76ers lose in Heartbreaking Fashion to the Knicks in OT, 125-119

The Knicks firmly asserted their dominance in the opening moments of this game as they jumped out to a quick 14-5 lead halfway through the 1st quarter. This lead grew to 15, 49-34, midway through the second quarter.

It was at this point that the 76ers, minus Joel Embiid, took a stand. Despite their valiant effort that drove a hindered New York team to overtime, the Sixers came up small in the extra frame.

Here are the takeaways from tonight’s 6-point loss, making it now 4-straight L’s for the Sixers. 

Never Easy to Play with Your Back Against a Wall

The Sixers were without Embiid once again tonight, but that should be no excuse for tonight’s loss as the Knicks were also without their star big, Karl-Anthony Towns.

A big problem for the Sixers this season is starting games even or ahead. As it stands right now, they are 26th in average points scored in the first quarter at 26.8 points. However, their average margin for the first quarter is just -0.1, which ranks 13th in the league. Moreover, their average first-half margin is -0.3, which puts them at 16th in this category. Looking at tonight’s game, they scored a lousy 21 points in the first frame and were a -9.

The next quarter was slightly better, only losing it by 4 points. It’s worth noting that the Sixers ended this quarter on an uptick, this was a point in the game where momentum started to swing in their favor. They held the Knicks to just 9 points in 6 minutes, their worst stretch of the game.

Out of the half, the Sixers came out firing. They won the quarter by 13, after shooting 6 of 9 from three and holding the Knicks to just 3 of 10. The 3rd quarter was a full 12-minute battle, and it took the entire time for the Sixers to battle back to tie the game up at 85-85. I’m not one to typically applaud “moral victories” but their 3rd quarter performance should really give people something positive to think about with this team.

Moving onto the 4th frame, the frame where they both gagged away the game and saved it. With 18 seconds left, the Sixers were down by 4, 109-105. But no one other than Tyrese Maxey came up clutch. After hitting two clutch free throws, Maxey poked away the ball from Jalen Brunson following the inbound pass, and Nick Nurse got the quick timeout off. Maxey then went downhill and got a goaltending. Once again another valiant effort in a period that must be applauded.

In the extra frame, the Sixers came out completely flat. All the juice and energy from the 2nd half completely evaporated. The Knicks came out hot and did not miss a shot in OT, leading to the 6-point victory.

Awesome Game for Role Players

Maxey had a tough game scoring 33 points on 32 shots and finishing as a -9. Paul George had a decent game, scoring 26 points on 20 shots.

It was the role players who really lit the fire for this Sixers team. Justin Edwards, Eric Gordon, and Kelly Oubre led the charge for this team in the second half. Gordon had his best game of the season, scoring 14 points and draining 3 threes. Oubre was a fantastic spark, scoring 16 on 7 of 11 from the field, and was a presence downhill and in the lane. And finally, Edwards continued his great play. The rookie clocked 35 minutes and scored 10 points while draining two huge threes in the fourth quarter.

Outlook

Despite all the positives of this game, they still lost. This is their 4th straight game in the losing column, and for a team that is clawing at a play-in spot, a losing streak like this may push the dial into DEFCON 4. The Sixers go on the road for three straight games that are tough, tough, and tougher. Their next three goes as follows, at Indiana, at Milwaukee, at Denver.

The Sixers are 2.5 games back of the 10 spot, 6 back of the 6th spot, and they could fall further over the next week.

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