Sixers on the brink of elimination for inability to take care of their own glass

PHILADELPHIA — If there was an analog for Game 4 right here, it might have been one thing from a number of a long time in the past. On Sunday, the New York Knicks and Philadelphia 76ers Sunday produced a lovely sort of ugly collectively: a low-scoring, extremely bodily playoff recreation that may have made Allen Iverson, Julius Erving and John Starks — all sitting courtside — fairly proud and empathetic. This sequence had gotten chippier with each recreation, however as an alternative of boiling over, it produced a five-star match.

The Knicks received it, a 97-92 victory that embodied their abrasive fashion of basketball. They harried Joel Embiid. They rebounded like indignant badgers. Crucially, Jalen Brunson as soon as once more proved to be Wolverine with a soar shot, taking hit after hit and nonetheless dropping in 47 factors (on 34 field-goal makes an attempt) and 10 assists. He acquired caught up underneath Embiid in the third quarter — a bump which may have a ended much less fortified soul — and missed the first 2:25 of the fourth quarter after a proper knee damage at the third-quarter buzzer had him yelling right into a towel in frustration. He went again to the locker room, however his keep was short-term.

The 76ers discombobulated in the fourth quarter. They scored simply 16 factors, missed 18 of 24 photographs and once more had been unable to dangle on the boards with the Knicks. That has been a well-recognized theme on this sequence. The Knicks have outrebounded the 76ers in three of 4 video games this sequence and it has value them each time. These video games have been determined on the margins, with the Knicks successful 3 times by a mixed 15 factors, by no means by greater than seven. Those points undercut one other robust recreation from Embiid, who didn’t go for 50 factors as he did in Game 3, however did have 27, 10 rebounds and 6 assists and guarded the rim with pressure.

The rebounding issues have lingered as a result of the 76ers haven’t been in a position to match the Knicks’ depth on the boards. While Embiid is a pressure, the Knicks rebounded in teams. The Sixers couldn’t. Coach Nick Nurse had the 76ers in a matchup zone late in the recreation at instances and, like in Game 1, it left them weak to offensive rebounds.

“That’s what they do,” Sixers ahead Kelly Oubre mentioned. “Like I said, Jalen is putting up all the shots, but at the end of the day, like that’s what he’s supposed to do. And then everybody else is supposed to crash the glass like mad men. And Josh (Hart) is a strong body. OG (Anunoby) is a strong body. Donte (DiVincenzo) squeezes in a few and then they just have guys that just know that they have to go get those misses because that’s how they’ll eat. So at the end of the day, we got to do a better job of hitting, also holding our hits and not necessarily holding them, but holding our hits and just blocking out better going to get them.”

The Knicks had 15 offensive rebounds and 7 in the fourth quarter. Both groups shot miserably in the fourth — a 20-16 quarter in the Knicks’ favor — however New York had 10 extra rebounds and an 11-2 benefit in second-chance factors (and 21-6 for the recreation). Hart had 17 rebounds, 5 of them offensive, and performed properly regardless of lacking all seven of his photographs and scoring simply 4 factors. He grew to become simply the sixth participant in NBA historical past to have zero made area targets and at the least 15 rebounds in a playoff recreation — Ben Wallace did it twice — and the first to ever haven’t any made area targets, 15-plus rebounds and 5 assists in a playoff recreation.

The Knicks had a 35.7 p.c offensive rebounding price for the recreation, in accordance to Cleaning the Glass, which is 3.5 proportion factors greater than their league-leading common season price. They did that regardless of foul bother forcing Isaiah Hartenstein to the bench for the remaining 13 minutes and 25 seconds of the recreation. New York heart Mitchell Robinson, who was second in the league in offensive rebounding proportion amongst gamers who performed at the least 20 video games behind Chicago’s Andre Drummond, didn’t play on Sunday as a result of of an ankle damage.

Embiid, nonetheless, credited this disparity to a number of fortunate bounces. He noticed it as a operate of their offense funneling by means of Brunson.

“It almost seems like they just know he’s going to shoot it, so they’re just getting ready to offensive rebound it,” Embiid mentioned. “And if you’re in the gap by the time you turn around, your man has already passed you and now you’re left with a three-on-two. But I don’t even think that was an issue tonight. I think we had a lot of bad bounces. You look at the game. Every single shot, it just felt like it kept falling in their hands. Sometimes you can do the best job possible to try to box out, but if the ball doesn’t bounce your way, there’s nothing you can do about it.”

While the 76ers might credibly make the case that the Knicks had been the beneficiaries of a number of good bounces in the fourth quarter — you can argue three of these offensive rebounds had been caroms in New York’s benefit — the largest offensive boards of the recreation had been received with muscle and guile.

The Knicks held possession for 39 seconds late in the fourth as they nursed a 92-89 lead. They took three photographs and missed all of them, however New York burned day off the clock in doing it. The catalyst  was Precious Achiuwa, who got here off the bench and performed an enormous position regardless of being the Knicks’ third-string heart. With Hartenstein on the bench with 5 fouls and Robinson unavailable, Tom Thibodeau relied on Achiuwa down the stretch. He was rewarded.

First, Brunson missed a 3 with 2:42 left however Achiuwa drew a foul on Kyle Lowry after getting place on him for the rebound. That restarted the shot clock. Then Anunoby swooped in from the perimeter, getting round Lowry to rebound Hart’s missed 3-pointer.

The Knicks reset after which Brunson missed a pull-up jumper, however Achiuwa acquired place on Lowry once more and grabbed the offensive rebound. It led to Miles McBride lacking a nook 3. But that they had additionally run sufficient clock to enhance their odds of successful.

The 76ers had been enjoying that matchup zone for each boards and Lowry had to discover a physique and block out as each larger Knicks sped in for place — no straightforward feat.

“I thought OG and Precious and and those guys were really a factor,” Nurse mentioned. Both Anunoby and Achiuwa performed for Nurse in Toronto. “They were both very energetic, very athletic, getting their hands on some balls. Hart obviously got his gotta share, but Precious came in and got four and probably get his hands on two or three more.”

The Sixers leaned closely on Embiid on this recreation, as they at all times do. He performed 44 minutes, together with the whole second half. He had by no means performed a complete second half earlier than in his profession. He did it whereas nonetheless on a balky left knee and enjoying by means of a case of Bell’s palsy.

The causes had been clear. Embiid has been Philadelphia’s lifeline this entire sequence. The 76ers received Embiid’s minutes and misplaced the ones with out him. That performed out in the first quarter, after they outscored the Knicks by 10 as he performed the whole interval, however they had been outplayed by the Knicks the relaxation of the time throughout his minutes. He ended up simply plus-one for the recreation, and Philadelphia was outscored by seven in the second half.

“He was feeling good and wanted to go,” Nurse mentioned of the choice to maintain Embiid in the recreation for the whole half. “We didn’t have a very good stretch in the first half when he was out, so we didn’t want that to continue on.”

It was clear late in the recreation that Embiid was feeling the results of enjoying a lot in such a bodily recreation. He admitted he didn’t really feel good in direction of the finish of the fourth. But he stayed on the market.

The 76ers couldn’t take benefit to begin the fourth quarter when Embiid stayed in however Brunson was out as he tended to his knee after colliding with Lowry at the finish of the third. The Knicks led by one after three quarters and had been nonetheless up one when Brunson got here again into the recreation with 9:35 left.

“It’s tough, especially playing all these minutes,” Embiid mentioned. “It’s unfortunate. Your competitive nature is always going to take over. I felt that they always come back in the game in this series (when he is on the bench), so I was like I got nothing to lose. I just gotta push myself and obviously it didn’t work out the way I wanted to, but it’s whatever it takes to win.”

The Knicks made it exhausting on Embiid, switching matchups. They put Achiuwa, the heart, on Oubre Jr. and shifted the stout Anunoby over to cowl Embiid. That allowed Achiuwa to roam as a helper on the baseline typically and function an enormous physique close to the rim, particularly when Oubre Jr. was in the nook.

That prompted bother for Embiid and the 76ers. Anunoby labored exhausting to entrance Embiid, getting between the heart and any screens his teammates set to free him. On the entire, it labored. When Embiid acquired the ball, the Knicks despatched fast doubles.

Embiid handed out of the doubles however the ball didn’t at all times come again to him, particularly throughout essential late possessions. Embiid mentioned he was OK with the choice to cross out of these performs and that he trusted his teammates. But the 76ers shot simply 25 p.c in the quarter, and Embiid missed all 5 photographs he took.

“It was a smart move by Thibs and then we kind of recognized it after a while,” Oubre Jr. mentioned. “But yeah, OG is a great defender. He can guard pretty much one through five, and then Precious was on me. It kind of just mucked up the game a little bit. They got him out the paint but they also were able to switch one through four and then I was in the corner. But it’s just a bigger body on me and then a smaller body on Joel, who’s strong enough to hold him a little bit, be more aggressive on the passes and stuff.”

With the 76ers trailing 95-92,  Lowry deliberately missed his second free throw with 7.5 seconds, hoping for an offensive rebound and a 3-point try. It was a well-executed, shot besides it wasn’t coordinated. Tyrese Maxey, standing alongside the 3-point line behind him, didn’t know Lowry was making an attempt to miss it. The ball ultimately bounced his method, however Brunson grabbed the rebound.

It was exhausting to ignore the mass of Knicks followers at the Wells Fargo Center. They got here down in massive numbers they usually had been loud. They showered Brunson with an occasional “MVP” chant and made their presence identified. It diluted the home-court benefit for the 76ers.

And it didn’t make Embiid blissful.

“Disappointing,” he mentioned. “I love our fans. I think it’s unfortunate. I’m not calling them out, but it is disappointing. Obviously, you got a lot of Knicks fans. They’re down the road and never seen it. And I’ve been here for 10 years. It kind of pisses me off. Especially because Philly is considered a sports town so they’ve always shown up and I don’t think that should happen. It’s not OK.”

(Photo of Donte DiVincenzo rebounding the ball: Jesse D. Garrabrant / NBAE through Getty Images)