PHILADELPHIA — The Knicks finally got Jalen Brunson untracked in Game 3, but two other greatly depended-upon starters — Donte DiVincenzo and OG Anunoby — have had an up-and-down first three games of their first-round series against 76ers.
DiVincenzo followed up the euphoria of his go-ahead 3-pointer with 13.0 seconds remaining in Game 2, with his second quiet offensive showing in the series in the Knicks’ Game 3 loss Thursday night.
DiVincenzo, who had scored eight points on 3-for-10 shooting in the opener before his Game 2 heroics, was held to five low-impact points and missed all three of his 3-point attempts in 28 minutes in the Knicks’ first loss of the postseason.
The former Villanova star was scoreless in the second half, missing both of his 3-point tries after intermission.
DiVincenzo had stressed before the game that while the reaction to his clutch Game 2 shot “was cool,” he only was looking ahead to the remainder of the series.
“That’s really all I have to say. Honestly, I don’t wanna sound like the heart of next-game mentality, but it doesn’t mean much right now,” DiVincenzo said. “I’m thinking: Let us get another win, let us get two more wins, and then you can think about it a little bit more.”
While Anunoby managed a series-best 17 points and multiple dunks in Thursday’s loss, the defensive wiz also has not made the same consistent two-way impact he did during an injury-hampered second half following a late-December trade from the Raptors.
Anunoby had posted 23 consecutive regular-season games with a positive plus-minus, with the Knicks going 20-3 in those appearances, which were separated by a two-month absence due to right elbow surgery.
But he has been on the negative side — meaning the Knicks have allowed more points than they’ve scored with Anunoby on the floor — in two of the three games against the Sixers, with his personal low since the trade of minus-10 in 39 minutes in Game 3.
He is minus-14 overall in the series entering Sunday’s fourth game, also including a minus-5 showing in the series-opening win and a plus-1 in the comeback victory in Game 2.
Brunson snapped out of a two-game shooting slump (29.1 percent) with a 39-point breakout in a losing effort Thursday night.
“I’m not really worried about what I did,” Brunson said. “Our team lost a game where we gave up 43 points in the third quarter. So my main focus is how we can readjust to that.”
