Joel Embiid has been ruled out as the Philadelphia 76ers are back in New York City for Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals. After a blowout loss to the Knicks in Game 1, the Sixers face an uphill climb to even the series.
Who: Philadelphia 76ers (0-1) at New York Knicks (1-0)
When: 7 p.m. ET
Where: Madison Square Garden, New York City, NY
Watch: ESPN, FUBO
Monday was just not a good game for the Sixers, and they'll forget about it as they head into tonight's matchup. The team could be excused for an exhausting series win over the Celtics that ended on Saturday, but they had to know the league would do them no favors by scheduling them on Monday. You just have to be prepared, and the Sixers didn't look like they were all on the same page.
Now, without Embiid, the pressure is on Tyrese Maxey to come out of the gates aggressively in this game.
What the Sixers can't do is get outworked, across the board, by a Knicks team that they match up well against. The Knicks are unlikely to repeat Monday’s shooting performance, and the Sixers have to take advantage of that regression early.
The Knicks have now blown out their opponents in their last two playoff games and four of their last five playoff games. The feeling has to be that this is how the team will perform throughout the rest of the series and beyond. Why would they believe any differently? For their opponents, that mindset can be a horrible trap, as the Knicks have shown they can put up points in bunches, shoot the lights out, and also do the little things like rebounding, clogging passing lanes, and controlling tempo throughout any series.
The Knicks shot 51.4% on their three-point attempts on Monday and 63.1% from the floor as a team. That's not the norm, and it can't continue, can it? Josh Hart shot 3-for-7 for eight points in his 20 minutes, and after him, the worst shooting player was Jalen Brunson, among the starters. But Brunson shot 66% from the field. OG Anunoby, Karl-Anthony Towns, and Mikal Bridges combined to shoot 72.4%, which isn't happening again, but their mentality is that it should happen every night.
While New York is unlikely to shoot this well again, its confidence is clearly growing. If they're able to keep the same mentality, confidence and shooting, this series will be another quick one for the Knicks.
The Sixers need to play to the Knicks' level. They need to match physical play with physical play. They need to match aggressive shot-taking with aggressive shot-taking. Now is not the time for Philadelphia to take their foot off the gas pedal.
Nick Nurse will have to shift the offensive focus to the perimeter, working open looks for Maxey, VJ Edgecombe, Quentin Grimes and Paul George.
Andre Drummond and Adem Bona will both have to step up their level of play in Embiid's absence, and Nurse will also have to go deeper into the rotation to account for the loss of their star center and the continued fatigue of the Sixers' top rotation players.
Sixers 117 - Knicks 113
MORE: Nick Nurse unfazed after 39-point blowout: 'We gotta wash that one away'
