NEW YORK — The Philadelphia 76ers missed a golden opportunity to win Game 2 against the New York Knicks on Monday night Tyrese Maxey gave Philadelphia a 100-96 lead with 1:09 left, but the Knicks had a miraculous comeback to win it 104-101.
Of course, there was controversy over the chaotic possession that gave the Knicks the lead. It appeared Maxey was fouled on the inbounds pass after the Jalen Brunson 3, and it also appeared that coach Nick Nurse had called timeout.
The Sixers did not receive a call in either instance, and New York ended up taking the lead off an offensive rebound — a Donte DiVincenzo triple with 13.0 seconds left.
“The shot he made was a tough shot,” Nic Batum said. “Brunson’s shot was a tough shot. Like, step aside, bounce one, get in, and out of bounds, like, I don’t know what happened. I gotta watch the replay. We called timeout, we don’t have it. I don’t really know what happened so I won’t speculate on that, but we should have won that game. We did not.”
With that being said, the Sixers are still breathing. The series now shifts to the Wells Fargo Center and Philadelphia has to be able to give a big response.
“We still got a chance,” said Batum. “We’re not down 0-4. We’re down 0-2. They did their job at home. It’s on us to do the same thing back home.”
The Knicks have proven to be a very tough and physical team through the first two games of this series. As the series shifts, that isn’t going to change. New York will still bring a fight that Philadelphia will have to match.
Being in the league as long as Batum has, he knows and understands that the Sixers will have to be ready. They have to forget about Game 2 and move on.
“You have to,” Batum finished. “Like I said, it’s a tough one. It’s a tough one, but you gotta move on. You gotta move on. We had a chance to win those two. A tough environment. A tough arena on the road. Now we go home and we get two days to rest, correct a couple stuff, and it’ll be another fight. They’re not going to give up. It should be another big game.”
Game 3 is on Thursday night in South Philadelphia.
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