Technicals were the story of the game Sunday night in New York. Evan Turner was the only Sixer showing signs life in the first quarter, stuffing the stat sheet and playing aggressively in continuing to earn trips to the charity stripe. Unfortunately, his well-known temper got the best of him as he got tagged with a technical mouthing off to an official about a no-foul and subsequent double dribble call. At the time, the Sixers were up 18-14 and seemed to have control of the game; following the technical, the Knicks went on a 27-6 run (including a 17-2 streak to start the second quarter). Philadelphia accrued zero second chance points in the first half, a combination of tired legs from the back-to-back and a simple lack of fire in getting after loose balls.
I don’t know what Doug Collins said to the troops at halftime, but I doubt it involved allowing the Knicks to go on a 8-0 run to start the second half. Philadelphia would regroup a bit to bring the deficit down to a more manageable 14 when Carmelo Anthony took an unprovoked swing at the back of Spencer Hawes’ head while going after a defensive rebound; the hit resulted in a flagrant for Anthony and technicals for Hawes and Tyson Chandler in an ensuing scuffle. Naturally, the New York crowd would boo Spencer on every touch the rest of the game because how dare he not just accept a swing to his head from their beloved Carmelo in stride. The fracas seemed to inject some life into Philadelphia who would cut the lead to single digits going into the fourth quarter.
Besides a too little, too late run to draw within five, the Sixers could never really get within striking distance as New York answered every Philadelphia run with a big bucket to a 99-93 final. In addition to some big threes from J.R. Smith, the two max contract players for New York both had excellent games. Cheap shot in the third quarter aside, Carmelo was unstoppable on the offensive end, using his quickness to get around defenders in the lane for easy buckets and wearing a path out to the foul line for free throw after free throw. Anthony finished with 29 points (including 16-18 from the foul line) and 7 rebounds. Turner, Thad Young, Damian Wilkins, and Lavoy Allen were all tasked with stopping him and none were up to the challenge. Likewise, Amar’e Stoudemire had an extremely productive game finishing with a season-high 22 points (on an unreal 9-10 shooting); Stoudemire looked like the player of old, hitting his mid-range jumpers and attacking the offensive glass for easy putbacks.
For Philadelphia, Evan Turner had an overall excellent game with 21 points (7-7 from the free throw line), 6 rebounds, and 8 assists. Jrue Holiday also continued his recent mastery of the Knicks finishing with a game-high 30 points (on 12-24 shooting from the field), in addition to 5 rebounds and 5 assists. The Sixers next take on Orlando at home Tuesday night. If they cannot break their slump against a team that basically announced they were tanking the season by trading away J.J. Redick, they should throw in the towel on the 2012-13 campaign.
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