Today’s Crossword
For second straight night, Knicks push one of NBA’s best to the end, only to fall short
ACROSS
1 Honey 5 Stoneworker
10 In the thick of 14 Prevail upon 15 Georgia university 16 Elude 17 Modem-speed unit 18 Very tasty
20 Iffy attempts 22 Library sect. 23 Height, to a cager 24 Homer epic 26 Genre
27 Shoulder gestures 29 Dig up
33 Stiff
34 Fast food acronym 35 Agrippina’s son 36 Bear —
37 Steak cut 40 Cylindrical receptacle Without delay Woolen cap Seven-veil dancer Sea cow Groups of witches “Get — of that junk!”
50 Common cleanser 51 Rock tumbler stone 54 Not just my 55 Defame
59 Golden years 62 Safekeeping 63 Unfasten 64 Hard-hit drive 65 Kimono sashes 66 Cellphone button 67 News item
68 Ivan’s refusal 41 43 44 46 48 49
DOWN
1 Adds sound effects
2 Livy’s “it was” 3 4 5 6
7 8 9 10 11 12 13 19 21 25 26 27 28 29
30 31 32
Water, in Tijuana Cardinal Glove sz. Microscopic animals (var.) Not liquid or gas Layered cookie U.N. headquarters From Juneau Riotous crowds Small land mass Bug repellent Legend Swings around Touched off Front tooth March composer Navajo lodge “The X-Files” concern
Spy mission Mine cars Whetstone 33 34 38
39
42 45 47 48
50 51 52
53 54 56 57 58 60 61
Kapow!
Eur. airline Charlotte of “Bananas” Pertaining to the sea Danced all night Dictionary Layer Street intersection Good, in Spanish Barking noises “Pretty Woman” lead Pharaoh’s god Fail to include Newborn Buffalo’s lake In case
Loop trains Attempt
The Knicks had their chance fThe Knicks had their chance for a statement win. They had the Eastern Conference’s best against the ropes.
And then they went cold. When it mattered most.
The Knicks’ two chances to tie in the final 20 seconds clanged off the rim, first RJ Barrett’s open fadeaway near the basket and then Immanuel Quickley’s open 3-pointer. The Knicks managed just four points in the final three minutes of another gut-wrenching defeat, 99-96, on Tuesday night in Philadelphia. They totaled 14 points in the final period.
Expectations were low this season but the Knicks are exhausting their moral victories. They haven’t defeated a team currently with a winning record since Feb. 6 against Portland, and the back-toback defeats in Philly and Brooklyn have dropped the Knicks (2021) to ninth in the Eastern Conference.
“Taking a look at this game and the Brooklyn game, there’s a lot of good things to take from it,” Thibodeau said. “Obviously we fell short in the end. It shows us the work necessary to get over the hump.”
The Sixers (28-12) were without their best player and MVP candidate, Joel Embiid, but they still had Ben Simmons and an enormous homecourt advantage (18-3 now at Wells Fargo Center). It was impressive that the Knicks took Philly to the brink but also disappointing they couldn’t finish.
“Two best teams in the East and it was a dogfight,” Barrett said, choosing the halfglass full approach.
Trailing by two with 20.5 seconds left, Barrett’s fadeaway 10-footer fell short. The Sixers’ Furkan Korkmaz then hit 1 of 2 foul shots, setting up another opportunity for the Knicks to force overtime. But Quickley’s shot at the top of the arch was way too strong with 12.8 seconds left. Julius Randle secured the offensive rebound and passed to Reggie Bullock, who stepped out of bounds while gathering for his shot.
Game over.
“In terms of Quickley, we’ve seen him shoot those pretty consistently,” Thiobdeau said. “If he gets a good look you don’t want him hesitating, I can tell you that.”
Added Quickley, who was dealing with an ankle injury sustained in the first quarter, “I’m not happy because I missed it.”
The Knicks were, of course, playing in the second night of a back-to-back, coming off that emotional defeat against the Nets. Randle, the Knicks’ engine, managed 41 minutes against Brooklyn.
So the Knicks had excuses to lay an egg against a title contender. Even without Embiid, who has a knee injury, the Sixers are a tall task, literally, with size and shooting. But New York carried its defensive intensity to Wells Fargo Center, limiting the Sixers to four points in the opening six minutes. The Knicks led at the break by eight, then took it to nine heading into the fourth quarter.
Momentum then shifted quickly. “They knocked down a couple 3s to close the gap to start the fourth,” Thibodeau said. “That was basically it. I thought for most part our defense was pretty good. But then we let them get loose to start the fourth.”
Randle finished with 19 points and 15 boards but shot inefficiently (7-for-19). Among the turning points was Randle being blocked and thrown to the court hard by Philly’s Dwight Howard with 6:40 remaining. It was a clean and emphatic rejection.
Not too long after, with about five minutes left, Seth Curry’s 3-pointer gave Philly it’s first lead of the second half. Tobias Harris dropped a game-high 30 points for the Sixers.
With Elfrid Payton (hamstring) and Derrick Rose (health and safety protocols) still inactive, Quickley got his second consecutive start and finished with 13 points in 26 minutes.
NO FINE FOR RANDLE
Randle avoided a fine after charging at the referees at the end of Monday’s loss in Barclays Center. He never got close to official Scott Foster because teammates Obi Toppin and Taj Gibson held back Randle.
Thibodeau was fine with his star’s reaction, which was spurred by a traveling call in the final seconds.
“Emotions are a big part of the game. So you never want to take that away from a player, you want everyone to be themselves,” Thibodeau said. “But you don’t want it to cross the line where it can cost the team.”