By Dylan MacKinnon
The Harden era continues as the Sixers beat the Knicks, but it was not as easy as Fridays night in Minnesota was. In fact, it got a bit dicey late in the third and early in the 4th. But a late push, thanks in large part to buckets by Tyrese Maxey and Tobias Harris, they ended up winning by 16 anyway, with a final score of 125-109.
Tobias Harris didn’t have an FG until late in the Fourth Quarter. But then he snagged an offensive rebound late in the 4th, and on that same possession hit a 3pter that put the Sixers up 8. That bucket opened the flood gates, and eventually lead to this basket by Maxey that sealed the win.
Tonight's Play of the Game belongs to Tyrese Maxey, for his Step back 3pter that sealed the win and put the @sixers up 118-107. Here is again, as called by @McGinnisThomas pic.twitter.com/7i2jO91kSF
— 975TheFanatic (@975TheFanatic) February 27, 2022
“Yea I got the same shot earlier, I got in the corner and I fell like i should have shot the three ball, and I ended up settling on a fadeaway jumpshot. Once I got it again, I knew exactly what In was going to do.”- Tyrese Maxey told Tom McGinnis after the game.
Harden shined again. He got a triple double with 29 pts, 16 assists, and 10 rebounds. Harden now has 28 assists in two games with the Sixers, to go with 56 pts. He even threw in 5 steals. And Embiid did what Embiid does. His shot was a bit off, but it didn’t matter. He got to the line a staggering 27 times, making 23 of them. Overall he finished with 37 pts, 9rebs, and 4 blocks.
The bench struggled again. Combined they were -18. Shake Milton was the only bench player in the plus. As a group the bench went 2-10 from 3. Korkmaz got multiple open looks and didn’t come close to hitting them. No one on the bench scored more than 6 points.
After the Sixers beat the Knicks, they improved to 37-23. They are now just 1.5 games behind the Bulls for the two seed, and 2.5 behind the Heat for the 1 seed. They next play on Wednesday, again vs the Knicks, in what will be Harden’s home opener. That leads into a tough stretch of games vs the Cavs, Heat, Bulls, and then home vs the Nets.