New York Knicks Demolish Philadelphia 76ers 106-79 in Dominant Fashion

The New York Knicks sucker-punch the Philadelphia 76ers 106-79 as Philadelphia declines to 36-29 on the season.

The 76ers fall to 7th place in the Eastern Conference with Indiana moving up to sixth place with an identical record, but the season series tiebreaker. Miami (8th) is right below Philadelphia with a record of 35-29.

76ers’ Inexcusable Defense

After holding the Knicks to just 73 points on Sunday night, New York tied that point total tonight with 5:19 to go in the third quarter. The Knick’s offense went back to its regular scheduled programming of attacking in early offense and driving/kicking.

Philadelphia, as a collective, simply couldn’t navigate through screens whether it was off a pick-and-roll, where Jalen Brunson (20 points and 9 assists) was so effective, or off staggered/pin-down screens, where back-cutters in Josh Hart and Precious Achiuwa effortlessly got to the rim.

It was a matter of poor weak-side awareness by a mixture of Mo Bamba and Paul Reed and a lack of communication by the 76ers as a whole. Philadelphia would botch switches off screens, over-help on penetration, and not communicate, and in that split second, a corner shooter like Donte DiVincenzo or Miles McBride would have a wide-open shot. 

As previously stated, the Knicks hurt Philadelphia the most in transition/early offense as Jalen Brunson pulled up for quick top-of-the-key threes or swung it to a red-hot DiVincenzo and Josh Hart, who notched a triple-double of 20 points, 19 rebounds, and 10 assists.

It was ultimately a poor transition effort from the 76ers as New York often had the fast-break advantage and Tobias Harris amongst others embarrassingly bit on ball fakes allowing an easy pull-up jumper or a drive to the rim leaving a weak-side shooter open, which is how OG Anunoby and Hart got going early on.

Tobias Harris just has to be more locked in on defense this. The Sixers' whole game plan against the Knicks the past 2 games has been to leave Josh Hart open from three and dare him to shoot.

But Tobias forgets to do that and rotates off Anunoby when he's not supposed to. pic.twitter.com/mW3EmHAYwC

— Daniel Olinger (@dan_olinger) March 13, 2024

Even so, the Knicks wouldn’t have been able to get these quick opportunities if it wasn’t for Philadelphia’s broken half-court offense. 

76ers’ Offense in Shambles

After missing four games due to a concussion, Tyrese Maxey returned tonight dropping a modest 17 points and 4 assists on 6-14 shooting from the field. Maxey did a great job of gunning pull-up threes in transition and getting to the rack off the dribble. 

However, Maxey drew a lot of defenders in his journey to the rim and nicely created open threes for teammates like Buddy Hield (4-11 field shooting) and Tobias Harris that they ultimately couldn’t capitalize on. As always, long rebounds lead to transition basketball, which the Knicks took full advantage of.

Brilliant pass from Tyrese Maxey, brilliant pass from Kelly Oubre. But Tobias Harris misses both open corner threes. pic.twitter.com/XHKIbnaV7y

— Daniel Olinger (@dan_olinger) March 13, 2024

Outside of Kelly Oubre Jr.’s 19 points and Paul Reed’s 14 points, the 76ers lacked offensive production to help take pressure off of Maxey. Tobias Harris was the biggest culprit with an embarrassing 2 points and 3 rebounds on 1-6 shooting from the field. Harris’ lack of shooting put more pressure on Maxey and Oubre to score, but when Harris did attack, he took flat outside shots and contested layups at the rim along with a disinterested defensive effort. 

The 76ers once again could not score more than 80 points and were unable to produce more than 15 points in the 1st quarter for the third consecutive game. Philadelphia shot a horrid 37.5% from the field and 24.2% from three with just 17 total assists.

The 76ers will rematch Doc Rivers and the Milwaukee Bucks on Thursday at 8:00 p.m. EST at Fiserv Forum.

Mandatory Credit: (Photo by Dustin Satloff/Getty Images)