T.J. McConnell Would’ve Been The Best Knicks Player On This Night
Trying to pull positives from the New York Knicks’ beatdown at the hands of the Philadelphia 76ers on the second night of a back-to-back is a harder task than it appears.
Considering the game was over in the first few minutes, we’ll make this a quick recap.
The New York Knicks were clobbered by the Philadelphia 76ers 117-91 on Wednesday night at the Wells Fargo Center to drop their second game in as many nights.
Tired, lifeless, selfish, and lacking focus, the New York Knicks were knockoff Nikes you buy one of your little cousins on Christmas, except in some ways they managed to top themselves in that regard.
New York didn’t have much of an answer on Wednesday night for anything the Philadelphia 76ers threw their way.
Taking advantage of the Knicks being road weary and perhaps mentally fatigued, Philadelphia ran early, off of missed shots by the Knicks and in the half-court along the perimeter as J.J. Reddick carved up the Knicks early.
Philadelphia scored 41 points on nearly 70 percent shooting in the first quarter to blitz the visiting Knicks and take a early double digit lead that grew to 25 in the second quarter.
Joel Embiid spent the night terrorizing Knicks “defenders”, with the highlight being his spin move leading to an uncontested slam dunk that brought the Philadelphia crowd to its feet.
Embiid finished with 26 points, 14 rebounds, and seven assists.
J.J. Redick continued his strong season, scoring 24 points while hitting four of Philadelphia’s 11 3-pointers on the night.
It wasn’t a banner night on either end for New York, who finished the game shooting a season-low 34.8 percent from the field.
Shot making was an issue on Tuesday night in Detroit, and problems to make a basket manifested themselves at a even worse clip on Wednesday as Tim Hardaway Jr. and the Knicks couldn’t hit a basket even if they had a ladder to the rim to get there.
The starting backcourt duo of Tim Hardaway Jr. and Emmanuel Mudiay combined to shoot 2-for-16 for 8 points while the team finished with only 14 assists as a team, 20 fewer than Philadelphia.
Enes Kanter and Mario Hezonja each scored 17 points on Wednesday night, while Dameyean Dotson made the most of his 24 minutes off the bench, scoring 16 points.
There was too much hero ball from the guards collectively, with Allonzo Trier taking a step back with silly shot attempts.
A night after scoring 24 points, a point shy of his career-high, Trier selfishly looked for his own shot far too often at times, something David Fizdale can live with from a young scorer but won’t be able to live with for very long.
Yes, not even the Knicks most exciting player this season is immune from criticism, and neither is this team from how awful they looked.
It’s nights like these where David Fizdale would trade coaching the Memphis Grizzlies rather than what that team was on the floor tonight.
The New York Knicks return home to face the Washington Wizards on Friday night at Madison Square Garden looking to end their two-game slide.
What are your takeaways from the Knicks ugly loss in Philadelphia? Leave your comments below!
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