Closing out a playoff series is one of the toughest challenges in sports, but the red-hot New York Knicks are making it look easy.
Miles McBride made 7 of 9 3-pointers for 25 points and Jalen Brunson scored 22 on 6-of-10 shooting from long range as the visiting Knicks throttled the Philadelphia 76ers 144-114 in Game 4 on Sunday to sweep their second-round playoff series.
Josh Hart (17 points) and Landry Shamet (12) each made four 3-pointers for New York, which started 11 of 12 from long distance on its way to tying NBA playoff records for most 3-pointers in a quarter (11), half (18) and game (25).
“It’s the spacing,” said Knicks coach Mike Brown, whose team also dominated the decisive game of its first-round series with the Atlanta Hawks 140-89. “(The Sixers) are so quick, they’re so athletic. … So, if you’re not spaced the right way, you’re not going to get great looks.”
Karl-Anthony Towns chipped in 17 points and 10 assists for the third-seeded Knicks, who shot 56.8% from 3-point range (25 of 44) in advancing to their second straight Eastern Conference finals. New York will battle either the top-seeded Detroit Pistons or the fourth-seeded Cleveland Cavaliers for a spot in the NBA Finals. Detroit leads that series 2-1 with Game 4 set for Monday in Cleveland.
“One game at a time. One game at a time,” Brunson said of the two potential opponents in the conference finals. “We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.”
The Knicks’ offensive assault came despite the absence of second-leading scorer OG Anunoby (hamstring), who missed his second straight game.
The seventh-seeded Sixers had oft-injured Joel Embiid for the second straight game, but his 24 points on 8-of-8 shooting didn’t make a dent in the lopsided result. Tyrese Maxey contributed 17 points for Philadelphia, which trailed by double figures for the final 43 minutes.
“The energy obviously was a big gap, between their energy and our energy, I thought,” said Sixers coach Nick Nurse, “and we dug ourselves a big hole that we could never really get out of.”
The Sixers have not reached the Eastern Conference finals since 2001.
“We’ve haven’t won,” Embiid said, “but I’ve been doing this for a long time — it’s hard to win in this league. … Quite frankly, New York — they were just better than us, in everything.”
The Knicks stormed out of the gates with 3-pointers by Brunson and Hart in the first three minutes. Shortly thereafter, McBride went 4-of-4 from 3-point range in less than 90 seconds as the lead quickly ballooned to 20-6.
Even when the Sixers briefly got within 11, Brunson made a pair of 3-pointers to stretch the lead back to 35-18. Shamet then came off the bench and tacked on two more 3-pointers later in the quarter as New York led 43-24 after 12 minutes.
“That’s what they do,” Brunson said of the key contributions from McBride and Shamet. “It just happened to be they were both locked in on the same day.”
Shamet, Towns and McBride each made a 3-pointer early in the second quarter as the lead grew to 59-32. The Knicks missed their next five from long range, but Brunson and Hart connected on back-to-back triples to get the visitors back in a groove.
In the final minute, McBride’s sixth 3-pointer of the half made it 78-52 and Hart added one more for good measure to help the Knicks go into the locker room ahead 81-57.
Midway through the third quarter, McBride’s final 3-pointer stretched the lead to 30 for the first time. New York went on to lead 122-83 after three quarters and cruised to the finish line.
“Just a heck of a game by our guys,” Brown said. “Their focus. Their attention to detail, while bringing energy and effort — not just tonight, but through the course of the series — was at a pretty high level.”
–Field Level Media
