BRING IT ON, BIG FELLA!
Knicks to face Embiid, Sixers in Round 1 starting Saturday
Philadelphia, it is.
The No. 7 Sixers defeated the No.8 Heat in the East’s Play-In Tournament opener on Wednesday. As a result, the Sixers have earned the right to face the Knicks in the No. 2 vs. No. 7 Eastern Conference first-round playoff series.
Game 1 tips off 6 p.m. Saturday at the Garden.
And while the Knicks avoided first-round bloodbath against a gritty Heat team with an unforgiving zone defense and the undertaker of crunch-time stars in Jimmy Butler, they now have to host the league’s reigning Most Valuable Player: Joel Embiid, who missed a large chunk of the season due to meniscus surgery but is still a dominant presence at the five.
The Knicks won the season series against the Sixers, 3-1, with all victories coming by double-digits.
Two of the three victories were outright blowouts: by 36 on Jan. 5 at the Garden, then by 27 on March 12 at Philadelphia’s Wells Fargo Center.
Yet in their lone victory — a 79-73 decision — the Sixers believed they found the key in beating the Knicks: Combating Jalen Brunson’s dynamic scoring and play-making abilities with length and athleticism, switching a lanky forward onto the star guard defensively.
In the Knicks’ Jan. 10 loss to the Sixers, Brunson shot just 6-of-22 from the field for 19 points and got little help from his teammates in a gritty, low-scoring loss.
And while inefficient scoring nights are rare this season for the All-Star Knicks guard, Brunson has seen mixed results when facing the Sixers, who deploy a combination of Kelly Oubre Jr., Nic Tatum and De’Anthony Melton in defending the point of attack.
He shot: 11-of-20 for 29 points on Jan. 5; 5-for-18 for 21 points on Feb. 22; 6-of-22 for 19 points on March 10; and 7-of-12 for 20 points on March 12
It maths out to 29-of-72, or 40%, shooting from the field, and 9-of-30, or 30% shooting from three-point range, well below his season averages of closer to 48% shooting from the field and 40% shooting from downtown.
There’s also the matter of how the Knicks will defend Embiid. He put up 30 points, 10 rebounds, three blocks and a steal in the 36-point blowout loss in early January. Embiid has scored 30 or more against the Knicks in four of his last five matchups.
The Knicks prepared for both Embiid and Heat All-Star Bam Adebayo as potential first-round playoff opponents in the days leading up to Wednesday’s game, but with the Sixers coming out on top, Embiid is now solidified as priority No. 1.
“I think they (the Heat and Sixers)are going to play very similar styles. Obviously both really good defensive teams. Teams that are really going to pack the paint and force us to make shots,” said Josh Hart. “Both teams have two great superstars — Jimmy, Bam, and Joel and (Tyrese) Maxey. There are a lot of similarities between the two of them. I think both of them are better than what their seeding is. So we know that going in. As long as we focus on playing our game, getting into the paint, getting open shots, shooting shots with confidence, we’ll be good.”