PHILADELPHIA – The Knicks survived a scare against the shorthanded Sixers.
With Philadelphia’s leading scorers Joel Embiid and Tobias Harris both out, the Knicks pulled away in the fourth quarter behind clutch baskets from Julius Randle and Kemba Walker in Monday’s 103-96 victory at Wells Fargo Center.
Randle finished with 31 points, including 10 in the fourth quarter, along with 12 rebounds. Walker mostly struggled but arrived late with an and-1 floater that gave the Knicks an eight-point lead with 2:20 remaining.
He then stole the inbounds pass to ice the victory for the Knicks (7-4), and a fan in the Philly arena threw an object on the court in disgust.
The win snapped a six-game winning streak for the 76ers, whose last loss was also to the Knicks.
The Knicks caught the Sixers understaffed and took advantage. Embiid and Harris were among a foursome ruled out due to COVID health and safety protocols. Ben Simmons still refuses to play for the franchise.
As a result, Andre Drummond and Furkan Korkmaz started and the Sixers were down to eleven active players, with only eight who’ve played more than 70 minutes this season. Doc Rivers called for the resolve that arrived in the second half, but also fell short.
“You don’t have Joel. He’s a pretty good player. You don’t have Tobias. He’s a pretty good player. Don’t have Matisse — pretty good. Even Ben if you want to count him,” Rivers said. “And Isaiah Joe is a shooter for us. So we just don’t have numbers. So obviously this is a great challenge and that’s the way I want our guys to look at it. It would be a heck of a story to tell if you can pull these games out. And that’s what I want our mindset to be.”
The Knicks were playing in the second game of a back-to-back and motivated to avenge Sunday’s ugly loss to the Cavaliers. They held a 14-point edge at the break but fell apart in the third quarter, when the Sixers cut the deficit to 1. That transitioned to the close finish.
Center Mitchell Robinson missed his first game of the season because of a hip flexor problem. Nerlens Noel replaced him in the lineup but was ruled out of the second half because of knee soreness. It’s been an ongoing issue since training camp for the 27-year-old, who missed the first seven games of the season.
Taj Gibson ate up most of the minutes at center but was physically overmatched by Andre Drummond, who grabbed 25 boards in 38 minutes.
