Game Thread: New York Knicks @ Philadelphia 76ers 7:00 pm 3/3/2017 [Game#62]

rady

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(25-36) -- (22-38)

VenueTVTIME
Wells Fargo Center, Philadelphia, PAMSG7:00 PM EST


Possible starters:


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Injury Report

New York KnicksPhiladelphia 76ers
Joakim Noah - Sore Left Hamstring (OUT)Jerryd Bayless - Left wrist surgery (OUT)
Willy Hernangomez - Sprained Left Ankle (DOUBT)Joel Embiid -0eft knee injury (OUT)
Maurice Ndour - Sprained Right Ankle (DOUBT)Gerald Henderson - Left hip soreness (OUT)
- Ben Simmons - Acute fracture, right foot (OUT)
- Tiago Splitter - Right calf strain (OUT)


Game Preview

The New York Knicks and Philadelphia 76ers, both amid dismal seasons, tend to bring out the best in each other.

They meet for the third time this year on Friday in Philadelphia, after seeing their two earlier games come down to the wire.

The Sixers (22-38) prevailed 98-97 on Jan. 11, on a jumper at the buzzer by second-year point guard T.J. McConnell, while the Knicks (25-36) outlasted Philadelphia 110-109 on Carmelo Anthony's jumper with 0.3 of a second left on Feb. 25.

The Knicks won for the second time in three games Wednesday night in Orlando, 101-90, as Kristaps Porzingis scored 20 points after missing the two previous games with a sprained right ankle. Derrick Rose added 19, and Anthony contributed 17 points and nine rebounds for the Knicks, who kept their flickering playoff hopes alive.

With 21 games left, the Knicks are four out of the Eastern Conference's eighth and final postseason spot.

"Anything can happen," Anthony told the New York Daily News. "We're still playing for something. We have the mindset to make something happen."

Rose, who had been the subject of trade rumors leading up to last Thursday's deadline, concurred.

"I was on a Bulls team that didn't make the playoffs until game 82," he told the Daily News. "There's still a lot of time left."

The Sixers announced Wednesday that rookie center Joel Embiid, the team's leading scorer and rebounder, will miss the rest of the season with a bone bruise and meniscus tear in his left knee. He suffered the injury when he landed awkwardly following a dunk against Portland on Jan. 20. Before Wednesday's announcement he had missed 14 straight games, and 17 of 18.

His only appearance in that stretch came Jan. 27, in a nationally televised game against Houston.

The team previously announced that forward Ben Simmons, the top pick in the 2016 draft, will miss the entire season after breaking his right foot in training camp.

After Wednesday's announcement the Sixers lost 125-98 in Miami. It was their fourth straight defeat, and matched their most one-sided loss of the season, a 122-95 defeat at Toronto on Nov. 28.

Miami knocked down 54.4 percent of its shots, including 43.3-percent 3-point sniping.

"That's not who we are," coach Brett Brown told Philly.com. "I give Miami credit. They exposed us individually, our ability to guard them. That type of result has not been us."

Forwards Dario Saric and Robert Covington have been carrying the bulk of the scoring load lately. Saric, a rookie from Croatia, is averaging 18.6 points and 8.2 rebounds over his last 10 games, and 11.3 and 6.2, respectively, overall.

Saric was named Eastern Conference rookie of the month for February.

Covington, who led the Sixers with 19 points Wednesday, is averaging 17 points over his last 10 games, as well as 7.4 rebounds. He scores at a 12.3 points-per-game clip overall.

Philadelphia guard Gerald Henderson did not play in the second half Wednesday because of a bad hip. His status for Friday's game is not yet known.

The Vertical reported that the Sixers are poised to sign forward Justin Harper to a 10-day contract. The 6-foot-10 Harper averaged 16.2 points and seven rebounds in 37 games with the L.A. D-Fenders of the NBA Development League.

(cbssports.com)
 
We were on our way to blowing out Philly a couple games ago before a huge 4th quarter collapse forced Melo to win it in the final seconds. Philly with Embiid out for the season and Noel traded away isn't that promising a squad anymore.

If we're really playing to win, this game should easily clinch our first 2 game win streak of the season since December
 

Playa2

Benchwarmer
The real reason why Championship teams won't trade for Melo is that he permits his man to break the defense down when he's on the court and all teams have to do is move the ball to the open man.
 
We give up 63 to Philly in the 1st half and are down 10. If I was this team, next time someone asked about tanking I would say 'of course, no one could play defense this bad if they were actually trying to win'
 
Here in the 3rd quarter, Anderson from Philly very much looks like he is on the court to pick a fight with Melo
 
Strong 3rd quarter to get us a 2 point lead going into the 4th, but Philly starts the 4th with a 3 and now we are down 1.
 
Baker making clutch plays in the 4th. First he lets himself get annihilated by Okafor to draw a charge and then a few plays later he gets the steal, dives to the floor, and gets the ball ahead to Porzingis for a dunk to tie the game.
 
Melo, Rose, Porzingis, Lee, and Lance Thomas all with 16 points or more to combine for a staggering 93 points. Bench has only produced 9 points tonight (7 from O'Quinn and 2 from Baker). We're up by 1 with less than a minute to go.
 
Rose gets too far under the hoop and can't hit the open layup on a nice inbounds play. Down the other end, Philly is persistent and hits the shot to go up by 1.

We're down 1 with the ball and 24.3 seconds to go.
 
Huh. Rose drives to the hoop and the ball gets knocked loose. It goes to replay and while it sure looks like McConnell knocked the ball out, somehow the play gets overturned to Sixers ball. The announcers are befuddled.

We're in trouble. Down 1 and Philly has the ball.
 
Here we go. Down the other end, great hustle play by Lance Thomas on the inbounds and he has appeared to have gotten us the ball back by knocking the inbounds pass off a Sixer. However, it goes to replay. Let's see how we do this time.
 
Ok, looks like our ball back with 15 seconds. Iso Melo time? I hope not.

Regardless, Lance Thomas has played a fantastic game and given us a chance to win this one.
 
This friggin guy.

Melo takes a double-teamed shot with 8 seconds still left on the clock and it rims out. Now Philly shoots free throws with 3 seconds to go.
 
Philly hits both free throws and we use our final timeout. We have the ball with 3 seconds to go and down 3. Gee, I wonder if Melo will take a bad shot.
 
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