PHILADELPHIA — It was nearly the proper journey for Jalen Brunson. He loved two off days close to his hometown, staying within the City of Brotherly Love because it celebrates Brunson’s favourite soccer crew.
The Eagles are in all places in Philadelphia forward of the Super Bowl. On billboards. On hats. In Dunkin’ Donuts.
On Wednesday, Villanova retired Brunson’s jersey and honored his two championships. At the identical time, the Knicks traded for his good friend and former Villanova teammate — Josh Hart — and Brunson couldn’t comprise his pleasure on the information.
“I just can’t wait to get him on the court,” Brunson stated.
When Brunson lastly bought on the Sixers’ court docket Friday evening, he placed on a present. At least at first. Twenty factors for Brunson within the first quarter.
It was going nice. Then the fourth quarter occurred.
The Sixers went heavy on zone protection, stifling Brunson and sending the Knicks’ offense into the freezer. Brunson nonetheless managed 30 factors with 9 assists, however, like the remainder of his teammates, couldn’t crack Doc Rivers’ zone when it mattered most. The Knicks (30-27) managed simply 5 factors within the ultimate six minutes — and simply 15 total within the fourth quarter — as Joel Embiid punished them on the opposite finish in Philadelphia’s 119-108 victory.
“The zone slowed us down a bit,” Julius Randle acknowledged.
Embiid was an excessive amount of. Knicks facilities Jericho Sims and Isaiah Hartenstein devoted their our bodies and private fouls to preventing the MVP candidate, however he dropped 35 factors and 11 boards on 14-of-18 capturing.
Embiid additionally nailed the most important bucket of the evening, an and-1 pull-up with 1:36 left to take a six-point lead.
“The hard thing is the fouls, you just got to fight that urge to reach in,” Thibodeau stated. “He’s good at drawing fouls. And then I thought there were a number of plays where we had the second defender there and he scored over us. The fourth quarter we could’ve done better.”
With the newly-acquired Hart watching in road garments from the bench (he handed the bodily however arrived late from New York), the Knicks’ snapped their two-game profitable streak whereas doubling Philadelphia’s turnovers. It was a little bit of revenge for the Sixers, who misplaced to the Knicks on Sunday at MSG.
Then on Friday, Philly (35-19) bought 20 factors and 12 assists from James Harden, plus 27 factors off the bench from Tyrese Maxey.
Brunson’s journey didn’t finish so nice.
“We need to win,” Brunson stated. “That’s as simple as that. It’s great to compete but we want to win.”
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Source: www.bostonherald.com