Eight days of rest look pretty good on these Knicks.
The Knicks came out of the 2024 NBA All-Star break spry and rejuvenated, jumping out to a lead ballooning as large as 26 in a 110-96 victory over the Philadelphia 76ers on Thursday.
The victory creates more separation between No. 4 New York and No. 5 Philadelphia in the Eastern Conference standings. It also gives the Knicks a 2-0 series lead over a division opponent with two more games to play this season.
And after losing five of the six games preceding Jalen Brunson’s first career trip to All-Star Weekend, the Knicks used the first game out of the break to right their wrongs with a road victory over a quality 76ers opponent.
It was the newcomer, Bojan Bogdanovic, whose first-half eruption swung the game in New York’s favor early.
Bogdanovic scored 19 of his 22 points in the first half and made all six of his attempts from downtown.
Five of his threes came in the second quarter alone.
He credited Brunson’s playmaking for the hot-shooting night.
“I think especially Jalen did a great job because the [Sixers were] doubling him and kind of blitzing him,” Bogdanovic said after the game. “He’s great at just giving up the ball and getting those hockey assists for all of us. So I had a couple open shots and then was kind of easy after that.”
Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau said Bogdanovic’s ability to shoot the three gave his offense some much-needed spacing.
“It was huge. It gave us a big cushion and I thought he — and Alec [Burks] gave us a good lift as well but Bogi’s shots opened up the floor for us,” said Thibodeau. “And I think that was a big factor in building that lead. And we know right now we’re undermanned, so we have to make the threes.”
Thanks to Bogdanovic’s hot shooting, the Knicks entered the half up 69-46 over the Sixers.
Then Philadelphia outscored New York, 35-22, in the third quarter alone to tighten the game entering the final period.
The Knicks resisted Sixers runs in the third and fourth quarters. Philadelphia cut the lead down to six with 8:52 left in the fourth quarter, but the Knicks generated timely stops to secure win No. 34 of the regular season.
Jalen Brunson shot just 5-of-18 from the field for 21 points but shot a perfect 11-of-11 from the foul line and finished the game with 12 assists. Precious Achiuwa and Josh Hart each scored 18 points and each grabbed 11 or more rebounds, with Hart finishing with 12 boards.
“Jalen, the 12 assists. He didn’t have his rhythm offensively shooting the ball, but made a lot of good plays,” said Thibodeau. “Just find a way to win and that’s what we’ve gotta do we’ve gotta scratch em out right now.”
Donte DiVincenzo hit four threes for 16 points, and the Knicks cruised to just their 12th victory of the season over a team with a winning record — though the ending was bumpier than his team would have liked.
Tyrese Maxey scored 35 points for the Sixers, who attempted to muck the game up with physical defense. Like the Knicks, the 76ers are shorthanded: Philadelphia is without MVP center Joel Embiid, while New York played another game without three starters in Julius Randle, OG Anunoby and Mitchell Robinson.
The Knicks turned the ball over 15 times against the Sixers on Thursday, uncharacteristic of a Thibodeau-coached team in the top third in ball security.
“The defense was good. Low field goal percentage. We held their scoring down. The rebounding was good. We got away with the turnover thing, we’ve gotta cut that down,” Thibodeau said after the game. “But when they were going against our set defense, it was pretty good ,and when you do that you’ll be in position to win regardless of who you have out there. So we know if we do those three things, we’ll be in position to win, and if we share the ball and make plays for each other, the game becomes easy and we’ll find a rhythm, and I thought that’s what we did.”
The Knicks are now 5-5 since both Randle (shoulder) and Anunoby (elbow) last played on Jan. 27 against the Miami Heat.
Next up: Madison Square Garden will host the Boston Celtics. Boston owns the best record in basketball and has beaten the Knicks twice this season already.
