Knicks 111, 76ers 104: “Whoever kept Deuce knows a thing or two”

Will the Knicks ever be denied? At this point, that’s a very fair thing to wonder.

The 2024 NBA postseason got going on Saturday with the Cavs putting the clamps on the Magic and the Suns flopping against the Wolves before the Knicks finally took the main stage at Madison Square Garden.

And as you would expect, they couldn’t be denied by a lowly Philly ballclub that looked mildly dangerous with Embiid but entirely hapless without him.

Final result: Knicks 111, Cheesesteaks 104.

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In a season full of ups and downs, twists and turns, New York keeps finding a way to keep pushing and hitting new checkpoints on their way to the Larry O’B.

Even before the ball was tipped for the first time last October, the Knicks entered the season knowing Immanuel Quickley wasn’t signing a contract extension, instead opting to hit the free-agent market next July.

Just a few weeks after that, the Knicks lost a starter when Mitchell Robinson went down injured in December and feared to be lost for the whole season.

To put the cherry on top of all of what was going on, New York’s Leon Rose made the boldest of moves by trading franchise icon RJ Barrett along with superpowered-sixth-man IQ to the Raptors in exchange for a good-not-great player in OG Anunoby... only to have an impressive start to this new era broken into a thousand pieces by OG’s and Julius Randle’s injuries in late January.

Did I mention the Knicks gifted a promising 3&D guy in Quentin Grimes trading him away in exchange for spare, damaged, old pieces named Alec and Bojan? Ugh.

Not happy enough with all that, Randle decided to undergo season-ending surgery, Isaiah Hartenstein suddenly had to deal with a very annoying Achilles, and the return of OG to the lineup—let alone Robinson’s—was seemingly nearly-here-but-not-quite-yet for weeks on end.

And still.

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The Sixers, who had their own problems to navigate once (reigning MVP, don’t forget about that little detail) Joel Embiid went down injured a few months ago, fought their way to make the Play-In, defeated the Miami Heat with Jimmy Butler playing on one leg, and found themselves matched up with the “easier” Knicks in the first round as the No. 7 seed in the East.

Oh, and of course, having Embiid.

Until a few minutes into the second quarter of Saturday’s Game 1 when he made an impressive basket on a ridiculous sequence only to hit the floor in pain after landing on his surgically repaired knee.

But obviously, Embiid had to pull off the Paul Pierce heroic return to the court after the half, leaving everybody in awe and picking their jaws in shock from the floor.

“The Knicks are hella doomed,” we simply assumed.

Or are they?

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Embiid finished the game with 29 points, 8 rebounds, 6 assists, and 2 steals in 37 minutes. That’s hardly a statline you’d attach to an injured player. Not sublime, but definitely good.

Put in the game’s context, that 29-8-6-2 was arguably the best individual performance on paper among those we witnessed yesterday. Only, it wasn’t enough.

The Deuce was loose. Josh Hart was “running around like an idiot” but also hitting a bunch of critical triples. Bojan Bogdanovic put up a solid outing. Mitchell Robinson pulled down 12 boards, 7 of them very offensive.

And they did it with Jalen Brunson having a day way off by his new MVP-level standards.

Who would have thought just a little over six months ago?

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Thibs went to war with an eight-man army, nothing surprising.

The starters fluctuated between 18 (Hartenstein, still limited by that stupid tendon) and 42 minutes of action. All three reserves logged between 25 and 30 minutes.

Brunson committed five turnovers, Hart dropped the ball twice, and so did a very forgettable Donte DiVincenzo. Nothing was working as the Knicks went down 34-25 in the first period.

Then, magic. A 33-12 second-quarter resurgence that left the Sixers wondering what was hitting them and questioning what they’ll do after the break with Embiid having to hit the locker room (probably) re-injured.

This being the Knicks, you know what happened next. Third quarter, 36-21 in favor of the Cheesies. Sheesh...

“I guess we just like making it tough for ourselves,” Hart said after the game.

This being the Knicks, also, you just simply knew nobody was going to quit. No-freaking-body.

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As our commenter DanielOmelio10 put it in the comments section of the Game 1 thread: “Whoever kept Deuce and dumped Grimes knows a thing or two about some shit.”

Deuce lit the net for 21 points including 5 treys. He put the clamps on whoever was out there, mostly on Tyrese Maxey, and did more than a good job at it.

Bodega Bog finished with 13 pops and 7 boards. And Mitch was ridiculous playing 30 minutes under the brightest possible lights for the first time since he logged that much time back on Dec. 2.

Hart put up a silly 22-13. Brunson was reasonably bad and got all 10 opposing eyes on him at all times yet he still got himself a nice 22-7-7 line.

The Knicks came back from 13 down and built a 14-point lead. New York found it hard to deal with JoJo (who doesn’t?) with the big man getting a plus-14 when on the court... but the Knicks outscored the 76ers by a freaking 21 with the Fake American off of it. For those counting at home, that’s a freaking 35-point turnaround. Uh, oh.

Let’s listen to Kyle Lowry explain it.

Game 2 on Monday. Knicks in four.