By: Kylan Watson

Following the All-Star break the Philadelphia 76ers faced off with the New York Knicks to kick off the second half of the season. The Knicks dominated this game throughout the majority of it, Philly made it interesting later in the contest. The comeback effort fell short because they did not hit enough shots to make the Knicks pay for their over aggressiveness, falling to the Knicks in a crucial game 110-96.

The Sixers did not start this game off well, they missed a lot of makeable shots and played like a team that needed another night to get ready for the stretch run of the season. Before they could even settle in to the game, they were down by 12-points and needed a herculean effort from Tyrese Maxey (35 points, grabbed six rebounds, and had five assists) and Kyle Lowry (11 points) to even stay in this contest. The duo combined for 46 of Philly’s 96 points had they just gotten more scoring down the stretch from anyone else. They might have been able to pull this out from the Knicks. That is a testament to Maxey who clearly is taking his newfound leadership role seriously, without him New York runs away with this game and leaves the Sixers with even more questions of how they will survive until Joel Embiid returns. The Knicks did an admirable job making sure no one else got off in this contest, especially later in this game when the Sixers shots started falling. New York turned the heat up enough on the defensive side to force Philly into bad shots and turnovers which helped them pull this game out. The Sixers will have to take better care of the ball and get some more balanced scoring if they want to compete with the teams in the upper echelon of the Eastern Conference.

New York was the better team throughout this contest. They took full advantage of the paint being open and got Philly’s defenders in foul trouble. The foul trouble changed the Sixers defensive alignment and allowed the Knicks to make easy shots because Philly did not have the necessary number of players to keep New York in check. The duo of Bojan Bogdanovic (22 points) and Jalen Brunson (21 points) combined for 43 of the Knicks 110 points. They got whatever they wanted from the field and there was nothing the Sixers could do to stop them. It did not matter if the shots they took were contested or wide open, they found the bottom of the net. Both of them found the holes in the Sixers perimeter defensive scheme and made them pay for giving them any room to put the ball in the air. Philly cannot afford to give opposing players wide open shots and offensive rebounds if they want to stay in a top-five spot in the Eastern Conference.

The Sixers will have another opportunity to make a statement in the loaded Eastern Conference as they will face the Cleveland Cavaliers tomorrow night. They will have De’Anthony Melton available for the first time in a few months and that should improve the defensive scheme of the Sixers. They will need his length to slowdown Donovan Mitchell and Darius Garland if they can force both of them to take well contested and difficult shots, they should be able to keep the Cavaliers explosive offense in check. Additionally, Philly will need to hit the high-percentage shots that are created off their ball movement. Something they did not do tonight, and they will have to cash in on those opportunities if they want to open up room for Maxey to operate and impose their will against the Cavs like they did a few weeks ago. They will need to implement these things into their game plan if they want to get their 33^rd victory of the season.