Philadelphia 76ers close out New York Knicks 125-114 led by Joel Embiid’s 50 points
The Philadelphia 76ers protected home court with a statement 125-114 win in Game 3 against the New York Knicks.
Joel Embiid, basically playing with one eye and one leg, put up a masterclass performance with a new playoff career-high of 50 points to go along with 8 rebounds on 13-19 shooting from the field.
Philadelphia is alive, cutting New York’s series lead to just 2-1 and will look to even the series in Game 4 – which will be played Sunday at 1pm and air exclusively on ABC.
In a game where the 76ers’ season was essentially on the line after a catastrophic Game 2 “collapse“, the Sixers came out physical in a what should be described as a “prove it” performance from Embiid – finally showing the world his elite regular season performances can translate to the postseason dominance.
Here’s my biggest observations from tonight’s Game 3 win:
76ers and Knicks get chippy in the 1st quarter
Throughout the first two games of the series, Kelly Oubre Jr. struggled to impose his will offensively. That wasn’t the case early on in the first quarter where he led the Sixers in scoring with 8 points, three rebounds, and two assists on 3-5 field shooting.
Oubre took defenders like Donte DiVincenzo off the dribble and canned a spot-up three as a result of a handoff action with Joel Embiid all while maintaining solid man defense on Jalen Brunson and Donte DiVincenzo.
The 76ers greatly missed Oubre’s rim pressure in a series where they have been forced to rely heavily on Joel Embiid and Tyrese Maxey for offense.
The 76ers did have some issues containing New York’s dribble penetration. Donte DiVincenzo and OG Anunoby were able to knife into the paint off the dribble. Embiid was forced to help on the strong-side resulting in Isaiah Hartenstein knocking down a series of wide-open floaters from the restricted area.
Of course, in a Philly vs New York playoff series, you’d expect some trash talk and physicality, especially considering that the 76ers are down 2-0. Philadelphia too caught up in the moment as both Joel Embiid and Kyle Lowry picked up flagrant fouls within the first eight minutes of play.
There were several instances where Embiid and the rest of his teammates did some excess pushing and shoving, highlighted by Embiid and DiVincenzo getting up close and personal.
Hartenstein picked up two quick personal fouls, and the Knicks had to swap him out for Mitchell Robinson, who was already questionable to play due to an ankle injury.
Jalen Brunson led all scorers in the first period with 9 points and 2 assists, which is the highest amount of points he scored in the opening frame throughout the series.
While Oubre had a solid defensive effort in isolation, Brunson was able to snake his way off the pick-and-roll and score within the arc off the point-of-attack. When the 76ers doubled him off the pick-and-roll, Brunson found Josh Hart spotting up from three and Mitchell Robinson rolling hard to the cup.
Cam Payne provides spark for 76ers in second quarter
After Buddy Hield averaged just one point per game in the first two games of this series, he somehow still remained in the rotation in the closing action of the 1st quarter.
During that time, he misfired on a point-blank perimeter attempt from the corner and couldn’t get a layup attempt to go off a dribble drive. Nick Nurse finally pulled the plug on Hield and swapped him out for Cam Payne, who up until this point received virtually no playing time.
That move from Nurse to go with Cam Payne swung the momentum into Philadelphia’s favor.
In just five minutes, Cam Payne delivered eight points and two assists on 2-3 perimeter shooting. Payne was just the spark plug that the 76ers have been searching for off the bench through the entirety of the series.
Payne drilled threes in a variety of ways like spotting up and gunning it off the dribble. He created offense for Embiid, giving everyone PTSD of Shake Milton’s heater in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals against the Atlanta Hawks.
With Isaiah Hartenstein having three personal fouls with 3:52 remaining in the first half, Mitchell Robinson (three personal fouls as well), who was already banged up with an ankle issue, had to play extended minutes.
Joel Embiid (17 points and 5 rebounds on 5-9 field shooting at halftime) took advantage of this pickle that New York found themselves in by dominating Robinson in the mid-range with an impressive array of pull-up jumpers as well as relentless dribble drives where he carved into the Knicks’ interior defense and drew a ton contact.
Outside of Payne’s hot hand, Philadelphia has struggled to create offense, so Embiid’s aggressiveness as a creator was a much-welcomed result.
Aside from a little spurt in the first quarter, Tyrese Maxey had a severe case of tunnel vision in the first half. He finished the second quarter with 11 points on 3-10 field shooting and 1-4 shooting from beyond the arc.
Maxey found himself settling for well-contested step-back threes against the likes of DiVincenzo and Hart and took contested interior shots off the pick-and-roll. He rushed his game instead of controlling his own pace and making the right read, something he’s excelled at in this series up to this point.
76ers make it rain in the third quarter
Tyrese Maxey took his first-half struggles to heart and scored 10 points in just five minutes of play in the 3rd quarter. He anticipated Brunson’s pass to DiVincenzo, intercepted it, threw it down in transition then proceeded to splash a step-back triple in the face of Brunson and the 76ers entered the second half on a 12-4 run which gave them their largest lead of the game.
Rather than forcing up shots as he did in the first half, Maxey made instinctive reads depending on the situation, which unlocked Philadelphia’s offense to its fullest potential.
The 76ers started running more two-man actions with Embiid and Maxey where the all-star guard drew in defenders and routinely created perimeter looks for a fading Embiid which worked to perfection. Maxey totaled 25 points and 7 assists on 9-21 shooting from the field on the night.
Up until this point, the 76ers didn’t run many two-man actions for their star duo and it’s no coincidence the offense started generating a plethora of open perimeter shots off dribble penetration.
The 76ers splashed nine threes in just the third quarter alone with Embiid hitting four of them on four attempts, entering the fourth quarter with 35 points on 12-17 shooting.
However, the Knicks were firing right back with threes of their own as Josh Hart scored 10 of his 15 points in the third period where he drilled spot-up threes and back-cut to the rim off of Jalen Brunson, who also caught fire with 30 points and 9 assists heading into the final frame.
Brunson snaked his way off the pick-and-roll, got the better of Tyrese Maxey off the dribble and drilled mid-range shots off of his creation. Philadelphia played both man and double coverage on Brunson, but with the star he is, you sometimes just have to live with the results.
Joel Embiid’s 50 piece helps 76ers close out the fourth quarter
Embiid took a brief rest to start the fourth and like clockwork, the 76ers were outscored 9-5 during this stretch.
Mitchell Robinson was ruled out of this game in the third quarter due to an ankle injury, so the Knicks went to Precious Achiuwa.
The non-Hartenstein minutes and it ended up working in New York’s favor. Achiuwa’s length and versatility shut down pick-and-rolls and gave Maxey trouble when attacking the switch.
Tobias Harris, who once again contributed little offensively, couldn’t get going – fumbling a Kyle Lowry skip pass and misfiring on a fadeaway jumper over Achiuwa.
Harris finished the night with 8 points on 4-10 field shooting.
Again like clockwork, Embiid checked back into the game and picked up right where he left off, drawing perimeter contact from Hartenstein, who picked up his fifth personal foul in the process.
Lowry, who thrived as Philadelphia’s lead ball-handler midway into the final period, ran another pick-and-roll with Embiid who got the Brunson switch and drilled yet another three.
Embiid scored a new playoff career-high with 41 points at the 5:50 mark of the 4th quarter as Lowry proved his postseason value once more with his witty playmaking that has repeatedly set up Embiid from the perimeter on multiple occasions.
New York’s quality group of wings was bound to have their moments, in game one it was Josh Hart, in game two it was Donte DiVincenzo, and in game three it was OG Anunoby to give the 76ers trouble.
Throughout the game, Anunoby got going by putting the ball on the floor and overpowering defenders within the arc, but the forward caught fire down the stretch hitting a pair of spot-up threes that allowed New York to get back within single digits amid an 8-2 run.
New York also threw some zone at Philadelphia Embiid settled for a mid-range jumper that was met by multiple defenders and Maxey had a poorly executed pass off the dribble in an attempt to break down the zone.
The Knicks exceeded the foul limit with approximately four minutes left in the game and the 76ers were awarded a bonus, which ultimately sealed New York’s fate as the Knicks trapped and purposely fouled in the closing minute of the contest.
Embiid was able to get to the foul line 11 times and made 10 of his shots from the charity stripe in the fourth quarter alone. The 76ers withstood Josh Hart’s offensive rebounding and Jalen Brunson’s attack off screens and successfully closed out the game without any setbacks, miscues, or traumatizing dagger threes, which should give Philadelphia fans from across the globe a sigh of relief.
Mandatory Credit: Copyright 2024 NBAE(Photo by Jesse D. Garrabrant/NBA via Getty Images)
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