Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Knicks top Sixers to snap losing streak
NEW YORK >> Brett Brown’s first Sixers team finished with 19 victories, a thin strand of remaining dignity, and one low, low bar any future outfit to clear.
Even if it is due to a screeching franchise Uturn, Brown’s second Sixers team is running out of time to make that leap.
After a 101-91 loss Sunday night over the New York Knicks in Madison Square Garden, the Sixers stood at 18-60 with four games to play. And considering that there are few, if any, major achievements for them to stalk, there is, still, that minor one.
“I think there would be something to be said for that,” Brown said. “But I look at our last seven games and we have lost four of those games at the buzzer, or in overtime or in one-point games. We have been in games.
“And I suppose to try to beat our record from last year is a fair comment. But I personally have shifted our focus on moving up the food chain on defense and looking at that league-stat ranking that I show them every day.”
With any chance at finishing among the most completely successful teams this season, Brown will settle for the Sixers being among the NBA’s better defensive units. But since the Sixers’ opponents had averaged 100.4 points entering play, so the Knicks’ 101 points mirrored their season.
Ish Smith led the Sixers with 17 points and seven assists. Nerlens Noel added 14 points and nine rebounds. Robert Covington scored 14.
Andrea Bargnani had 25 points, eight rebounds and four blocked shots for New York.
The Sixers were playing without Luc Mbah a Moute, who had a sore left shoulder. But Noel played 36 minutes despite having left the game in Charlotte early Saturday after being struck in the eye and reporting blurred vision.
Scoring 13 of the first 17 fourth-quarter points, the Sixers took an 85-83 lead on Smith’s drive with 5:30 to play, that after trailing for the entire second half. But Saint Joseph’s product Langston Galloway scored six points in the final 3:24, including an 18-foot jumper with 1:08 showing to give New York a 97-89 lead.
Lance Thomas followed with a long jumper, good for a 99-89 lead with 41.2 seconds to play. A Noel slam pulled the Sixers within eight, but Shane Larkin hit two free throws to restore New York’s double-figure lead.
The Knicks won three of their four games against the Sixers this season.
Bargnani scored 13 points in the first quarter, as the Knicks hinted that they were yet to accept that they will finish with the NBA’s worst record
In snapping a nine- game losing streak, the Knicks improved to 15-62 and kept the Sixers in contention in the race for the worst regular-season NBA record, and thus with the better chance to win the draft lottery.
“It ’s interesting, because both teams have gotten labeled,” Knicks coach Derek Fisher said. “The ‘tanking’ word is being thrown around. But if you watch both teams play, you can see that neither the coaches nor either of the teams is trying to lose. They are playing hard.”
The Sixers started strong, taking a 10-3 lead on a Smith jumper, but Bargnani has a handful, inside and out, and New York had a 26-20 advantage after one quarter. And it was Bargnani’s 17foot jump shot with 11 seconds left in the half that gave the Knicks a 54-51 lead at halftime.
The Knicks scored eight of the final nine thirdquarter points to drag a 79-72 lead into the final 12 minutes.
“Both teams have a lot of young players who have no future guarantees in this league,” Fisher said. “So they are playing every possession to the end. And that’s what we are trying to do.”
For the Sixers, the end is close. They have four games, at home Wednesday against Washington, at Chicago, then back at home for visits from Milwaukee and Miami.
That bar doesn’t seem that low anymore.