A Mother’s Day Massacre: 76ers Blown Out in Game 4, Eliminated from Playoffs

Game 4 could not have gone any worse for the Philadelphia 76ers. On what should have been a happy Mother’s Day for all the Philadelphia mothers out there, the Sixers once again put a bad taste in their mouths when they think about this date.

The Sixers annihilated 144-114 in one of the worst defensive performances we may ever have seen in the history of Sixers playoff games. 144 points is the second-most points allowed in a playoff game by the Sixers, just behind 156 to the Milwaukee Bucks in 1970. It didn’t seem like it could get much worse after Philadelphia lost to Boston two years ago, letting Jayson Tatum drop 51 on their heads in Game 7 of the second round.

The 76ers woes on Mother’s Day go even further than just recent history; in fact, Philadelphia lost by 40, 121-81, in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals to Boston on Mother’s Day way back in 1981.

The story of how Philadelphia lost this game, and this series, is simple: there were no answers for the three-point shooting of the Knicks.

The Knicks let the Sixers know early on how Game 4 was going to go. Deuce McBride began absolutely unloading threes on Philly, hitting 6 straight before finally missing his first. The Knicks all together went a combined 11/13 in the first quarter alone from beyond the arc, ending the first with an incredible 43-24 lead over the Sixers.

The three-point shooting didn’t stop there, though. New York continued their shooting throughout the rest of the game, on the backs of Jalen Brunson, who had 6 threes, Landry Shamet, who had 4, Josh Hart, who had 4, and Karl-Anthony Towns, who had 2. McBride ended up finishing with 7 total threes. The Knicks set the NBA record for threes in a half with 18 after the first.

In a game where some of the offense actually began looking positive for the 76ers, the defense simply could not keep up. Joel Embiid‘s offense looked pure, on target, and precise, with the big fella finishing with 24 points, on a perfect 8/8 from the field, 2/2 from three, and 6/7 from the free throw line. Yet, the inability to guard the shooting from New York was the end-all, be-all.

The New York starters combined for 93 total points, and did not need OG Anunoby to even play to make this offensive explosion occur. The bench for the Knicks, not including Shamet, was quiet, not getting too much time until the 4th quarter, when the team already had a 40-point lead. The Mike Brown-led offense was unbelievable, with their ball movement looking like the 2014 Spurs, not the 2026 Knicks. A mixture of drive and kick, pump fakes, and excellent positioning from New York made picking apart Philadelphia’s defense easy.

This is a new low for Philadelphia when it comes to bad losses, but that cannot discredit all that it took for the 76ers to get here. For the Sixers to make the playoffs, let alone have a 3-1 comeback over the 2-seeded Celtics and make it to the second round, we have to have some sort of satisfaction with how far this team has come. The expectation was not for the team to make it this far, and they should be applauded for that.

New York moves on to the Eastern Conference Finals for the second season in a row after not having made it since the year 2000. They will wait to see the winner of the Detroit-Cleveland series to see who they will match up with. As for the Sixers, a big offseason awaits, and major changes may be in store.

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