The Knicks didn't leave their first-round fire back in Atlanta. They brought it straight home to Madison Square Garden and turned Game 1 into a statement.
Just four days after a historic Game 6 performance against the Atlanta Hawks, New York carried that same intensity into the Eastern Conference semifinals. The result? A dominant 137-98 victory over the Philadelphia 76ers on Monday night, giving the Knicks a 1-0 series lead. Game 2 is set for Wednesday in Manhattan.
Jalen Brunson led the charge with a game-high 35 points on an efficient 12-for-18 shooting night. OG Anunoby added 18 points and three rebounds, while Karl-Anthony Towns and Mikal Bridges each chipped in 17 points. The Knicks' starters needed just three quarters to put this one out of reach.
On the other side, all five 76ers starters finished in double figures. Paul George paced Philadelphia with 17 points on 6-for-11 shooting in 26 minutes.
Philadelphia came in with a clear game plan, and for a few minutes, it looked like it might work. The 76ers ran nearly everything through Joel Embiid—not just to score, but to get the Knicks' frontcourt in foul trouble early. Embiid drew fouls on Anunoby and Towns in the first two minutes, then got Towns for a second. Mitchell Robinson checked in and immediately picked up trouble of his own. For a stretch, three different Knicks big men were playing cautiously.
New York started with Towns on Embiid and Bridges on Tyrese Maxey, and they were willing to switch the Maxey-Embiid pick-and-roll. That strategy kept Maxey quiet early—he didn't make a field goal in the first quarter—and forced the 76ers to live almost entirely through Embiid's free throws and mid-range game. Meanwhile, Brunson took over. He scored 14 of the Knicks' first 33 points, helping New York close the opening quarter up 33-25.
Towns took a hard fall, smacking his head and back on the floor, but got up and kept playing. Nick Nurse tried the "Hack-a-Mitch" strategy with 2:56 left in the first quarter after Robinson missed four straight free throws. Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau responded by pulling Robinson for Ariel Hukporti. That could have been a small moment that gave a road team life. Instead, it became just another footnote in a night dominated by Brunson and the Knicks' relentless energy.