Knicks complete 4-0 sweep, rout 76ers 144-114 to reach Eastern Conference finals
- New York crushed Philadelphia 144-114 in Game 4 on Sunday, finishing a 4-0 second-round sweep and sending the Knicks back to the Eastern Conference finals. - Miles McBride scored 25 in OG Anunoby’s place as New York hit 11 first-quarter threes and tied the playoff record with 25 overall. - The Knicks have now won seven straight playoff games and own a 19.4-point average margin through two rounds.
The Knicks didn’t just eliminate the 76ers. They detonated the series. New York beat Philadelphia 144-114 on Sunday, finished the sweep, and is back in the Eastern Conference finals for the second straight year. The score was huge, but the real story was how it happened — a road closeout game that felt over almost as soon as the Knicks started firing threes. ### Why did this game get out of hand so fast? Because New York turned the first quarter into a shooting drill. The Knicks hit 11 threes in the opening period — the most in a first quarter of a playoff game in the play-by-play era — and blew the game open before Philadelphia could settle in. Miles McBride, starting again with OG Anunoby out, hit his first four threes in that quarter alone. (abcnews.com) ### Why was McBride such a big deal? He was the swing piece that made the whole thing feel unfair. McBride stepped into Anunoby’s spot and scored a game-high 25 points, hitting 7 of 9 from deep. That matters because the Knicks weren’t just leaning on Jalen Brunson to create everything. They got a full extra scorer, early, in a closeout game on the road. (msn.com) ### Was this only about hot shooting? No — but the shooting made every other Knicks advantage louder. New York finished 25 of 44 from three, tying the playoff record for made threes in a game. It also led 81-57 at halftime after tying the playoff mark with 18 threes in a half. When a team scores that efficiently, the defense gets stretched, the rebounds get cleaner, and transition chances pile up. (abcnews.com) ### What did Brunson actually have to do? Less hero-ball than usual, which is kind of the point. Brunson still gave New York 22 points and 6 assists, but this wasn’t one of those survive-the-night performances where he has to drag the offense over the line. Karl-Anthony Towns added 17. Josh Hart added 17 and 9 rebounds. Four Knicks hit at least four threes. Basically, Philadelphia couldn’t load up on one guy because too many other guys were already burning them. (abcnews.com) ### What does the sweep say about this Knicks team? That this run is bigger than one hot night. New York has now won seven straight playoff games, counting the end of the Atlanta series, and its average margin of victory through two rounds is 19.4 points — the best such mark through two rounds since the NBA expanded the playoffs to 16 teams in 1984. That’s not squeaking by. That’s control. (abcnews.com) ### What happened to the 76ers? They got buried under volume they couldn’t match. Joel Embiid scored 24 points, but Philadelphia shot just 8 of 35 from three and got crushed on the glass, 47-30. Once the Knicks built the early lead, the Sixers never had the shooting or defensive resistance to make it feel tense again. The only lead Philadelphia had was 2-0. (abcnews.com) ### Who’s next? The Knicks move on to face the winner of Cleveland-Detroit. As of Sunday, the Pistons led that series 2-1. So New York gets the luxury every contender wants in May — advancement without extra wear, plus time for the bracket on the other side to keep grinding. ### Bottom line? This wasn’t just a sweep. It was a warning shot. (sports.yahoo.com) The Knicks lost Anunoby, walked into Philadelphia, scored a franchise playoff-record 144 points, and made the East finals look less like a breakthrough than a repeat appointment. (abcnews.com)
