The Knicks beat up their little brother. On Saturday, they’ll have an opportunity to pick on someone their own size.
After a franchise-record 54-point win over the Nets on Wednesday snapped a streak of nine losses in 11 games, the Knicks have a real test when they travel to Philadelphia to face a 76ers team that’s won 8 of its last 11 games.
The run directly correlates with Joel Embiid‘s return to form following offseason knee surgery. Embiid is averaging 27.2 points on 54% shooting from the field in the month of January. He has three straight 30-point games leading into Saturday’s matchup against the Knicks and had 26 points, 10 rebounds and 5 assists on 9-of-15 shooting in their last meeting.
“Embiid’s a Hall of Famer. He’s an All-Star, and he knows all the tricks of the trade. He can beat you shooting the three because he has great touch, he can beat you from the free throw line, he’s getting there eight times a game,” head coach Mike Brown said after practice at the team’s Tarrytown training facility on Friday. “So we have to make sure we continue to lead with our chest and show our hands. But obviously, he can beat you in the post. So we have to be on point, try not to give him anything easy, especially sending him to the free throw line knowing he’s great at drawing fouls.”
The 76ers have a 2-0 record against the Knicks with a 10-point average margin of victory this season. As Embiid rounded into form, Philadelphia leaned heavily on its first-time All-Star starter Tyrese Maxey and 2025 No. 3-overall pick VJ Edgecombe.
Maxey, who is averaging 30 points and close to 7 assists while converting on 39% of his nine 3-point attempts a game, is a known speed demon who has given the Knicks issues. He hit six 3s in each of the first two games against the Knicks and has scored 30 and 36 points, respectively, in those meetings.
“Maxey is probably one of the fastest guys in the league, a really good three-point shooter. He does a great job in terms of getting to the line,” said Hart. “It’s going to be a challenge but we need challenges right now.”
The Knicks also had a hard time containing Edgecombe, who hung 23 and 26 points, respectively, in the first regular season games against the Knicks of his career. Former Knick Quentin Grimes also scored 10 timely points in Philadelphia’s Jan. 3 win.
“They’ve got a lot of talent over there — Maxey, VJ — then guards with QG and wings with Paul [George] and Kelly [Oubre Jr.],” said Mikal Bridges. “They’ve got a lot of talent.”
The Sixers enter Saturday’s matchup 1.5 games behind New York in the standings and tied for fifth in the Eastern Conference with the Cleveland Cavaliers. Starting forward Josh Hart didn’t put too much stock in Philadelphia’s two-game advantage in their season series.
Hart sat with an ankle injury when the Knicks lost to the Sixers, 130-119, on Jan. 3.
“I don’t know. The first one was on the second half of a back-to-back. [We were] a little tired, a little rugged,” he recalled. “The next one, I didn’t play, I think we didn’t play our best. We lacked attention to detail and focus. It’s always a good matchup. With us two, we’re playing talented teams.”
The Sixers, however, have been struggling to consistently put points on the board in the New Year. They have only scored more than 115 in regulation since a Jan. 7 victory over the lowly Washington Wizards.
Yet they’re averaging north of 123 points a game against the Knicks, who know they need to tighten up on the defensive end of the ball if they’re going to leave Philadelphia with a win.
“It’s gonna take a team effort, so we have to be on point with our team defense. It can’t just be one guy stopping them, stopping those guys. Because that’s impossible for anybody to do,” said Brown. “I don’t care how good you are as an individual defender. With the amount of space teams are able to create and how tricky those guys and everybody else is when it comes to one-on-one situations in terms of drawing fouls and stuff like that, our team defense has to be on point throughout the course of the game.”
“The thing is focus on ourselves and know to help each other on the defensive end. It’s never 1 v 1. It should be 1 v 5,” added Bridges. “Whatever guy’s got the ball should see the guy on ball and four help defenders helping each other out. So just mainly focused on what we’ve gotta do to help each other and do our principles.”
