The basketball gods have a sense of irony and drama.
After the Knicks overcame a five-point deficit at Madison Square Garden with 45 seconds remaining to improbably defeat the Philadelphia 76ers 104-101 in Game 2 to take a 2-0 series lead in the best-of-seven matchup, 10 days later, they afforded Philadelphia reprisal.
Leading by six points with 28.2 seconds to go in regulation in Game 5 at MSG on Tuesday night, cerebral lapses, missed foul shots, and the remarkable shooting by 76ers guard Tyrese Maxey erased the 96-90 lead and sent the game into overtime knotted at 97-97.
The Knicks’ lack of discernment and execution on both ends of the court continued over the five-minute OT period and an advantageous circumstance to close out the series morphed into a 112-106 loss. Now, the Knicks find themselves back in Philadelphia for Game 6 tonight (9:00 p.m.) holding a fragile 3-2 lead.
In victory, the 76ers became the first team in the last 25 playoffs to win a game trailing by at least six points in the final 30 seconds of regulation.
Although accountability for the loss should be shared by the Knicks players as well as head coach Tom Thibodeau, guard Jalen Brunson, who scored 40 points, placed much of the blame on his shoulders.
“Not good judgment on my part,” Brunson said. “There was a careless turnover in overtime, and then just making sure we were all on the same page at the end of regulation.”
The Knicks were up 97-94 with 15.1 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter after Josh Hart made one of two foul shots. The one miss would prove to be costly. Philadelphia was out of timeouts but the Knicks were reluctant to foul Maxey, who ten seconds earlier was hit by Mitchell Robinson on a made 25-foot 3-pointer and added a free throw for a game-altering four-point play. Instead of putting Maxey back on the foul-line for a possible two points, the Knicks let him launch a 35-foot 3-pointer from well beyond the top of the circle to even the score at 97 with 8.1 seconds showing on the clock. Brunson’s subsequent shot at the buzzer was off the mark.
“In those situations, you talk about what you want to do out there…” said Thibodeau regarding allowing Maxey to get off a 3-pointer. “We could’ve done better in that situation, and we will.”
Maxey, who posted a career playoff high 46 playing 52 minutes. was acutely aware of the gravity of the moment. “What was going through my mind was trying to survive,” he said. “Our season is on the line. I trust my work. I trust what I’ve done all my life, and I just tried to get to a spot, raise up and knock that shot down.”
Right now, Brunson’s extraordinary performance in setting the Knicks’ franchise playoff record of 47 points in Sunday’s 97-92 Game 4 win seems like a distant memory. What is front and center is Game 6. And perhaps Game 7 Saturday at the Garden. Which the Knicks hope to avoid.