Landry Shamet buried six threes as the Knicks handed the Sixers, who trotted out their 52nd different starting lineup, their ninth straight loss.
That might have been a painless loss but it certainly wasn’t quick.
On a night they set the record for most unique starting lineups in a season, the Sixers fell 105-91 the New York Knicks.
Quentin Grimes didn’t quite have another revenge game, but he still did lead Philadelphia with 26 points on 8-of-18 shooting along with five assists. Their next highest scorers were Ricky Council IV with 13 and Lonnie Walker IV with 11. OG Anunoby led all scorers with 27.
Landry Shamet made as many threes (six) as the Sixers did as a team.
Guerschon Yabusele was out with knee soreness, but Grimes was back and Kyle Lowry was available for the first time since Feb. 9. Karl-Anthony Towns was out for New York as well as Jalen Brunson.
Here are some grades at the buzzer.
Quentin Grimes
Grimes fared better than his teammates in the first half offensively, though that was quite a low bar to clear — they didn’t have a single double-digit scorer. His highlight for the first chunk of the game was an offensive rebound he came soaring in for, and even that ended in another missed shot when it was swung back around the perimeter.
He struggled a bit taking care of the ball, but was plenty active stealing those back on the other end. He finished with three steals and was responsible for several others. Despite a scary fall at the beginning of the third quarter where he came up favoring his wrist, he led a two-way stretch that actually saw the Sixers briefly make the game competitive.
Grade: B-
Adem Bona
Even with his extended run over the past month or so, there aren’t many matchups for him in the league as tall and physical as Mitchell Robinson. He got swarmed early for a couple turnovers, and picked up a couple needless fouls that put him into trouble, but he settled in rather well. Robinson is always going to rack up offensive rebounds, but Bona made he sure he put up a fight on that end.
He wasn’t able to put together much offensively — a lot of that came down to smaller guards the Sixers had out not really being able to navigate through anything in the paint.
Grade: C+
Justin Edwards
This was certainly the most Edwards has struggled in quite some time. He was pretty active getting deflections so far across a sloppy first half, but fell victim to plenty of them himself. He had five of the team’s 13 turnovers in that half. Unlike others, he didn’t do much to contribute in the third quarter, the only part of the game that was competitive, but he stopped giving the ball away to impede their progress during that time.
Grade: D
Lonnie Walker IV
As was common on the night, he struggled to get anything to go down in the first half, and saw success with persistent drives in the second. The dump-off passes were not nearly as available as the previous game, but he didn’t try to completely abandon them, and finished with four assists on the night.
Walker’s athleticism did come in handy as the Sixers needed rebounds anywhere they could get them. He helped a lot by actually finishing possessions. The two best Sixers’ rebounders on the night might have been him and Marcus Bagley, showing all the hustle of a guy on the final day of his 10-day contract.
Grade: C+
Up next for the Sixers is another team still playing for plenty as they’ll host the Milwaukee Bucks Thursday night at 7 p.m. ET.