Knicks sweep 76ers, 144-114 win

The Knicks didn’t just beat the 76ers. They detonated the series. New York won 144-114 in Philadelphia on Sunday, May 10, finishing a 4-0 second-round sweep and punching its ticket back to the Eastern Conference finals for a second straight year. The loudest number was the score, but the real story was how it happened — a three-point avalanche that basically ended the game before Philly could settle in. ### Why did this one feel over so fast? Because New York came out shooting like a team that had already solved the matchup. The Knicks made 11 threes in the first quarter alone — an NBA playoff record for any quarter — and led 39-22 after 12 minutes. By halftime, they were up 81-57 and had already tied another playoff record with 18 threes in a half. (nba.com) ### Who drove the blowout? The funny part is that it wasn’t one superstar hijacking the game. Deuce McBride, starting for injured OG Anunoby, scored 25 points and hit seven threes. Jalen Brunson scored 22. Josh Hart and Karl-Anthony Towns added 17 each. That balance is what made the thing feel unmanageable for Philadelphia — every time the Sixers shaded toward Brunson, someone else was already open. (sports.yahoo.com) ### Was this actually historic? Yes — in a couple of ways. The Knicks tied the NBA postseason record with 25 made threes, and the 144 points were a franchise playoff record. So this wasn’t just a comfortable closeout. It was one of those nights where the box score starts reading like a glitch. ### Why was McBride such a big deal? Because he changed the geometry of the game. (abcnews.com) McBride went 4-for-4 from deep in the first quarter, and once that happened, Philadelphia couldn’t load up on Brunson the same way. The Knicks’ offense started to look like a pick-your-poison drill — help on the drive and give up a corner three, stay home on shooters and let Brunson work in space. ### What went wrong for Philadelphia? The defense never got organized, and the home floor didn’t help. Multiple game accounts noted how loud the Knicks fans were in the building, which made the closeout feel even uglier for the Sixers. When a road team starts bombing threes, the crowd flips, and suddenly every missed rotation feels twice as obvious. That’s basically what happened here. (abcnews.com) ### How dominant was the whole series? Pretty dominant from the jump. New York won Game 1 by 39 points, took the series 4-0, and has now stacked seven straight playoff wins. That matters because sweeps can be misleading when games are coin flips. This one wasn’t. The Knicks looked deeper, cleaner, and more coherent for almost the entire matchup. ### So what does this mean now? For the Knicks, it means last year’s conference-finals run doesn’t look like a one-off anymore. (abcnews.com) They’re back, and this time they got there by flattening a team with real top-end talent. For the 76ers, the problem is the opposite — another postseason ends with big expectations and no real breakthrough. ### Bottom line This wasn’t just a sweep. (nba.com) It was a statement about New York’s ceiling. The Knicks didn’t survive Philadelphia — they overwhelmed the 76ers with spacing, depth, and absurd shooting, and now they head into the East finals looking like a team that expects to stay a while. (nba.com)