Jalen Brunson scored 33 points, the New York Knicks takeover of Wells Fargo Center was complete, and the Philadelphia 76ers’ playoff hopes are now hanging by a thread.
The Knicks beat the 76ers, 109-94, on Saturday in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference semifinals to take a 3-0 series lead—six straight postseason wins and one victory away from back-to-back conference finals appearances. Game 4 is Monday in Philadelphia.
Brunson started 2-for-8 but finished 11-for-22 in 38 minutes, delivering the big baskets when the Sixers made their push in the fourth quarter. Mikal Bridges added 23 points and Josh Hart posted 12 points and 11 rebounds. OG Anunoby sat out with a strained right hamstring and remains day-to-day—and the Knicks still won by 15.
First-year coach Mike Brown did not search for metaphors when asked about Brunson.
“I’m Linus. Jalen’s my blanket,” Brown said. “He helps me relax at a lot of different times during the course of the game.”
Brown, who took the job after Tom Thibodeau was fired and said at the time he would not know what kind of team he had until he got “into the trenches with them,” now has a clearer picture.
“Yeah, OK, we might have a chance at this,” he said.
The Nova Knicks Take the Wells Fargo Center
It was a fitting venue for what unfolded. With 2016 and 2018 Villanova national championship banners hanging in the rafters at Wells Fargo Center, Brunson, Hart, and Bridges—all former Wildcats—took turns putting the game away.
Philadelphia led by 12 in the first quarter. Paul George scored 15 points in that opening period, then went scoreless for the rest of the game, missing all 9 shots he attempted after intermission. Neither George nor Tyrese Maxey shot a single free throw.
The Sixers made one more charge. Quintin Grimes hit back-to-back threes early in the fourth to trim it to 88-84. Then Hart and Bridges made consecutive baskets to push the lead back to 92-84. Brunson buried a three from the top of the arc during a 9-0 Knicks run to make it 95-86—and that was that.
Landry Shamet came off the bench to score 15 points, after scoring just 14 across the entire postseason to that point. Timothée Chalamet rose from his courtside seat and applauded when Shamet hit a late third-quarter three that stretched the lead to 85-76. Spike Lee, Tracy Morgan, and Ben Stiller all made the trip from New York. The split crowd produced cheers, boos, and the occasional middle finger on virtually every basket.
Sixers superstar Joel Embiid had personally pleaded with Philadelphia fans ahead of the series not to sell their tickets to Knicks supporters. He was speaking to a building that was partly speaking back in another accent.
Philadelphia Is Running Out of Road
Embiid returned after missing Game 2 with a sprained right ankle and sore right hip and scored 18 points. Kelly Oubre Jr. added 22 and Maxey finished with 17. Philadelphia fought. It was not enough.
“I thought he gave us everything he could,” coach Nick Nurse said of Embiid.
Embiid’s return from an appendectomy earlier this season helped spark the Sixers’ remarkable comeback from 3-1 down against Boston in the first round. That felt like a miracle at the time. Coming back from 3-0 against this Knicks team—winning 4 straight, including twice in New York—would require something beyond a miracle.
The math has never been kind. No NBA team has ever recovered from a 3-0 deficit.
