Tuesday was a banner night for the New York Knicks … and, unfortunately for those gathered at Madison Square Garden, the Philadelphia 76ers as well.
Philadelphia spoiled the biggest regular season party that MSG has hosted in quite some times, taking a 106-100 decision from the Knicks at the tip of the latter’s title defense. The Knicks (0-1) become the first defending champion to drop their season opener since the 2020-21 Los Angeles Lakers.
Jalen Brunson scored 21 points for the Knicks in defeat while Karl-Anthony Towns had a 19-point, 12-rebound double-double. Tyrese Maxey scored 28 points for the victorious Sixers, who saw LeBron James pair 14 points with nine rebounds and seven assists in his red, white, and blue debut. Fellow Philadelphia newcomer Jaylen Brown also had 19 points with eight rebounds and six helpers.
Once the championship hullaballoo subsided, Philadelphia (1-0) immediately tested the championship hangover theory with Maxey triples on two of the first three possessions. Two early fouls for Towns within the first 3:14 gave way to Andre Drummond, who immediately proved his metropolitan mettle.
The ex-76er Drummond needed but 18 first half minutes to secure the first double-double of his Knicks career, pulling in 12 rebounds while scoring 10 points. Uniting with Brunson for eight of the Knicks’ 20 first half field goals, Drummond became just the sixth Knick to have a first double-double in relief off the bench and the second in NBA history to do so in an opening night game (Domantas Sabonis of Indiana in 2018) since play-by-play tracking began three decades prior.
A sleepy third quarter, however, wound up spelling the Knicks’ eventual doom: New York was limited to but five shots from the field, three alone coming from the arms of Josh Hart. The third also served as the brightest showcase for the Sixers’ lauded newcomers.
Six straight points from James helped give Philadelphia its first lead since the debut period. The most electrifying pair came from an alley-oop courtesy of Brown, who had five assists over the dozen. New York held the lead as late as the penultimate minute despite going cold from the field but a 9-0 run over the last 1:22 created a permanent lead for the visitors. Another acquisition, Anfernee Simons, created the last go-ahead tally with a three off a feed from Brown, who swiftly provided the latter six points of the stretch.
Even with Brown hitting a buzzer-beating three earned off a Miles McBride turnover at the end of the third, the seven-point deficit the Knicks faced at the end of the third likely seemed like child’s play considering the mountainous deficits they overcame during last year’s Finals fracas. Remnants of those clutch endeavors emerged throughout the final frame.
Struggles from deep lasted the whole game but the Knicks found something of a groove when OG Anunoby and Jose Alvarado hit consecutive triples to instantly shrink an eight-point lead to two. Alvarado provided the pass for Anunoby before engaging in his trademark sneaky defense to earn a steal of Maxey and a deep ball of his own.
The Sixers got back ahead by seven but saw that gap fall to one thanks to a surge from a redeemed Towns, including a three with 4:37 remaining. Yet another Towns triples got a five-point lead down to two.
But that was all the Knicks had, as the Sixers officially broke their will on a VJ Edgecombe dunk from Joel Embiid before Maxey took an interception of Anunoby in for a fastbreak double. A late response from Brunson fell short and, despite metropolitan protests that he was illegally guarded, officially sealed the Knicks’ fate. James provided the coup de grace with clinching singles.
Tuesday’s win provided a quantum of Sixers solace after Philadelphia was the second victim of the Knicks’ spring championship run. Series heroes Anunoby and Mikal Bridges were a combined 5-of-20 from the field including 1-of-11 from three. Towns atoned for his early foul woes with a strong 23-minute showing but also lost four turnovers.
It’ll obviously take a lot more to knock Knicks fans off cloud nine, as Tuesday marked the culmination of championship commemoration: the Knicks raised their first NBA Finals acknowledgement since 1973 prior to tip-off and almost all of last season’s participants (including current Sixer Ariel Hukporti, who is out for the season due to a torn Achilles) received the championship rings they earned.
New York won’t have to wait long for a chance at royal revenge, as it’ll face the Sixers at the end of this month on Oct. 30. In the meantime, the Knicks face another divisional foe in part two of their title defense, as they’ll serve as the opponent in the rival Boston Celtics’ home opener (7 p.m. ET, Prime Video).
