The Knicks found themselves trailing in the fourth quarter. Just like before those heroic playoff moments — those moments they celebrated in a stirring ceremony.
Except this time, as the defending champs Tuesday, Captain Clutch struggled when it mattered most, OG Anunoby committed a costly turnover, Mikal Bridges totally disappeared and the Knicks became the rare team to lose on their own ring night, 106-100 to the revamped 76ers.
Brunson shot 1-for-5 in the final five minutes, including a botched open runner on his first possession after being subbed in for the homestretch. The point guard — who missed 13 of his 19 attempts — airballed a trey with 10 seconds remaining that sealed New York’s defeat.
It capped a game in which the Knicks shot 42 percent from the floor and 27 percent on 3s. They committed 15 turnovers.
“What an ugly game,” coach Mike Brown said. “All throughout the game, we looked like we were running in mud.”
Karl-Anthony Towns, who struggled for much of the evening, came alive in the fourth quarter and finished with 19 points and 12 boards. His trey cut the deficit to two with 2:15 remaining, but Philly’s VJ Edgecombe responded with an easy bucket against a lax Knicks defense.
Then New York’s wings — Anunoby and Bridges — flubbed their opportunities.
Anunoby threw an errant pass to Tyrese Maxey, who converted a breakaway for his final bucket of a 28-point gem. With about 90 seconds left, Bridges went up softly for a layup and missed with his left hand. He had just four points in 33 minutes.
The Knicks became the first home team to fall on ring night since the 2020 Lakers, who were playing in an empty arena because of the pandemic. Before Tuesday, the NBA’s defending champs were 64-15 in their home openers.
So the Knicks lost against history — and Josh Hart, who dropped 14 points with seven boards in 30 minutes, said the team isn’t panicked but also can’t relax.
“We play basketball for a living. If you can’t get up and get excited to play basketball, no matter who the hell we play, you got to do some soul-searching,” Hart said. “It doesn’t matter if we’re defending champs, it doesn’t matter if we have the worst record in the league last year. No matter what we got to make sure we are professionals and do what our job is and at the end of the day, I don’t think anybody picked us to win the championship again.
“So nothing to it. We shouldn’t sit there and think we’re the champions because we’re not. We’re 0-1. We’re the worst team in the NBA right now. So we need to play like it.”
At the start of Tuesday’s game, and after the banner was elevated, the Knicks played like they skipped a beat. A couple of beats, actually.
Their offense was disjointed and stagnant in the opening minutes, lowlighted by immediate foul trouble from Towns. Maybe it was the emotions spilling over from the ceremony just minutes prior, or maybe it was rust after four months away.
Despite their struggles, the Knicks were within striking distance as the final buzzer neared. That’s usually the time for the Brunson takeover. He couldn’t come through on ring night, though. Neither did his teammates.
Brown was almost happy they lost after an effort like that.
“Is he capable of making those shots? Yes,” Brown said. “But if we played the right way, then it wouldn’t come down to that. But we put ourselves in a hole not doing the little things. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. And we have to watch the film and regroup and see how we can put a stretch of 48 minutes together.
“I want to win. Don’t get me wrong. Don’t get it twisted. I want to friggin’ win. But not at the expense of us skipping steps. So if he hits those shots down the stretch and we win, as a coach, there’s going to be something inside of me that wouldn’t be happy. Because it’s like you’re playing with fire, and you ended up winning that time without any water.”
