The party had already begun at Madison Square Garden. The Knicks, one more time, had been tougher all across the fourth quarter, had made every important shot, had made every essential defensive stop.
You have to go back to 1999 — Game 6 against the Pacers, Eastern Conference finals — to find the last time the Knicks had clinched a playoff series at home.
Twenty-five years later, the Knicks were going to close out the 76ers.
There were fewer than 30 seconds left. The Knicks led by six. The only way the Sixers could survive was an immediate falling of dominoes, one into the other, an instant series of unfortunate events. The roof was about to blow. The Knicks were fixing to ease into the second round.
“It wasn’t the greatest of circumstances,” Philly coach Nick Nurse said.
Then the first domino fell: Tyrese Maxey made a 3.
And a second: Mitch Robinson, inexplicably — unforgivably — fouled Maxey. Maxey made the foul shot. Suddenly a six-point breeze was a two-point grinder.
And a third: Josh Hart, fouled with 15.1 seconds to go, made only one of two free throws.
And a fourth: Up three, the Knicks should have fouled. The Knicks didn’t foul.
And a fifth: Maxey made a 34-footer that barely touched the net, let alone the rim. Tie game. OT.
The Garden? It won’t sound any quieter at 3 in the morning than it did right there.
The rest? Well, you could guess the rest. The Knicks took a quick five-point lead, and the Sixers erased it just as quick. The Sixers won in overtime, 112-106. There will be a Game 6 on Thursday night in Philly.
“Tough way to lose a ballgame,” Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau said. “We had a lead, and we’ve got to play tougher with the lead.”
Once upon a time, the Knicks survived one of the forever punches to the solar plexus when Jerry West hit a half-court shot to tie Game 3 of the 1970 NBA Finals at the buzzer at the L.A. Forum. The Knicks never win that championship if they aren’t able to bounce back and win that game in overtime. They won the game.
These Knicks won’t see the second round this time if they can’t put this egregious gag behind them. They had one shot, in OT, couldn’t do it. They have another one Thursday at Wells Fargo Center — where you expect it’ll be fairly full of Philly fanatics this time. And a third, Saturday, in an all-or-nothing Game 7 the Knicks probably want no part of.
‘That’s a game we should’ve won,” said Hart, whose missed free throw late obscured an otherwise terrific 18 points and nine rebounds in all 53 minutes. “All we can do is watch film and regroup and get ready for the game [Thursday].”
One of the troubling realities of this one was Embiid, who registered a triple-double (19 points, 11 rebounds, 10 assists) but only vaguely resembled the dominant force he’d been across the first four games. It’s hard to believe he’ll have another one of those in him the rest of the series.
Then there’s this: The two men most responsible for all the Knicks have been this year — Jalen Brunson and Tom Thibodeau — were at least partly responsible for the way the foundation splintered.
Brunson was mostly terrific — 41 points, six assists — but couldn’t get the Knicks’ offense focused in OT, and it was awfully iso-heavy. He missed a late free throw. Then made an unforced-error turnover that all but cinched the game.
“Not good judgment on my part,” Brunson said.
And Thibodeau chose not to foul up 3 at the end of regulation. He did that at the end of Game 2, up one, and Joel Embiid’s long 3 missed badly. He wasn’t as lucky this time. Maxey — 46 points and nine rebound in 52 electric minutes — made him pay. He kicked the Garden in its collective teeth. And it’s on to Thursday.
“We could’ve done better in that situation,” Thibodeau said, “and we will.”
Said OG Anunoby: “We have to execute better. We’ll be better.”
You probably don’t put games like this on a shelf, or on a mantel. Do you lock them away in the basement? In the attic? Bury them in the yard?
Then bury this one along with some of the Knicks’ greatest hits of heartache through the years, in the same ditch with the Finger Roll Game, with the Reggie Miller Game, with the Charles Smith game.
Cover it with dirt. Try to forget.
You probably won’t, not quickly, not easily, because that is the fan’s burden. It’s the Knicks themselves that’ll have to do that bit of heavy lifting. We’ve praised them ceaselessly for the two things that have defined them all year: being ruthless fourth-quarter finishers and being relentlessly resilient when hardship befalls them.
They didn’t live up to the first one Tuesday night. Thursday they’ll try to fulfill the second. If they can’t, it’ll be Game 7 on Saturday, and it won’t be the Knicks who’ll be roaring in on a wave of momentum. The Knicks stole one in Game 2. They got pick-pocketed eight nights later. See you on the Turnpike.
