nothing

Joel Embiid returned from his ankle and hip issues and scored 18 points with 6 rebounds and 5 assists. He looked functional — better than expected, not good enough to change the series. The Knicks' defensive scheme around Embiid has been consistent across three games: make him work for every catch, contest without fouling, and trust KAT's presence in the paint to make the post-up costly.

Embiid shot 7-of-17 from the field. In the moments that mattered — when Philadelphia needed consecutive stops to cut a double-digit deficit — he couldn't manufacture the kind of dominant sequence that turns a series around. Maxey had 17 points and 7 assists. Oubre led the 76ers with 22. Paul George scored 15 in the first nine minutes and 0 in the next 29.

The Sweep Question and What It Means

Philadelphia has been swept 16 times in franchise history. They are one loss away from the 17th. The 76ers' rebounding deficiency — bad for 82 games, catastrophic against New York's physicality — has been the structural reason this series has been a rout. They conceded 13 offensive rebounds in Game 3 alone. That number doesn't improve without personnel that Philadelphia doesn't have.

Embiid pleaded before the series for 76ers fans not to sell tickets to Knicks supporters. The Xfinity Mobile Arena was full of Brunson jerseys anyway. When Brunson hit the three at 95-86 to push the lead to nine during a 9-0 run, it was the visiting crowd that erupted.

Game 4 is Sunday. Philadelphia is one Brunson bucket away from going home.

Game 4: 25 Three-Pointers. 30-Point Win. Zero Resistance.

76ers 114, Knicks 144 · Knicks win Series 4-0

The New York Knicks made 25 three-pointers in Game 4 Sunday night in Philadelphia. Twenty-five. That ties the NBA postseason record for a single game. They did it in an opponent's building, in front of a crowd that had already half-surrendered its tickets to Knicks fans. They did it to close out a sweep.

The 76ers didn't lose this series. They got run out of it.

The Machine Was Running From Tip-Off

New York made 12 of its first 13 three-point attempts. By halftime, the Knicks had 18 threes — tying the NBA postseason record for a half. The lead was 24. The game was over. The series had been over for some time.

Miles McBride started in place of the injured OG Anunoby and hit seven triples, going 4-for-4 from three in the first quarter alone. Jalen Brunson scored 22. Josh Hart added 17. Karl-Anthony Towns had 17 points and 10 assists. This was not a team with a star carrying the load — it was a collective dismantling, executed without emotion, with the detachment of a team that expected to be here.

"No relief, no jubilation," Hart said afterward. "Just another step in the process."

The 76ers Problem Has a Name and a Knee

Joel Embiid finished with 24 points on 8-of-8 from the field. On paper, that's a fine game. In reality, it is the most misleading line in the box score. Embiid had an emergency appendectomy a month ago. He missed Game 2 with right hip and ankle injuries. When Tyrese Maxey fell into his legs in the final game of the Boston series, it set off a chain of injuries that never resolved.

He played all four games of this series at less than full capacity, and Philadelphia still lost three of those four by double digits.

"Everything else is out of place," Embiid said after the game — the hip, the adductor, all of it traced back to the appendectomy recovery. He has now played 490 games over 10 seasons — an average of 49 per year — and missed the first two years of his career entirely to injury. The franchise has not reached a conference finals in 25 years.

Embiid says he's "as confident as I've ever been" about his knee going forward. He says he'll be able to attack the offseason working on his game rather than rehabbing for the first time in years.

The Knicks didn't beat a healthy 76ers team. That changes nothing about the scoreline.

New York Is Not Playing Like a Team That Can Be Stopped

The Knicks have outscored opponents by 19.4 points per game this postseason. That is the largest differential of any team entering the conference finals since the playoffs expanded to 16 teams in the 1983-84 season. The only comparable marks in that table led to titles: the 1986-87 Lakers, the 2016-17 Warriors.

They've won seven straight playoff games. They now await the winner of the Pistons-Cavaliers series, with at least a week off — time OG Anunoby needs for his hamstring, time the rest of the roster needs to reset after a deep run that started ten days ago in Atlanta.

Brunson averaged 29 points in this second round, outplaying Maxey at every turn. Towns averaged 7.5 assists from center despite never crossing 30 minutes in any game — foul trouble, managed load, didn't matter. The system absorbed every problem and kept producing.

What Philadelphia Leaves Behind

Josh Hart told reporters in the aftermath that he used to think Philly was a sports town. He's not sure anymore. Knicks fans took over Xfinity Mobile Arena for the second straight road closeout game. Maxey said the noise was louder for the visitors than it had been at Madison Square Garden.

The 76ers have now lost in the second round for the sixth time in nine postseason trips in Embiid's decade with the franchise. The conference finals drought is at 25 years. This summer, the question isn't whether to rebuild — it's how far back the clock has to go.

"We just got to get better from top to bottom," Embiid said. "Ownership, front office, players, coaches — everybody just got to get better."

The Knicks are already there.