Nightmare loss to Sixers in home opener 109-89

The game was simply painful to watch. The Knicks were dominated by the Sixers from one end to the other (even if the scoreboard looked balanced at halftime) as they collapsed hopeless 109-89 in their first game at Madison Square Garden since March 8th.

Julius Randle and Alec Burks once again kept the team from an even more embarrassing night. Randle finished with 25 points, 7 rebounds and 3 assists while Burks added 22 buckets, 5 boards and 3 dimes off the bench. Mitchell Robinson was also notable with his 11 points on a 5-8 shooting, 9 rebounds and 2 blocks.

And now let’s see what went wrong: RJ Barrett, who shined like an all-star a couple of nights before, looked like a guy who was just dropped by a G-League team. At halftime he was 1-11 from the field, luckily he improved to 1-4 in the second half. In the end he finished with 10 points, 6 rebounds, 4 assists and 4 turnovers.

Elfrid Payton, the starting point guard was 0-6 from the field and went scoreless. Reggie Bullock, the starting forward had just 6 points. When three starters can’t even combine 20 points something is horrible wrong. The backups weren’t better either. Dennis Smith Jr. went 1-5 for a total of 4 points and Nerlens Noel shot 2-5.

Per team, the Knicks shot 38.6 from the field compared to Sixers’ 46.6.

“The games reveal exactly where we are. And obviously they’ve shown we have a lot of work to do.”

– Tom Thibodeau

The Knicks played without their draft picks as both Obi Toppin and Immanuel Quickley were out with injuries.

The Sixers were led by Joel Embiid’s 27 points and 10 rebounds. Tobias Harris and Seth Curry had 17 buckets each while Ben Simmons scored 15 and grabbed 9 boards.

Next up: The Knicks (0-2) will host the Bucks (1-1) tonight from 7:00 pm.