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The Knicks raised a championship banner for the first time in over half a century at Madison Square Garden, but the Philadelphia 76ers spoiled the party, handing New York a 106-100 loss on Tuesday night to open the 2026-27 NBA season.
Jalen Brunson led the Knicks with 21 points (6-for-19 shooting), five rebounds, and three assists, but was a minus-11 in 34 minutes as he and the rest of the defending champs were stifled on the night they got their rings by some very good Philadelphia defense, including from the new Sixers stars of Jaylen Brown and LeBron James.
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New York has returned nearly all of their championship core and got a big contribution from the lone key offseason acquisition to Mike Brown‘s rotation, but lacked the championship sharpness that was a hallmark of their drought-breaking run to a title.
After seeing a 10-point lead slip in the third, if the switch was going to flip in the fourth quarter, it was going to have to come after OG Anunoby bounced in a corner three. Jose Alvarado poked the ball away from Tyrese Maxey for his second steal of the night and hustled down the court to knock in his second three and force a Sixers timeout with eight minutes to play and the lead down to two.
The deficit was four when Brunson checked back in with just over five to play in the game. Soon after, Brunson found Karl-Anthony Towns for a deep three and had a chance for the lead the next possession, but a contested fadeaway was off, and Joel Embiid answered with a three. Back down by five, Brunson and Towns again combined for a from deep, but Philly again answered with a pair of dunks, and Brown called for time with two minutes left and the deficit at six.
The Knicks cut the game to four and got a stop, but a Brunson three with 10 seconds to play was way off, and that was all the Knicks had left.
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Here are the takeaways…
– Towns blocked a noticeably slimmer Embiid early, but threw the ball away as Maxey capitalized for his second three in the game’s early going. Towns would pick his first foul inside three minutes and 18 seconds later got his second with an offensive foul as he extended his…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/knicks-banner-raising-night-spoiled-021000098.html
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Publish date : 2026-10-21 02:10:00
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