NEW YORK — After two games of this first-round playoff series, the Philadelphia 76ers trail the New York Knicks 2-0. The Sixers have given themselves a chance in both games, but they were not able to get the job done.
However, the Sixers are feeling confident. They’re down, but they’re not out. Coach Nick Nurse will make sure this team continues to fight, scratch and claw for everything. The Knicks held serve at home. Now the Sixers must do the same as the series shifts to South Philadelphia.
“We played really well, did a lot of great things,” Nurse said after Game 2. “Played better in a bunch of areas tonight. It’s obviously difficult when it’s so close and you kind of give it away at the end. It’s obviously difficult in these circumstances, right? It just makes the series a little longer.”
Joel Embiid, who had 34 points in the Game 2 loss, guaranteed the Sixers would win this series. For that to happen, Philadelphia will need to match the intensity and the physicality the Knicks play with. The Sixers did so in Game 2, but came up short.
They will have to be ready to match it again in Game 3 on Thursday.
“Keep fighting,” Nic Batum said. “We showed that in a tough arena with a big crowd, we nearly had a chance to be up by 2-0 right now. It didn’t go our way twice, but we did have a chance to win those two games so all we have to do is keep fighting. Now we go home, it’ll be another big fight. Just go out there and keep playing.”
On top of the fact that they were right there in both games, the Sixers have the two best players in this series: Embiid and Tyrese Maxey. New York has won the first two games of this series, but it’s the first to four. If the Sixers continue to get this type of production out of their star duo, they will be in great shape.
“I thought there were stretches of the game where I didn’t see him being so aggressive, but certainly the last 15 minutes, he was really chasing it down, turning on the jets, slamming on the brakes — all the things he can do time and time again,” Nurse said of Maxey. “So I thought he was great when it really mattered.”
Game 3 is on Thursday from the Wells Fargo Center.
