It was the miracle of Broadway.
In a hectic and exciting 14-second span, the Knicks turned a five-point deficit into a one-point advantage and used the moment to earn a wild 104-101 victory at MSG.
The big blow came from Donte DiVincenzo, whose line gave the Knicks the lead. But the sequence requires complete accounting:
Playing poorly all night, Jalen Brunson finally made a 3-pointer – his first of the fourth quarter – to cut the lead to 2 with 27 seconds remaining.
It took a lucky bounce off the rim.
Out of bounds, the Knicks stripped Tyrese Maxey, who fell to the court.
Josh Hart, a Game 2 hero, recovered the steal.
That led to a quick miss by DiVincenzo, then an offensive rebound by Hartenstein, then DiVincenzo’s big trey.
Maxey missed a potential winner for the Sixers on the ensuing possession, and Anunoby iced the win at the foul line to give the Knicks a 2-0 series lead.
Once again, the Knicks escaped thanks to a bad game from Brunson.
He followed his Game 1 miss with a Game 2 clunker, shooting 8 for 29 overall – leaving him well below 30 percent for the series.
But his teammates picked up the slack, including his former Villanova teammates Hart (21 points) and DiVincenzo (19).
The Sixers, meanwhile, got a lot out of their stars.
But not in the final seconds.
Embiid and Maxey were listed as questionable on the injury report before the game.
And both looked good.
Maxey, who was dealing with an illness, scored 20 points in the first half, burying 7 of 11 shots.
He took over late in the fourth quarter, outplaying Brunson and finishing with 35 points and 10 assists.
Embiid, who has been recovering from knee surgery, added 16 points with 10 rebounds in the first two quarters.
He finished the evening with 34 and 11.
In the first half, the Knicks were saved by Hart’s heroics.
Normally the big contributor, the forward had 19 of the team’s 49 points at halftime.
The Knicks trailed at the break but continued to chip away.
They finally took the lead late in the third quarter, setting up a thrilling finale.
“We dominated the glass in the first game, so they’re going to take a different approach and probably emphasize transition points and the edge we have on the boards,” Bojan Bogdanovic said. “So it’s going to be a match, a very good battle. It’ll probably be a nasty match, but that’s how it is.
“Nasty” would have been an exaggeration, but there were some fireworks moments. With 5:23 left in the second quarter, Embiid was called for a technical for shoving DiVincenzo while he was holding the ball.
That sparked chants of “Fk Embiid” from the MSG crowd, which the Sixers center greeted with head shakes.
That woke the crowd up, but the Knicks couldn’t take advantage immediately, calling a timeout shortly afterward due to a Tobias Harris triple.
DiVincenzo came alive with 19 points and the biggest shot in years at MSG.
He was convinced that a breakthrough was coming.
“My mindset is my confidence is at an all-time high,” DiVincenzo said before the game. “I’m ready to go tonight and I’m going to photograph the ones I feel comfortable and confident with and live with the results.”
“A series doesn’t really start until after the first game because everyone wants to get that first game under their belt. Adjustments are made. They obviously know that they want to play a little more physical. We outplayed them (in the first game), so we expect them to be physical and attack the glass. Whatever we beat them in the categories we beat them in, we expect them to do it harder. The mindset is just to be ready and play the same way, but increase the level.
New York Post
