Knicks no match for 76ers, drop third straight
Philadelphia 76ers guard VJ Edgecombe hangs from the hoop after dunking against the Knicks in the second half at Madison Square Garden on Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
It happened again.
The Knicks again couldn’t get the stops they needed to contain a hot superstar. This time it was Tyrese Maxey who stole the show, scoring 36 points — including eight straight in the fourth quarter — to lead Philadelphia to a 130-119 win at Madison Square Garden on Saturday night.
The loss was the Knicks’ third straight, tying their longest of the season. The Knicks also lost three straight early in the season when they were adjusting to a new coach and a new offense.
Still, there is no denying that the Knicks — who have given up an average of 124.8 points in their last six games — are in an unfamiliar place and need to figure things out quickly.
“We are in an area we are not used to. We’ve hit a little bit of adversity,” Mike Brown said. “I’ve never been part of a team that has not gone through adversity throughout the course of the year, whether we won it at the end of the year and we were in the Finals or we had a halfway decent season. Every team is going to hit it.
“For us, it’s about how we respond and how we come out of it. This is a great opportunity for us to see what we’re made of while we are going through this stretch.”
The adversity comes at the most inopportune of times. The Knicks (23-12) are in a battle with the Detroit Pistons for the top seed in the Eastern Conference and will play the Pistons (25-9) for the first time this season Monday night in Detroit.
Jalen Brunson (31 points) said the Knicks just need to get back on track.
“We just need to be better defensively,” he said. “There are so many different things you can say. Keep your man in front. Have better rotations. Objectively, we need to be more sound and have each other’s backs. Things aren’t going to be perfect, but we have to have each other’s backs when things break down.”
Brunson said the Knicks miss Josh Hart, considered the heart and soul of the Knicks’ defense. They are 2-3 since Hart injured his ankle on Christmas Day. He is expected to be re-evaluated in a week.
“We miss him, but it’s no excuse,’’ Brunson said. “He’s a big part of what we do, but we need to step up . . . The key is sticking together and not pointing fingers and not feeling sorry for ourselves. Just have each other’s backs. I think that’s the most important.”
Karl-Anthony Towns added 23 points and 14 rebounds for the Knicks. Deuce McBride had 20 points off the bench, shooting 5-for-7 from three-point range, and OG Anunoby had 19 points and six assists.
The Knicks did show some flashes of teamwork. They trailed by as many as 19 points in the third quarter but came up with some solid defensive plays in the fourth quarter that helped them cut the 76ers’ lead to 121-114 with 2:08 left.
They had no answer for Maxey, who shot 14-for-22. He got help from rookie VJ Edgecombe (Long Island Lutheran), the third overall pick in the 2025 NBA Draft, who scored 26 points. Joel Embiid also had 26 points along with 10 rebounds and five assists.
“Obviously, we didn’t play our best basketball,” Brown said. “Maxey was really on. He was a real handful for us. We tried to get the ball out of his hands, and then someone else made plays. If you try to take it out of someone’s hands, you are going to give someone else a chance.”
This is a game the Knicks badly wanted after losing a close one to San Antonio on Wednesday and then getting blown out by Atlanta on Friday.
To counter Embiid, the Knicks started some big guys of their own, opening with a lineup that included both Towns and Mitchell Robinson. Towns missed the loss to Atlanta with a stomach illness and Robinson had missed three straight games as part of the team’s load management strategy.
Teams with athletic guards have bothered the Knicks the most, which is bad news as they head to Detroit to face Cade Cunningham.
It will be the first game the Knicks have played in Detroit since Brunson hit a three-pointer with 4.3 seconds left in Game 6 of the first round of the Eastern Conference playoffs to eliminate the Pistons. Though the Pistons are expected to be without several key players, including Jalen Duren and Tobias Harris, they have been waiting for a rematch for months. And Cunningham poses problems for the Knicks or any other team.
Barbara Barker is an award-winning columnist and features writer in the sports department at Newsday. She has covered sports in New York for more than 20 years.
