Sixer Sweep

With the best game of the season from an unlikely bench piece, the Knicks won their fourth game of the season against last year's round one rivals.

Good morning! Not many better things in life than beating Philly.

Reminder that New York is back in action tonight in Cleveland. It’s a 7pm start time on ESPN, and you can join me at halftime here.

Game 75: Knicks 105, Sixers 91

• With KAT (knee) sidelined, the Knicks went up quick but the Sixers kept things a bit too close for comfort.

• An offensive drought by New York and some uncharacteristic shotmaking by Philly cut the lead to five multiple times late in the third, but the Knicks pulled away behind several big buckets from Landry Shamet

• Ian Begley reported after the game that Jalen Brunson is targetign this weekend for his return.

It’s hard to believe that a little more than five months ago, the New York Knicks and Philadelphia 76ers were neck and neck for the fourth best title odds in the entire league.

After the universally favored Celtics and the consensus runner up Thunder, the Knicks and Sixers were running in third and fourth place in almost all of the sports books. Bet MGM had the Knicks at +650 and the Sixers at +1000, the Action Network had the Knicks at +774 and the Sixers at +1000, and ESPN Bet had the Knicks at +700 and the Sixers at +825.

Now, with just 12 days to go in the regular season, New York is undoubtedly entering the playoffs with less perceived championship equity than they had before the year began. All of those betting sites dropped the Knicks from the third most likely champ to the seventh highest odds at +3300. It’s a clear reflection of an underwhelming season - one that has left many fans wondering whether the years’ long build-up of the Leon Rose era will ultimately result in a disappointing conclusion.

And yet…

New York did manage to win their 48th game last night while missing both of their All-Stars and two more players in the top eight of their rotation. It put them a season high 21 games over .500, with the fifth best record in the NBA and a hair below the fifth best net rating. Their defense has risen to 13th in the league, and is just 0.4 points per 100 possessions away from 11th - right about where you’d have hoped they’d be when the season began. They may be down relative to where many thought they’d be five months ago, but they are far from out.

The Sixers, on the other hand, are working overtime to ensure that they are way out - out of the play-in, out of relevance, and out of anything resembling a competitive game. Now a full 30 games under .500 with two fewer wins than the Brooklyn Nets, the Sixers have the same number of wins in their last 27 games as they did in the 2024 postseason, where they won a play-in game against Miami and two first round bouts with the Knicks. They are redefining what a disappointing season can look like, one blowout at a time.