NBA Matchups: May 8

NYK @ PHI | SAS @ MIN

New York Knicks at Philadelphia 76ers

Team Totals: Knicks 106.3, 76ers 107.8

Injury Report: OG Anunoby (Q, hamstring), Josh Hart (Q, thumb), Joel Embiid (Q, ankle/hip)

76ers projected starters: Tyrese Maxey, VJ Edgecombe, Paul George, Kelly Oubre Jr., Joel Embiid

Knicks projected starters: Jalen Brunson, Deuce McBride, Mikal Bridges, Josh Hart, Karl-Anthony Towns

Offensive Ranks: 76ers 17th (23rd halfcourt), Knicks 4th (7th halfcourt)

Defensive Ranks: 76ers 17th (10th halfcourt), Knicks 10th (14th halfcourt)

Nurse quotes: Said the turnovers were a big factor, said the team made the right reads and just missed too many wide-open shots late, said Bona was impacting the game and he had just too much foul trouble, said the guys just wanted to stay in there and the 76ers were -6 in the non-Maxey minutes, said they were good with ball rotation when they doubled Maxey, said there’s more pressure on them being down 0-2, said Barlow let them have more switch schemes.  

Brown quotes: Said they have to do something about all the free throws, said they need to be better at helping on drives without fouling, said KAT only playing 8-9 minutes in the first half was tough without Mitch, said Mikal tried to make Maxey work and Mikal hit some big shots for them late, said he doesn’t know what happened to Anunoby (wasn’t on the bench for part of the game).

Stats and notes:

*Game 2 was a slop fest, and getting an extremely heavy foul crew was the story. The 76ers had 28 FTAs to the 25 from the Knicks, and this game took forever. The 76ers almost had this one before they went cold in the fourth quarter, going 4-of-19 from the field (1-of-10 from deep). The Knicks also kept them off the line in the fourth with just four FTAs, and the 76ers only had four shots in the paint in the fourth, too (1-of-5 on mid-range). The Knicks had a big fast-break edge again in this one at 13-8, and the bigger story was their 56-30 paint-point advantage. Philly was also not killed as badly in PNR, partly because they were not playing as much deep drop (even Andre Drummond at the level sometimes; Dominick Barlow in for 1-5 switch stuff). The Knicks also didn’t have a big rebounding boost, which makes sense because of no Mitchell Robinson and their centers getting into foul trouble. The biggest piece of the puzzle here will be injuries. OG Anunoby has been exceptional, and we’ll see if he can go. Joel Embiid may miss another one, too.

*Jalen Brunson was held in check a bit in the last game with the 76ers not playing as much deep drop. He was still able to get in the floater range, as the 76ers played much higher in their coverages without Embiid. It’ll be VJ Edgecombe as the primary again, and Brunson should be in position for a big game regardless of who is available. I like it more if Embiid is in.