PHILADELPHIA — The Knicks came out of the All-Star break speaking about urgency and backing it up.
As coach Tom Thibodeau warned before tipoff Thursday: “There’s 27 games left ,so we can’t keep kicking it down the road.”
And Josh Hart, the hustling forward, echoed pregame: “These next 27 games, this is really when it really starts, really begins.”
Hart and the Knicks followed up Thursday by pounding the 76ers, 110-96, snapping a four-game losing streak despite an off night from Jalen Brunson — and after watching a 26-point lead dwindle down to six.
Bojan Bogdanovic had his best game as a Knick, knocking down all six of his treys while dropping 22 points.
Hart (18 points, 12 rebounds), Precious Achiuwa (18, 11) and Donte DiVincenzo (16 points, four treys) added strong performances, making up for Brunson’s shooting dud.
Fresh off his first All-Star appearance, Brunson scored 21 points with 12 assists, certainly a respectable line.
But he was blitzed by Philadelphia’s defense — a strategy the opposition’s have been committed to employing lately — and shot just 5-for-18 with seven turnovers.
His teammates helped put away the Sixers with a game-breaking run in the fourth quarter, turning a six-point lead to 15 in less than five minutes.
Julius Randle, Mitchell Robinson and OG Anunoby remain out with no return date, but Thursday demonstrated Brunson can get some help.
“We’re undermanned right now. Our starting frontcourt is not there so we know we have to play hard as hell,” Thibodeau said. “We know if we do that we’ll have a chance to win.”
It was an important victory to snap their skid, which was threatening to hit concerning levels with the powerhouse Celtics invading MSG on Saturday.
The Knicks (34-22) are still fourth in the East.
The Sixers (32-23), meanwhile, aren’t nearly as much of a threat without Joel Embiid, who is out indefinitely following knee surgery.
They’re now just 6-15 this season without the reigning MVP, who may or may not be back for the playoffs.
The Knicks are also wounded but benefitted from the return of three rotational players — DiVincenzo, Bogdanovic and Isaiah Hartenstein — who all missed the last game before the break with small ailments. Hartenstein was on a minutes restriction because of his Achilles and went scoreless in limited action.
“Everybody coming in after the break, there’s just a different level of energy,” DiVincenzo said. “Everybody’s kind of feeling like we’re on pace to get everybody back. Feeling confident in everybody making progress and everything, for the home stretch and the push. It doesn’t feel like, you know, we’re down a lot of bodies anymore, even though we still have a few out. It doesn’t feel as depleted.”
After surging in January with a nine-game winning streak, then flailing in February amid injuries, the Knicks believe they’re ready for a level-up.
“We weren’t playing our best basketball in January, but we were playing damn good basketball. I think going into the home stretch of the season with who we have available has to take that to another level,” DiVincenzo said. “And then once we get those guys back they have to take us to another level. To get where we were in January is going to be one thing, but I think like I said we have another level to get to. Everybody’s confident we can get there going into the playoffs.”
Thursday’s blowout was a good omen and started early.
The Knicks took a 15-3 lead in just about four minutes, then led by 26 in the second quarter.
Bogdanovic had 19 points at the break, carried by a 3-point barrage in the second quarter when he sank five from beyond the arc.
“It was huge and it gave us a big cushion,” Thibodeau said.
Still, the Sixers chipped away because New York’s offense disappeared, with the home team cutting the deficit to six early in the fourth quarter.
Then the Knicks went on an 11-0 run and buried Philly.
Most of the home fans left, and the remaining chanted, “Let’s go Knicks.”
“We want to play our best basketball in the fourth,” Brunson said. “I don’t think we did, but we did enough to win the game, and we had the big enough lead to where we had a good cushion to win the game. We found a way to win, and that’s all that matters.”
