The Sixers suffered multiple devastating losses the last time they played the Knicks in the playoffs. How they respond in this series will determine if Game 2 is historically heartbreaking or just a footnote.
The last time the Sixers faced the Knicks in the playoffs before this season was in a best-of-five first-round series 35 years ago, in 1989. The Philadelphia coach was Jim Lynam, and when he was asked about that Tuesday, Lynam, now NBCSports Philadelphia’s studio analyst, immediately lapsed into the rat-a-tat delivery all coaches seem to adopt when conjuring up such memories.
Which is to say that he sounded like a man describing something happening right in front of him, as opposed to harkening back over three decades. Specifically, he recalled Game 2 of what became a three-game New York sweep.
“I’m gonna say we’re up seven, a minute and 30 at most left, probably less,” he said. “We turn Mark Jackson over, and Ron Anderson’s on the break.”
Jackson being the Knicks’ earthbound point guard, and Anderson being the Sixers’ sleek sixth man.
“Mark Jackson chases it down, and takes Ron Anderson to the glass,” Lynam said, meaning that Jackson blocked Anderson’s shot off the backboard.
Lynam could not conceal his amazement, even all these years later — and understandably so. The 6-1 Jackson was some six inches shorter than Anderson, and never known for his vertical.
“Mark Jackson couldn’t do that to me, today,” the 82-year-old Lynam said. “It was an out-of-body experience.”
The game was actually even worse than Lynam remembers. The Sixers led by 10 with 2:12 left, according to the Inquirer’s game account, only to see the Knicks rattle off the last 11 points and win, 107-106. But yes, the gap was indeed seven when the Jackson-Anderson play occurred.
And that loss, coupled with a six-point defeat in Game 1 and a one-point overtime loss in Game 3, cements the series in Lynam’s memory.
“We should have swept them,” he said.
This is how much losses like that — much less the Sixers’ Game 2 collapse Monday, in the current Knicks series — linger. They hang over a franchise like smog, clouding the atmosphere, leaving everyone with a dark, distorted view of history.
Certainly the Sixers have had their share of dismal postseason defeats, no matter the era. They came courtesy of John Havlicek stealing the ball (or, at least, deflecting it) in 1965. Or Larry Bird going glass in 1981 — “something he never did,” as Bob Ryan, now retired after a long, distinguished career at the Boston Globe, said Tuesday. Or Kawhi Leonard coaxing in that ridiculous jumper in 2019. Or Ben Simmons refusing to dunk in 2021.
Monday’s 104-101 loss, a game the Sixers led by five in the final half-minute, joins that ignominious pantheon.
“I think it goes to the head of the class,” Ryan said. “(Monday) night is going to go down in history.”
The mitigating factor is that it was not a Game 7, as was the case in the other examples cited above. The Sixers can still win the series, and Joel Embiid has promised that they will. But everything about the last 27.4 seconds on Monday defies belief. The three-pointers by Jalen Brunson and Donte DiVincenzo. The uncalled fouls against Tyrese Maxey. The timeout signals by Sixers coach Nick Nurse that went unacknowledged by game officials.
The NBA admitted Tuesday that the referees did in fact err in the latter two matters. In its Last Two Minute Report, the league noted that Maxey was fouled twice in the closing seconds. That Brunson grabbed his jersey as Maxey was trying to free himself up to accept Kyle Lowry’s inbounds pass after Brunson’s triple cut the gap to 101-99, and Josh Hart knocked him to the floor, causing Maxey to lose the ball and setting the stage for the dramatic finish.
The league further admitted that Nurse should have been granted a timeout, and indeed the video clearly shows he was trying to call one throughout the final, fateful sequence.
Not that any of that does the Sixers any good now. They are down 2-0, and need to win four of the last five games to take the series, with at least one of those on the road.
Lynam believes they can.
“C’mon, it’s not even close,” he said. “You’ve got the two best players by light years.”
Meaning Embiid and Maxey. But Embiid aggravated his knee injury in Game 1, and while he collected 34 points and 10 rebounds Monday, wasn’t moving well at all by the end.
The other thing is, the stars need some help. Lowry has averaged 13 points through the first two games, while doing Lowry things. Kelly Oubre Jr. has defended Brunson well, but like some other key guys has been a non-factor on the offensive end. Oubre, Nicolas Batum and Buddy Hield have combined for 28 points on 9-for-28 shooting so far.
“I’ve gotta put Tobias (Harris) in there,” Lynam said. “C’mon, man — you’ve gotta give us more.”
Harris has missed 11 of 18 shots and scored 17 points in the first two games. Exactly four have come in the second halves, none Monday.
The Sixers, who host Game 3 on Thursday and Game 4 on Sunday, can pin their hopes on the fact that role players tend to perform better at home. (Witness the Knicks’ Isaiah Hartenstein on Monday.) They can pray that the basketball gods repay them, or that they get a kinder whistle.
The other thing is, each playoff game tends to be a standalone.
“They’re like fingerprints,” Lynam said. “Every game is unique. When you have a chance to lock one down, you better do it. Strange things can happen.”
As we witnessed Monday. As indeed we’ve witnessed throughout the Sixers’ long, tortured history. They now have an opportunity to render Game 2 as nothing more than an unhappy footnote, as an obstacle they overcame. Doing anything less enables it to take on a life of its own, to live on in infamy.