NBA: Series stopped!

After five crashes in a row, the Philadelphia 76ers (15-18) have finally won again at the New York Knicks (17-16). However, Joel Embiid had a sensational opponent in Enes Kanter’s 105-98 win.

Until shortly before the tip-off, it was not clear whether Joel Embiid would be able to play in spite of his back problems, but at the shootaround the center gave his OK and then stood just like the last injured J. J., too. Redick back in the Sixers’ Starting Five. At first, however, this did not change the fact that the Sixers were acting with little urgency and therefore followed an early 7-point gap.

But since the Knicks didn’t necessarily start like the fire brigade, they couldn’t break away in the first quarter, and in the second quarter the Sixers were quickly back on track – thanks to Embiid, who scored 9 points up to the break and also collected 3 partly spectacular blocks, and Redick, who advanced to the top scorer of the first half with 15 points. After 24 minutes Philly narrowly led with 50:48.

After the tea break, the game picked up a little more speed – also because Embiid and Enes Kanter got together and brought a little more life to the Madison Square Garden. It got really loud when Porzini’s Embiid got away badly during the layup attempt, but the Knicks could never really generate momentum. So Philly always stayed close to the front and a strong phase of T. J. McConnell gave them the 79-75 lead before the last round.

At the beginning of the fourth, the lead swelled to 9 points before Porzingis returned with a threesome. A short time later, the outstanding Kanter shortened to only 86:89 by tip-dunk, then Porzingis put an And-1 on top of it – but nothing more. Redick and Embiid fought back, then an Embiid trio should have made the decision – but immediately afterwards they did 3 turnovers again. But Simmons ironed out his own mistake, intercepted a Porzingis pass and stuffed it through the Reuse for 103:95 at another minute on the clock. The decision.

The best man of the Sixers was definitely Embiid, who finished the game with 25 points and 16 rebounds. He was supported mainly by Redick (24) and McConnell (15), while Simmons remained under his control with 8 points and 8 rebounds. At Kanter, sensational 31 points and 22 rebounds (11 of them offensive!) were recorded at the end, Porzingis came to 22 and Courtney Lee to 20 points.

Knicks vs. Sixers: Click here for the BOXSCORE!

Joel Embiid. Even he couldn’t keep Kanter away from the basket, but Embiid showed a complete performance again. He couldn’t be controlled by the Sixers, he was defensively intimidated by every kink – so it was easy to explain that Embiid and Redick had the best plus/minus rating of the Sixers (+25). Apart from that, McConnell was also strong – and of course Kanter’s monster performance deserves to be mentioned again.

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Frank Ntilikina. The rookie was offensively not really a factor and scored only 4 points (2/7 FG) and 3 assists. However, it’s well known – but usually its defense is so strong that it can easily compensate for inconspicuous offences. However, this was not the case in this match – Ntilikina did not get along well with McConnell.

From the three nominal point guards of the Sixers (Simmons, Bayless and McConnell), T. J. sees McConnell usually had the shortest playing time, but in this match he was offensive but by far the most dynamic guard – and so Brett Brown decided to leave him on the court for longer in the second half. McConnell thanked him with a strong run end of the third quarter and start of the fourth. When Brown took him out, the Sixers broke in immediately, so he came back for the crunchtime.