Knicks-Sixers: 5 takeaways from dramatic Game 4
Jalen Brunson excelled by scoring a playoff career-best 47 points, helping the Knicks secure a 3-1 series lead over the 76ers.
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When Jalen Brunson and OG Anunoby have both been in the lineup, the New York Knicks have a 22-3 record.
They were two of the five players who played more than 43 minutes of Game 4 of the Knicks’ first-round series against the Philadelphia 76ers on Sunday afternoon, and they had their fingerprints all over New York’s 97-92 victory.
Brunson set a new Knicks playoff record by scoring 47 points, surpassing Bernard King’s two 46-point performances in 1984. Additionally, he handed out 10 assists, with just one turnover.
Anunoby contributed 16 points, 14 rebounds, and three blocks, and played a crucial role in defending Joel Embiid.
Here’s a compilation of numbers, notes, and film as the Knicks advanced to a 3-1 lead in the series…
1. Knicks, Brunson target Embiid
Tracking by Second Spectrum revealed that the Knicks set up 52 ball screens for Brunson, of which 35 were established by the player Embiid was defending. Thus, even though the two MVPs were not directly opposing each other, the game was essentially a competition between Brunson and Embiid from the Knicks’ perspective.
The sequence began with Embiid covering the drop, safeguarding the rim, and letting Brunson take easy jump shots if Brunson’s defender got entangled in the screen.
At times, Embiid was at an advantage, but Brunson managed to put him on the defensive…
That “at the level” coverage can sometimes provide a runway for the roll man, but Embiid was twice able to recover and contest or block a layup attempt by the Knicks’ bigs.
Ultimately, Brunson outperformed Embiid, managing to score a total of 47 points. The most impressive of these was an incredible, fading runner across his body as the shot clock buzzer went off, following Embiid’s forced switch…
A few minutes later, Embiid was well beyond the 3-point line and got caught on the wrong side of the screen as Brunson drove for a layup to put the Knicks up three with a little more than five minutes left.
Clearly, Philly has to improve the way they handle the ball with Brunson. Making Embiid more aggressively guard pick-and-rolls isn’t the answer. The responsibility lies on the other Sixers to better maneuver those screens and be prepared to assist off Brunson’s teammates.
2. Knicks continue to dominate the glass
Those New York teammates were just 5-for-19 from 3-point range on Sunday, but are still 40-for-98 (41%) from beyond the arc on the series.
Assisting the ball not only exposes a defense’s vulnerability on the glass but also gives the Knicks another opportunity to exploit the Sixers with offensive rebounds.
- In Game 1, the Knicks had 23 offensive boards and 26 second-chance points.
- In Game 2, the Knicks had just 12 and 12, but it was Isaiah Hartenstein’s offensive rebound that led to Donte DiVincenzo’s game-winning 3-pointer.
- In the fourth game, the Knicks converted 15 offensive rebounds, along with other second-chance opportunities from loose-ball fouls or rebounds that went out of bounds, into 21 second-chance points.
More than half (11) of those second-chance points came in the fourth quarter. And those 11 second-chance points accounted for more than half of the Knicks’ 20 points in the period. It was a one-point game after the third quarter and it was an ugly fourth, with the two teams combining to shoot 12-for-45 (27%).
Rebounding becomes nearly twice as vital when the field goal percentage slightly exceeds half of the league’s average. The team that excelled in rebounding emerged as the winner on Sunday.
In the first round against the Cleveland Cavaliers last year, the Knicks retained 39.4% of available offensive boards, the highest rate for any team in any series in 10 years. Their offensive rebounding percentage in this series (38.9%) is only a tick lower than that.
3. Defending Embiid is not a one-man job
Mitchell Robinson was absent from the Knicks due to re-injuring his ankle in Game 3. Hartenstein managed to commit no fouls in the first half, but then accumulated five in the third quarter. This resulted in Precious Achiuwa being on the court for the last 13:25.
However, he was not the one guarding Embiid during that time. Instead, that responsibility fell on the 6-foot-8 Anunoby, who received a lot of assistance.
“Embiid is a substantial challenge,” said Tom Thibodeau, Knicks’ coach, after the game. “You can’t guard him on a one-on-one basis. It requires a team effort to guard him.”
The Sixers’ execution against double-teams was a mixed bag. There were possessions in the third quarter where Tyrese Maxey shot too quickly or Kelly Oubre Jr. stopped the ball instead of swinging it to a wide-open teammate.
They managed to get a few good shots halfway through the fourth out of the double. Trailing by three, the ball was passed by Kyle Lowry to Maxey. Maxey then exploited a gap in the Knicks’ defense and passed to Oubre under the basket, who dunked the ball…
Maxey then missed a wide-open 3 on the next possession when the Knicks’ first rotation was late (and coming from too far away).
4. Knicks force Sixers to play late in the clock
The Sixers’ final field goal was the dunk by Oubre with 5:04 remaining. The Knicks did allow Maxey an open three-pointer on the succeeding possession, but their defense significantly improved afterwards.
The strategy began with preventing the Sixers from initiating their offense. Although the Knicks were still leading by three with a little over three minutes remaining, the Sixers attempted to switch Brunson onto Maxey. However, Brunson and Miles McBride, assisted by Achiuwa, successfully thwarted their attempt.
As the Sixers eventually achieved the switch, only five seconds remained on the shot clock. Brunson successfully contained Maxey’s initial drive. Following this, a double-team was formed by McBride. Anunoby then made a rotation that dissuaded Lowry from a 3-pointer. As the shot clock ran out, Achiuwa made a rotation and blocked Embiid’s 3-pointer.
On the next possession, there were eight seconds left on the clock before the Sixers got what they wanted (an Embiid post catch), because Anunoby initially kept the big man from using an Oubre screen. The Knicks doubled Embiid, Achiuwa rotated up to Maxey, kept him out of the paint (as the other Knicks stayed home on shooters), and forced him into a tough, step-back jumper that came up way short.
5. Knicks double, scramble and contest
Lowry rebounded an Oubre miss, with the Sixers still trailing by only four points. He quickly passed the ball to Embiid on the left side of the floor, with 11 seconds remaining on the shot clock. As before, the Knicks responded with a double-team.
New York’s rotations were outstanding once more, featuring Josh Hart’s impressive contest against Tobias Harris’ corner 3-point attempt…
At that stage in the game, Anunoby had clocked in over 45 minutes, Hart over 44, and Brunson over 42. Still, the Knicks’ defensive vigor remained at its peak.
After scoring 125 points on just 91 possessions (137 per 100) in Game 3, the Sixers had just 92 on 91 in Game 4, including just 16 on 21 (76 per 100) in the fourth quarter.
That 22-3 record that the Knicks have with both Brunson and Anunoby includes a 13-0 mark at Madison Square Garden, where they can end this series in Game 5 on Tuesday (7 p.m. ET, TNT).
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John Schuhmann is a senior stats analyst for NBA.com. You can e-mail him here, find his archive here and follow him on X.
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