By: Kylan Watson

After beating the Houston Rockets in overtime on Thursday night, the Philadelphia 76ers faced the New York Knicks for the third time this season in South Philly. Both teams traded blows throughout this game, but thanks to two late three-pointers from OG Anunoby and Landry Shamet New York stopped a late Philly rally to beat them 112-109.

The Sixers found their offensive rhythm early in this game and made New York pay for every defensive mistake they made throughout this contest. Joel Embiid scored 28 of his 38 points in the first half and once again showed signs of his old self. There was nothing the Knicks could do in this game to stop him and besides Mitchell Robinson, most of their defenders did not have much of an effect on him in this game. However, there was a late scare when Embiid was on the floor going for a loose ball and a Knick player dove on his knee. He was laboring a little bit in the fourth quarter but continued to fight through it to help his team overcome a 17-point deficit in this contest.

The biggest thing a getting closer to full health Embiid brings to the Sixers is his ability to create high-percentage shots for his teammates with his playmaking. He created multiple high-percentage shots in this game, but Philly just could not hit those shots late in the game to take this game from New York. As he continues to play throughout this season his assists totals should continue to increase and that should take the Sixers offense to another level. Which will help them continue to improve their team chemistry, tighten up in the third quarter, and improve their defense. That improvement will make the Sixers a problem throughout the rest of this season and the postseason.

Despite the offensive explosion from Embiid the Knicks were able to trim the Sixers lead to four points at halftime and take the game from them in the third quarter. Philly had their worse third quarter of the season, only scoring 17 points in that period and New York took full advantage of the power outage and increased their lead to 17 points. Jalen Brunson (31 points) and Anunoby (23 points) combined for 54 of New York’s 112 points and hitting timely buckets when their team needed it the most. The Sixers were able to limit every other Knick but those two and it cost them this game. They gave up way too many offensive rebounds (19) to a New York team that struggled throughout this game, but if you keep giving them multiple opportunities to put points on the board they will. That happened late in this game, a rebound led to a corner three-pointer by Anunoby and another corner three-pointer from Shamet which sealed the game for the Knicks.

The Sixers must figure out a line-up that can help them when they face the bigger teams in the league. During those matchups maybe Dominic Barlow or Andre Drummond should play next to Embiid to help with rebounding because that has cost them games this season.

Credit to the Knicks though they were able to outhustle and execute the Sixers late in the game and despite nearly giving the game away with multiple turnovers and bad fouls they still pulled it out because of that horrible third quarter and outrebounding Philly.

Philly showed incredible heart in this game, but it just was not enough their bench production continues to be a problem as well. They need to find scoring from someone off their bench Quentin Grimes continues to try to shoot his way out of his slump and it did not work in this game. Jared McCain did not play in this game, and the Sixers could have used his three-point prowess and big body to at least steal a couple of minutes against New York’s smaller guards. Sixers Head Coach Nick Nurse and Philly’s front office must find someone who can put points on the board because continually losing the non-Embiid and Maxey minutes are killing this team in the second quarter. That must be fixed, Grimes needs some help and a trade or a free agency signing needs to happen to strengthen this second unit.  Despite all these issues the Sixers still only lost this game by three points, and they had multiple opportunities late in the fourth quarter to win the game.

The Sixers will now prepare to face the Charlotte Hornets in the first game of their early week back-to-back. In addition, they need to limit their turnovers, win, or keep the rebounding battle competitive, stay connected to their defensive assignment and send as many people as possible at LaMelo Ball, and cash in on the high-percentage shooting opportunities their ball movement creates. Implementing these things into their game plan on Sunday night will put them in great shape to win their 25^th game of the season.