PHILADELPHIA _ When the Knicks close their eyes at night, do they have nightmares of Franklin the Dog, the 76ers blue-furred mascot? Do they shudder when they see a cheese steak? Because for a team that came into Friday's game preaching the importance of playing as if they still have a shot at the playoffs, their greatest foil is none other than the 76ers.
In Part 3 of a particularly frustrating trilogy, the Knicks floundered and eventually fell, dropping the game in the final moments of the fourth quarter, 105-102, at Wells Fargo Center. The 76ers can credit two of their 23 wins to the Knicks; and they would have had a third one, if not for Carmelo Anthony's last-second heroics a week ago.
Anthony attempted to save them again. With the 76ers up by one, his jumper in the lane rimmed out with six seconds left and Lance Thomas missed the put-back. Kristaps Porzingis fouled Dario Saric with three seconds left and Saric made both free throws to put the 76ers up by three.
The Knicks had a chance to tie, but Courtney Lee's 3-point jumper with one second left was no good.
"In the back of our minds we know the game that we let slip through our hands here," Carmelo Anthony said at shootaround Friday. "We almost let it slip through our hands a couple days ago on our own court. We don't want to put ourselves in that situation and we shouldn't put ourselves in that situation tonight. When we get a lead, we have to figure out how to keep it, how to grow it and how to close the game out."
Anthony scored 18, shooting 5-for-18, and Derrick Rose, who had a particularly ugly fourth quarter, finished with 20 points. Lance Thomas scored 21 and Porzingis had 18. Saric scored 21 for the 76ers, whose bench outscored the Knicks reserves, 40-9.
Rose missed two layups in the waning minutes, and he lost control of a layup on the way up with 17.8 seconds left.
The Knicks led by 11 in the first quarter, but again took off the pressure against the 76ers, who were up by 10 at halftime. It was the third time in three games against the 76ers that the Knicks squandered a double-digit lead, though this time it happened early as opposed to the fourth quarter meltdowns in their first two meetings. Down by five with 4:20 left in the second quarter, the 76ers took off on a 16-1 run, good for the 63-53 lead at the half.
The 76ers outrebounded the Knicks 24-16 in the first half, and held Anthony, Porzingis and Rose to a total of 21 points. Anthony was 3-for-9 from the floor.
