After taking a five-point lead with 47.3 seconds to go in Monday night’s game, the Philadelphia 76ers appeared to be on the verge of tying the series at 1-1. Instead, madness ensued and the New York Knicks stole the victory to take a 2-0 lead.
In the span of 14 seconds, star guard Jalen Brunson had a fortuitous bounce on a three-pointer to cut Philadelphia’s lead to two. On the ensuing inbounds pass, Philadelphia’s Tyrese Maxey turned the ball over as coach Nick Nurse failed to call a timeout. Donte DiVincenzo missed a three, but Isaiah Hartenstein secured an offensive rebound and seconds later DiVincenzo drilled his second three-point attempt — handing the Knicks a 102-101 lead.
After the loss, MVP Joel Embiid stated that the Sixers are still going to win the series despite facing a two-game disadvantage.
“We’re good,” Embiid said, “We’re going to win this series. We are going to win this. We know what we got to fix. We did a better job today, so we are going to fix it. We are the better team. We are going to keep fighting.”
Just as the Lakers would have gripes about the officiating in their Game 2 loss to the Nuggets, the Sixers left Madison Square Garden incensed with the officiating.
“Well, the first thing is obviously they score,” Nurse said. “We take a look at getting it in quick. We don’t get it in quick. I call timeout. Referee looked right at me. Ignored me. Went into Tyrese, I called timeout again. Then the melee started. I guess I got to run out onto the floor or do something to make sure and get his attention, but I needed a timeout there to advance it. Would’ve been good. But, couldn’t get it.”
“Everybody was trying to call a timeout on the floor,” Embiid said. “Me included. Coach on the sideline. But they didn’t give it to us. But, forget about the timeout. There’s a bunch of fouls. That’s f—ing unacceptable.”
Maxey, who was playing while under the weather, scored 35 points to go along with 10 assists and nine rebounds. When a reporter questioned Maxey’s late turnover, Embiid was not going to place any blame on his teammate.
“He did his job. That’s on the league. That’s on the NBA. That’s on the frigging referees. I hate to put the game on them. But I am sure the 2-minute report is going to come out and we are going to see what happened. But like I said, that’s unacceptable. That’s not on him. That’s not on any of us. We fought for 47 minutes and whatever 20 seconds. For that to happen … that’s not OK.”
