NEW YORK _ In their final game before the All-Star break the 76ers woke up in the fourth quarter and thwarted a Knicks comeback attempt.
The Sixers improved to 37-21 on the season with a 126-111 win at Madison Square Garden behind a combined 51 points from Joel Embiid (26) and Tobias Harris (25).
Early in the third quarter, the Sixers were holding a 26-point lead against a Knicks team that came into the night having lost 17 games in a row. A couple of minutes later, Embiid went flying into the announcers table, bulldozing a member of the crew, knocking over a monitor, and nearly taking out nearby actress Regina King.
The moment seemed like the perfect metaphor for the game; a towering team easily toppling what was in its way.
But, by the end of the third the Knicks had cut the lead to single digits and what should have been an easy win to close out the pre-All-Star Game portion of the regular season for the Sixers turned into the battle all the way to the end, requiring the Sixers stars to stay on the floor.
Before the game, coach Brett Brown had stressed that his team needed to clean up some things, namely, 3-point defense and turnovers. Those two problems resurfaced once more for the Sixers.
On two consecutive possessions, the Sixers sent passes flying toward players who were completely unaware the ball was coming their way. The majority of their 15 turnovers on the night were unforced errors that surely won't look good on a second watch.
Additionally, the Sixers struggled from deep, shooting just 29 percent from beyond the arc through three quarters while the Knicks seemed to continue to find open shots from 3-point range.
Even while the Sixers were racking up their early lead, there were moments that made the game seem as if it was more intense and close than the lopsided score indicated.
For the second night in a row, Ben Simmons (18 points, seven assists, four rebounds) was put on a poster. On Tuesday night against the Celtics, it was Jayson Tatum serving up a ferocious dunk over the top of Simmons. This time it was Knicks rookie Kevin Knox who muscled his way into a crowd-rousing slam that somehow made Simmons look small.
It was late in the fourth quarter when the Sixers decided they had better wake up and take care of business. Harris hit a corner three with just under three minutes to put the Sixers back up by double digits, and the Sixers didn't let the Knicks come up for air through the remainder of the game.
Backup guard Allonzo Trier led the Knicks with 19 points.
