The Knicks\u2019 legs just weren\u2019t there.\u00a0<\/p>\n
And their monthlong tour de force experienced a rare hiccup as a result.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Returning home for the first time since Dec. 7, they looked like a side on the back end of a busy and intense slate of games with plenty of travel.\u00a0<\/p>\n
They turned the ball over 18 times, shot just 25 percent from 3-point range and fell to the 76ers 116-107 Friday night at Madison Square Garden.\u00a0<\/p>\n
New York Knicks center Karl-Anthony Towns reacts after he is fouled during the second quarter. Charles Wenzelberg \/ New York Post<\/p>\n
The loss snapped a seven-game winning streak and marked just their second loss in their last 13 games. It was also just their second loss at home all season.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThese guys are human,\u201d coach Mike Brown said. \u201cBut at the end of the day, we try to pride ourselves on being a no-excuse team. We\u2019re gonna go out and play to the highest possible standard, or the highest possible level. Most times, we\u2019ll probably have it, but tonight we didn\u2019t.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cChalk it up, hopefully, as a learning experience.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Down six with under a minute left, they had a chance to corral a loose ball and cut their deficit to one possession. But there was a miscommunication between Jalen Brunson and Josh Hart, allowing VJ Edgecombe to grab it and dish to Tyrese Maxey, who drilled a corner 3-pointer for the dagger. It was that kind of night.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Friday was the second leg of a back-to-back, having played and beaten the Pacers in Indiana on Thursday \u2014 where they traveled after nearly a week in Las Vegas for the NBA Cup semifinal and final. That Vegas trip followed a trip to Toronto.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Sometimes, there are simply schedule losses.\u00a0<\/p>\n
VJ Edgecombe of the Philadelphia 76ers reacts after scoring during the fourth quarter. Charles Wenzelberg \/ New York Post<\/p>\n
New York Knicks forward OG Anunoby reacts on the court late during the fourth quarter. Charles Wenzelberg \/ New York Post<\/p>\n
\u201cTheir last game was probably five or six days ago,\u201d Hart said. \u201cYou always gotta give yourself grace. It\u2019s an up-and-down season. I\u2019ve been in games like this, games where you feel you can\u2019t find it. When the game\u2019s right there, and it\u2019s just one extra-effort play, and you feel like you just can\u2019t get that extra-effort play. It happens. It\u2019s a long season.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\tWhat\u2019s happening on and off the Garden court\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up for Inside the Knicks by Stefan Bondy, a weekly exclusive on Sports+.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\tThank you\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
The 76ers\u2019 young and dynamic backcourt of Maxey \u2014 who has emerged as an All-NBA caliber star this year \u2014 and the rookie Edgecombe gave the Knicks fits. Their speed and explosiveness were evident against tired legs.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Maxey recorded 30 points and nine assists, and Edgecombe added 23 points. They combined to score 10 of the 76ers\u2019 last 13 points to put the Knicks away.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It didn\u2019t help that two Knicks starters \u2014 OG Anunoby and Hart \u2014 had uncharacteristically poor showings and that Brunson, though he finished with 22 points, had a rare bad shooting night, going 7-for-22 from the field and 1-for-7 from 3-point range. Anunoby did not score until 3:25 left in the game, and finished with just two points. He went 1-for-9 from the field. Hart had just five points.\u00a0<\/p>\n
New York Knicks guard Jalen Brunson looks for an opening as VJ Edgecombe of the Philadelphia 76ers defends during the first quarter. Charles Wenzelberg \/ New York Post<\/p>\n
And that dynamic 76ers backcourt was key to all the Knicks turnovers, applying heavy ball pressure, and in throwing Brunson off his game. Brunson and the Knicks faced similar ball pressure against the Magic and Spurs in Las Vegas and handled it well. Friday, it caught up to them.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThey got up into us and it bothered us a little bit,\u201d Brown said. \u201cWe had 18 turnovers, the game was lost in the turnover game. We had 18 of them for 16 points, compared to their 11 for two points. Not every time they were in us we turned it over, but I think the cumulative impact of it or effect of it throughout the course of the game caused us to turn the ball over.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
For just the second time in weeks, the red-hot Knicks were cooled down.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Knicks\u2019 legs just weren\u2019t there.\u00a0 And their monthlong tour de force experienced a rare hiccup as a…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":459390,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,24114,24115,1260,405,403,3122,5226,5225,5228,5227,3123,62,36689,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-459389","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-jalen-brunson","10":"tag-karl-anthony-towns","11":"tag-nba","12":"tag-new-york","13":"tag-new-york-city","14":"tag-new-york-knicks","15":"tag-newyork","16":"tag-newyorkcity","17":"tag-ny","18":"tag-nyc","19":"tag-philadelphia-76ers","20":"tag-sports","21":"tag-tyrese-maxey","22":"tag-united-states","23":"tag-united-states-of-america","24":"tag-unitedstates","25":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","26":"tag-us","27":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115750309998184445","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459389","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=459389"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459389\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/459390"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=459389"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=459389"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=459389"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}