Knicks crush 76ers 137-98 in Game 1 at Madison Square Garden

The Knicks didn’t just win Game 1. They turned a second-round matchup that was supposed to feel tense into another public demolition. New York beat Philadelphia 137-98 on Monday night at Madison Square Garden, took a 1-0 series lead, and looked like the same team that had already been steamrolling people at the end of the first round. The stakes here are simple — if this version of the Knicks is real, the East just got a lot narrower. ### Why did this get ugly so fast? For about seven minutes, it looked normal. Then New York ripped off a 15-4 run late in the first quarter, led by 23 at halftime, and kept scoring out of the same Brunson-Mitchell Robinson actions until Philadelphia had no answers left. By early in the third, the game was basically over. Brunson? He made the whole thing feel easy. Brunson finished with 35 points on 12-for-18 shooting and got 27 of them in the first half, which meant the Knicks had already built the game around his rhythm before Philly could settle in. He wasn’t hunting hero shots, either — he was getting to his floaters, pull-ups, and pocket-passing reads on time. ### Was this only a Brunson game? Not really — and that’s the scarier part for Philadelphia. OG Anunoby scored 18 on 7-for-8 shooting, while Karl-Anthony Towns and Mikal Bridges added 17 each. Towns also had six rebounds and six assists in only 20 minutes. When your lead creator cooks and your next three options barely miss, the defense runs out of tradeoffs. ### What number really explains it? Start with 63% from the field. Then zoom in to the nastier one — a 74.4% effective field-goal percentage, which NBA.com tagged as the third-highest single-game mark in playoff history. That means this wasn’t just hot shooting in the usual sense. It was shot quality, spacing, timing, and decision-making all lining up at once. ### How bad was it for the Sixers? Bad enough that the surrender came before the fourth quarter. NBA.com noted that Joel Embiid, Tyrese Maxey, and Paul George were all on the bench with more than five minutes left in the third, and one remaining starter checked out with nearly 14 minutes left in the game. That’s not normal second-round behavior. That’s a team deciding the night is gone. ### Is this just one hot night? Maybe partly — no team shoots like this forever. But the catch for Philly is that this keeps happening. The Knicks have now won four straight playoff games by a combined 135 points, and they became the first team in NBA history to win three straight postseason games by at least 25 points. That shifts the conversation from “nice run” to “something structural is happening here.” ### So what matters before Game 2? Philadelphia has to break the rhythm at the point of attack. If Brunson is walking into the same pick-and-roll reads and New York’s wings are feasting off the help, the series can get away fast. Game 2 is Wednesday, May 6, before the matchup shifts to Philadelphia. The Knicks don’t need another 39-point win. They just need proof this wasn’t a one-night avalanche. ### Bottom line This looked less like a close series opener and more like a warning shot. New York has gone from dangerous to overwhelming — and now the 76ers have to prove this matchup is still a contest.