The Knicks made it hard on themselves, but they found a way to get a win over a gritty Philadelphia 76ers team that was severely shorthanded.
Jalen Brunson scored 8 of his game high 38 points in overtime as the Knicks scored a 125-119 win at the Wells Fargo Center Wednesday night.
The Knicks made all five of their shots and all five of their free throws in the extra session to avoid what would’ve been a disheartening loss to a team that has gotten used to playing without Joel Embiid.
The Knicks were shorthanded as well as Karl-Anthony Towns sat out the game with an injured right thumb. It was reported during the game that Towns has a bone chip in his thumb but will try and play through it and will not undergo surgery at this time.
Josh Hart was his usual terrific self as he had his fifth triple-double of the season (Hart is three triple-doubles away from tying Walt Frazier’s Knicks single season record) with 10 points, 17 rebounds and 12 assists. Mikal Bridges scored 16 of his 23 in the first half while O.G. Anunoby contributed 17.
Tyrese Maxey was a one man gang as he single handedly kept the Sixers in the game by scoring a team high 33 points while Paul George scored 26 points.
The Knicks (27-15) had a 60-47 lead at halftime, but thanks to Maxey, who scored 27 in the second half, the Sixers, who never led, rebounded with a 62-49 edge in the second half to force overtime.
After Brunson’s lay up made it a 100-94 lead with just over five minutes left, Maxey scored 10 of the Sixers final 13 points in the fourth quarter and the teams had to play an extra five minutes to decide the winner.
The game was tied at 102 with just under 2:30 minutes left in the fourth quarter, when the Sixers won a jump ball, but Hart stole the ball and scored on a breakaway dunk to put the Knicks up 104-102.
Anunoby’s three with just over a minute left made it 107-102 but the Sixers never quit.
Maxey’s three point play made it a two point game but Brunson’s floater with 18 seconds left made it 109-105.
Maxey was fouled with 14 seconds remaining and made both to make it 109-107 and the Sixers had a foul to give which they used with 12 seconds remaining.
The Knicks inbounded the ball to Brunson, but Maxey came up from behind to strip it away and they called time with seven seconds remaining.
The Sixers inbounded the ball to Maxey in the backcourt and he went streaking past the defense for a lay up that he missed but Precious Achiuwa, who had 13 points, six rebounds and three blocks, was called for goaltending and the game was tied.
“We’ve got five minutes to go out there and win the game,” Hart told MSG after the game. “OG started it off with a big dunk right there. We got a stop, JB hit a three. OG you got to give him a lot of credit, he came alive for us big time in that overtime and he helped us get that ‘dub.’”
Anunoby’s dunk early in overtime gave the Knicks a 111-109 lead. Brunson was fouled from beyond the arc and made all three free throws to cap off an 8-0 run that put the Knicks up 117-109 with a little over three minutes left.
Brunson made two more free throws to give the Knicks a 119-111 lead, but Guerschon Yabusele hit a three to cut the lead to five.
A dunk by Anunoby and then an alley oop dunk by Bridges off a nice feed from Hart basically put the game away as the Knicks went up 11 with a little over a minute left.
“We’ve been trying to find it the last couple of games,” Hart said. “We just got to go out there and compete, I feel like we did that. We let it slip away a little bit in the second half, we got to get better. Going through adversity, it happens all the time. Happy we were able to do that head on and get a win.”
The Knicks allowed the Sixers to hang around thanks mainly to their poor free throw shooting in the first four quarters.
The Knicks, who were second in the NBA in free throw percentage, shot 63% (12 of 19) from the charity stripe before the extra five minute period while the Sixers were a perfect 14 of 14 for the game.
Where the Knicks thrived was on the offensive glass as they grabbed 15 offensive rebounds. The second chance points were all even at 17 but winning the offensive glass gave the Knicks a number of extra possessions.
The Knicks had lost 5 of 7 coming in but they’ll face Minnesota and Julius Randle’s return to the Garden on Friday night as they begin a stretch of 7 of their next 8 games on 33rd and 8th. The only road game in that span will be next Tuesday in Brooklyn against the Nets.