Sixers Drop 17th Straight in 123-110 Loss to Knicks

By Sean Kennedy

Like a a well-intentioned law student considering taking a non-profit job before ultimately opting for a six figures at a big corporation, the Sixers keep flirting with the idea of a victory before bowing out later in the race. Things started out wonderfully for Philadelphia Monday night; led by the strong overall play of Michael Carter-Williams and the early hot shooting of James Anderson (17 points), the Sixers went up by as many as 12 points in the first quarter. With Tyson Chandler not in the arena due to a personal matter, Philadelphia actually out-rebounded the Knicks 42-35 on the night, and there was hope that New York would be the place for Brett Brown’s dreams to come true.

Ultimately though, the defense let down the boys from South Broad as four Knicks scored 22 points or more on the night. The Sixers actually did a nice job on all-star Carmelo Anthony, who gunned his way to 22 points (6 below his season average), but on just 9-24 shooting. However, Tim Hardaway Jr. was a monster off the bench for the Knicks, hitting 5-7 threes for a game-high 28 points. When he wasn’t knocking down daggers on the perimeter, Hardaway was terrorizing the Sixers in the open court. Tim Hardaway, Jr. might have gave Tony Wroten a run for fastest man on the court when he went coast to coast for a lay-up in the fourth quarter. New York also receives 22 points from J.R. Smith as the masked man went on a personal 8-0 run in the first quarter to help the Knicks hang around, and Amare Stoudemire went 9-10 from the field for 23 points while filling in for Chandler. Philadelphia was still in the game until the Knicks opened the fourth quarter with a 19-4 run to turn it into a laugher.

In spite of the bad defense, Monday night was a positive in one big way as Michael Carter-Williams became the first-ever Sixers rookie to record two triple-doubles in a season with 23 points, a career-high 13 rebounds, and 10 assists. Now, his 10th assist came on a meaningless Tony Wroten bucket with 2 seconds left in the game, but that still doesn’t take away from his terrific performance. Familiar with playing in the Garden from his Big East days with Syracuse, MCW played well there for the second time this season, hitting his mid-range jumpers, and more importantly, hitting short floaters rather than getting stopped at the rim like he was against Utah. He did have 4 turnovers but a couple of them were passes his teammates could have handled and against 10 assists, the Sixers can live with that ratio for now from the rookie.

Philadelphia also received some encouraging play from Henry Sims, as he largely played good defense on the interior, despite Stoudemire’s final numbers, and hit a couple of face-up jumpers along with a thunderous dunk along the baseline. The team is remaining much more competitive of late (at least they aren’t falling behind by 40 points anymore), and they’ll look to keep building off these small individual successes Wednesday against Sacramento.

Box Score

Notable Observations: 

• The Sixers have just been a train wreck in end-of-quarter situations lately (I mean, relatively more of a train wreck than the rest of the game). With the first quarter winding down, the Sixers played great defense to force New York into an off-balanced three with the shot clock winding down. Instead of getting his body on his man, Elliot Williams was caught ball-watching, so naturally, the ball went just over his head to his man, Prigioni. The Knicks guard kicked it out to a now-wide-open Hardaway who drained a three. Instead of getting a final shot, the Sixers gave up another three points. It’s inexcusable that they keep making these mental mistakes at the end of periods; you can’t beat yourselves when you’re already playing at a talent disparity.
• Byron Mullens is Sam Hinkie’s tanking avatar. After spinning into the defense to allow the Knicks to force a jump ball, Mullens whiffed on the tap and lost the jump to the 6’5″ Iman Shumpert. The next time down the court, he completely botched catching a pass in transition that would have led to an easy lay-in. Fortunately for my eyeballs’ sake, Brett Brown had seen enough and sat Mullens after just 3 minutes, never to return.
• The broadcast brought up the stat on the broadcast that 50% of Tony Wroten’s shots come at the rim. I don’t know where they’re getting their stats, but that seems about 45% too low. The man is a one-lane superhighway with only a single exit dumping him off at the cup. If there happen to be two defenders there waiting for him, so be it.

Tanking Implications: 

The best news of the night came shortly after the Sixers game ended, when Milwaukee closed out a home victory against the Magic. Philadelphia now finds itself just 2 games ahead of the Bucks in the standings, closing in on that coveted worst record and lottery pole position. If they’re going to be historically bad, they might as well achieve the desired result. Even though the triple-double was more arbitrary than anything, Michael Carter-Williams still played a fantastic game, and this performance was certainly one for the rookie to build upon going forward. 4/5 tanks.