By: Kylan Watson

The Philadelphia 76ers faced the New York Knicks, on the first stop of their season long six-game road trip.  They needed a strong bench performance and another good shooting night. To beat the Knicks 101-100.

It looked good early on for Philly. Ben Simmons returned and immediately made his presence felt on both sides of the ball. He played some strong perimeter defense on Knicks guard RJ Barrett.  He effectively shut him down throughout most of the night and scored 16-points. Being on the back end of a back-to-back clearly affected the Philly offense. As they had a terrible night from three. Only hitting 31.6% of them.

Thanks to Philly’s stagnant offense. The Knicks were able to battle back from a six-point deficit to retake the lead. They were powered by forward Julius Randle. He once again got whatever he wanted against the Sixers defenders. He scored 24-points and was able to make things tough for Tobias Harris on defense.

Philly was bailed out by a strong performance from their bench unit. They scored 39-points and the Sixers needed all the points they needed from them. Shake Milton another big night as he scored 21-points and was the leading scorer for Philly. He was able to get what he wanted on offense and was able to use his developing playmaking ability to get his teammates involved as well.

The Sixers were able to win this game that turned into a grind-fest because of some strong perimeter defense. Philly’s defenders made it difficult for any of the Knicks’ shooters to be effective. Randle was able to get his, but Philly locked down everybody else.  They were able to pull away late in the fourth thanks to a clutch tear drop lay-up made by guard/forward Danny Green. The Knicks responded though as Randle hit a clutch three-pointer to tie the game at 88 and send it to overtime.

On Green’s performance, “Danny saved the game for us. He’s the only one, in my opinion, who kept his composure,” said 76ers Head Coach Doc Rivers.

Philly took over in overtime thanks to some clutch three-pointers from Green, a lay-up from Simmons, and two clutch free throws from Harris to help the Sixers get the win.

Philly now enters the west coast swing of their trip as they face the Golden State Warriors on Tuesday night and they will need a better offensive performance if they want to keep the Warriors down and leave San Francisco with a win.