The New York Knicks got their ninth straight win on New Year’s Day, but the momentum didn’t carry over into January.
Since that win to open the calendar year, the Knicks have lost five of seven before Wednesday’s game against the host Philadelphia 76ers, who are equally hungry for a win.
New York is coming off a 124-119 home loss to the Detroit Pistons on Monday. Three players had double-doubles for the Knicks: Jalen Brunson with 31 points and 11 assists, Karl-Anthony Towns with 26 points and 12 rebounds, and Josh Hart with 12 points and 14 boards.
The Knicks shot well from the field (50.0 percent), the 3-point arc (40.5 percent) and the foul line (82.8 percent), but they couldn’t get enough stops against Cade Cunningham and the improving Pistons. Cunningham scored 36 points, while five of his teammates were in double figures.
“Offense wasn’t an issue tonight,” Brunson said. “Defensively, we just gave them a lot of confidence.”
The Knicks have given up at least 100 points in nine of their last 10 games, including games in which they have allowed 132, 117, 139, 126 and 124 points each.
“Defensively, we have to be better,” Hart said. “Yes, we have to be better.”
The Knicks haven’t won back-to-back games since the end of the winning streak, a stunning victory over the Utah Jazz on Jan. 1. On the bright side, they will play seven of their next eight games at home after Wednesday’s contest. .
“We’re losing games and I think we shouldn’t have been losing,” said Hart. “We have to start thinking carefully. We are in the middle. There is nothing we can do about the first half now. But if we want to be the team we are trying to be at the end of the season, we will do well. We have to start fixing things now.”
The Sixers have shared that mindset all season, as they’ve dealt with injuries to key players on opening night in nearly every game since. Their health hit a new low Tuesday when they played without eight of their top 10 players (in terms of minutes per game) in a 118-102 loss to the visiting Oklahoma City Thunder.
“I always play what’s available,” Philadelphia coach Nick Nurse said, adding that he didn’t have much information on the status of Joel Embiid (foot), Tyrese Maxey (hand) or Paul George (ankle) for Wednesday’s issue.
Meanwhile, the Sixers coach was forced to give heavy minutes to players like Justin Edwards and Jeff Dowtin Jr., both of whom produced high points on Tuesday (25 and 18, respectively). Edwards and Ricky Council IV both played over 35 minutes against the Thunder.
“For the most part, some of those guys played really well, played hard and executed well,” Nurse said.
Maxey has missed seven games this season, while George has sat out 12 games. Embiid, a former NBA MVP, has only appeared in 13 of 38 contests.
“You take a bit of a punch (when you find out those guys aren’t going to play) and then regroup and figure out who’s going to start … go play,” Nurse said.
Wednesday’s game is the second of four meetings between the teams this season. The visiting Knicks topped the Sixers 111-99 on November 12 as OG Anunoby scored 24 points.
–Field Level Media