NEW YORK — The Sixers started the postseason Saturday night with a heart-pounding back-and-forth loss to the Knicks at Madison Square Garden.
They lost 111-104 in the first round of the playoff series, losing 0-1.
Joel Embiid played 37 minutes (more on that later) despite dealing with yet another major injury, posting 29 points, eight rebounds, and six assists.
Tyrese Maxey had 33 points and four assists.
Knicks star Jalen Brunson had 22 points on 8-of-26 shooting, seven rebounds and seven assists.
Josh Hart had 22 points and 13 rebounds. Miles McBride had 21 points and made 5 of 7 3-point shots.
The Sixers were without De'Anthony Melton (recovering from a back injury) and Robert Covington (left knee bone bruise). Knicks All-Star forward Julius Randle will miss the season after undergoing right shoulder surgery.
Game 2 will tip off on Monday at 7:30 p.m. ET. Here are some thoughts on the Sixers' loss in Game 1.
Embiid, Sixers deliver a powerful first punch
The Sixers were thrilled to no longer have to face the Heat's zone defense, which baffled them during Wednesday's come-from-behind victory in the play-in tournament.
Embiid has established an incredible form, hurting the Knicks from both the perimeter and inside. He made a top-of-the-key 3-pointer, the Sixers' first bucket, and made two early hoops and an inside hoop to score the team's first nine points on the night.
When the Knicks double-teamed Embiid in the middle of the floor, Embiid assessed the situation and gave up the ball. The Sixers avoided it until Tobias Harris drained a corner 3. With this shot alone, Harris surpassed his point total from the March 12 game at the Garden.
In a two-man game with Embiid, Maxey tripled to give the Sixers a 17-7 lead. They started 6-for-7 from the floor as a team.
The Knicks opted to use help defenders for Embiid from the start, regularly trusting Isaiah Hartenstein and Mitchell Robinson to play well against Embiid. In the first quarter, almost every touch Embiid had had a positive outcome for the Sixers. Immediately after Robinson came off the bench, Embiid attacked him from the post and made contact for a layup. Two plays later, Embiid dished to Kelly Oubre Jr. in the right corner and the two engaged in a deft give-and-go.
Overall, Embiid finished the first period with 15 points on 5-of-9 shooting, three rebounds, and two assists.
even bigger fear
In contrast to the Sixers, New York made 3-of-15 from the field. Rebounding was the best aspect of their offense early on. The NBA's top offensive rebounding team this season quickly recorded seven second-chance points.
Oubre started in Branson as expected. However, the Knicks made the switch and tried to get Brunson a more desirable matchup. For example, they tried to use a double drag action to make sure Maxie had to protect Branson. Nicolas Batum acted next to Brunson, clinging tightly to the All-Star guard's body and trying to limit his touches. Batum picked up where he left off Wednesday, sinking a catch-and-shoot wing three with his first touch.
Overall, the Knicks' second unit was definitely better than the Sixers' in the first half. Bojan Bogdanovic and McBride each knocked down two long-range jumpers during New York's surge, and the score was even at 40-all when Embiid came off the bench. The Knicks' three-man bench piled up 26 points in the first half, 16 of which came in the first half. McBride. He hit his fourth triple late in the second quarter, giving the Knicks a 12-point lead going into halftime.
Embiid's injury scare easily trumped everything that came before.
He had a great highlight late in the second period when he threw an alley-oop over the backboard to himself and then threw a thunderous slam. Almost immediately, Embiid crouched on the ground and put his hands over his head.
During a subsequent timeout, Embiid raised his left knee and was attended to by the Sixers' training staff. He eventually stood up and gingerly walked back to the Sixers' locker room on his own.
Paul Reed looked ready to start the second half, but Embiid returned to the court with less than 30 seconds left in the third quarter. In a sequence of events very similar to the Sixers' penultimate game of the regular season against the Magic, Embiid sat out the entire second half after a very concerning play.
Sixers head coach Nick Nurse said after the game, “When we went into halftime, you could tell they were checking on him and he was up and moving.” “And they did say, 'We're looking at…' They hadn't ruled him out yet. So to send him back to arbitration and allow him to play… It took me all the way to the end.”
Nurse did not provide any further specific details about Embiid.
“Like after every game, we're going to evaluate him and see how he's doing,” he said.
Embiid himself did not speak to reporters about the record after the game.
Saturday's scare would have been extremely alarming under any circumstances, but Embiid's history makes any harsh thoughts seem reasonable. The reigning MVP has had injury issues every time he played in the postseason except for 2020. Game 1 was only his seventh appearance since returning from a torn left meniscus that sidelined him from February to March.
Teammates praised Embiid's determination to keep playing.
“It's hard to watch your brother go down,” Maxey said. “Just feel sorry for him and pray for him and hope he's OK. It was nice to see him when he got back to the locker room, and he's going to go out there and try again. I'm proud of his determination and will to win.”
Knicks pick up Brunson hit clutch jumper
Starting guard Kyle Lowry and Maxey played big roles in the Sixers erasing the Knicks' lead.
Lowry (18 points) hit a three and drew a foul on Hartenstein as he took the shot from behind the arc. Maxey lit up the game in the third quarter with a ton of driving layups and an impressive rearview block on Brunson.
The Sixers continued their commitment to Brunson and continued their successful zone defense in the second half against New York. Although Embiid's movement struggled at times, he played effective backline defense, allowing his teammates to be aggressive, and was also peppered with some offensive highlights.
He got a steal, started a fast break, and threw a sensational one-handed bounce pass in front of Oubre for a dunk.
The Knicks' offensive rebounding continued to hurt the Sixers. New York finished the game with a whopping 23 offensive boards, and the Sixers struggled to complete possessions on defense.
For the Sixers, Lowry grabbed an offensive rebound and set up an open three from Buddy Hield, but Hield (0 points on 2 shooting) fell short. Batum also missed a couple of tempting 3-point tries early in the fourth quarter.
Brunson's elbow jumper sailed past Batum to give the Knicks a 98-92 lead. Embiid made two jump shots in a row, but neither went down. Robinson then came out even stronger on the Sixers' next possession, but Robinson stopped Embiid with a block.
But the contest wasn't over yet. Embiid made a jump ball against Robinson, Maxey sank a crucial 3, and the Sixers were trailing by just three points with two minutes left.
The game ultimately came down to whether the Knicks were able to make clean three-point shots with Brunson at center. Indeed, they could.
Hart and OG Anunoby made clutch jumpers late in the game as the Knicks pulled off a wild series opener, including three close chip-your-caps by Hart.
“Throw all this stuff in the trash, even in the guts of the game. There were three wide-open threes between a 3-point lead and a 6-point lead,” Nurse said. “We couldn't score one and they scored three in a row. There are a million other things going on that will determine that.
“But we talked at halftime, so we felt pretty confident that we were going to come out and fight. We made some adjustments. I thought we did a great job offensively for almost the entire second half. We obviously did a little bit better job defensively. We had some really good ones. And even the possessions where they made the last four threes, I got those possessions back. I don't know. I think we were doing what we wanted to do there.”
