76ers Showed No Fight in Game 4, and That’s How Their Season Ends: ‘Nothing’s Going Our Way’

On Mother’s Day, you would think the mothers of the 76ers players would be excited to watch their sons play playoff basketball with their season on the line. In fact, a handful of them rang the bell to kick off Game 4. Instead, the 76ers decided to do the exact opposite.

The team has played 97 elimination games in franchise history, and this game was the worst. The Sixers were down 3-0, so heading into the contest, fans are expecting urgency, desperation, and a response that would extend the series for at least one more game.

Not at all. The Sixers never came close to matching New York in any way, shape, or form for the entire game. The Sixers played with no fight, no heart, and no grit, and now their season is over, with another offseason in question. 

The game was over after the first quarter. By halftime, the Knicks’ lead was up to 24 points. The Knicks outscored the Sixers 43-24 in the first and just ran away with the game after putting the Sixers in a hole they could just never dig out of. The Knicks shot a remarkable 11-for-13 from three in the first alone. They finished the game with 25 threes and tied the NBA playoff record for most threes in a single game. Miles McBride, who was the replacement for the injured OG Anunoby, scored 21 of his 29 points from three. It’s also the most points the Sixers have allowed in a playoff game since 1970, when they gave up 156 against the Bucks. 

“Well, I mean, listen, we got beat by a really good team,” Nick Nurse said postgame. “Nobody wants it to end this way. Our team went through a lot of ups and downs, and I think we hung in there really well for the season. Nothing’s going our way, and I think it hit us to here we go again.”

As the deficit grew, the crowd got louder, but not by Sixers fans. Knicks fans had taken over the arena. Matt Cord’s last player introduction was showered by boos to end his 28-year career. They booed an injured Joel Embiid. “Let’s Go Knicks” chants rang down for the entire game. When the Sixers give fans nothing enjoyable to cheer about, stuff like this happens. So much for the team refunding tickets outside of the Greater Philadelphia area.

“It absolutely sucks, if I’m being honest,” Tyrese Maxey said. “It’s definitely difficult. We were better when we played them in [MSG] this entire season. It felt louder here for them than it did in [Madison Square Garden].”

The only one who really showed up in this series was Joel Embiid. After all the issues he had with the appendectomy, the ankle, and the hip, he was still the best player of the entire postseason for this team.

“I want to win more than anyone. It sucks to lose,” Embiid said postgame. “I haven’t won anything, so that hurts.”

Embiid has been here for more than a decade now, and he has never advanced past the second round of the playoffs. 

The Sixers did nothing to advance the series whatsoever. It was a miserable distinction to try to guess whether they were an NBA or G-League team. When a season is on the line, that performance stands out for all the wrong reasons. Compare that to New York. In Game 6 in their series against the Atlanta Hawks, they carried a 50-point lead into halftime. The Knicks show up when they know they can win to advance. The Sixers don’t. The last time they faced elimination on Mother’s Day was three years ago against the Boston Celtics, and that was also a blowout. Four years before Boston was the Kawhi Leonard shot. 

“At times, it’s okay to just say the other team was better”, Embiid said. “Gotta get better, from top to bottom. Ownership, front office, players, coaches. Everybody gotta get better.”

The most disappointing part was that the Sixers never even gave themselves a chance to put themselves back in the game. After the first quarter, they lost their rhythm, responded without force, and did not make the game uncomfortable for New York one bit. When the game was no longer in doubt, it was too late. 

And this is how the 2025-26 Philadelphia 76ers will be remembered. The comeback against Boston is nice, but they showed no fight whatsoever after that. With a chance to gain some momentum and possibly send the series back to New York for a Game 5, they delivered one of their most embarrassing performances in franchise history. A long offseason awaits with major questions looming. 

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