On April 26, Beijing time, the NBA playoffs ushered in the first round of G3 between the Knicks and the 76ers. The Knicks have won two consecutive home games and are currently in a strong position in the series. Despite the absence of Randle, an important scoring point, the Knicks are still strong on offense, with six players averaging more than double digits per game. In addition, Bogdanovic has a consistent contribution. What's even more remarkable is that the Knicks are doing a great job in rebounding, averaging 50.5 rebounds per game, which is the second-highest of any team. Hart, in particular, grabbed a staggering 28 rebounds in two games, and his positive attitude injected a lot of energy into the team.
The 76ers, meanwhile, have failed to win two consecutive road games, but judging by the course of the game, they are not without a chance to win. Embiid and Maxey, as the core players of the team's interior and outside, combined to contribute 65.5 points per game, showing strong scoring ability. However, apart from these two, only veteran Lowry has averaged double digits in points per game. Players such as Harris, Oubre and Hield did not perform as expected, which affected the overall fighting power of the team to some extent. Embiid's efficiency has been unsatisfactory since the playoffs and into the first two games of the playoffs. Despite his close to 40% of the rounds, as a center forward, he has been extremely involved in protecting the rim and seems to be out of his duty. What's more noteworthy is that Embiid relies too much on projection on the offensive end, with a projection ratio of nearly 60%, which is undoubtedly a way to put the cart before the horse. He seems to be stealing the work of his teammates while neglecting his defensive responsibilities as a center, which is really worrying.
At the beginning of the first quarter of the game, both teams showed strong competitiveness, and the scores rose alternately on the court, forming a stalemate. The Knicks cooperated tacitly inside and outside to play a 7-0 attack wave, but the 76ers did not show weakness, they responded quickly with accurate shots and sharp breakthroughs, and even shots and free throws, and the strength of the two teams can be described as evenly matched. Heading into the second quarter, the 76ers suddenly came out of nowhere, and a 10-2 wave of attacks gave them the lead. However, the Knicks were not discouraged by this, and they blossomed more and responded strongly to the 76ers' offense with multi-point offense and accurate shooting. At halftime, the Knicks showed their tenacity and strength by three points at 58-55.
In the second half, the two teams continued to fight fiercely, and the score was still deadlocked. However, in the second half of the third quarter, the Knicks suddenly went silent and their shooting percentage dropped significantly. The 76ers took advantage of the situation to launch a 13-5 attack wave to establish a double-digit lead. Entering the final quarter, the two sides fought fiercely over the 10-point difference. Maxey and Embiid teamed up to score points and stabilize the situation for the 76ers. And the Knicks' Anunoby hit consecutive three-pointers in an attempt to close the gap. However, the 76ers took advantage of the free throws and managed to save the victory. In the end, they defeated the Knicks 125-114 to tie the overall score at 1-2. This win means a lot for the 76ers, who are expected to win another game in their next home game.
In this game, Embiid scored 50 points, 8 rebounds and 4 assists in the game, and his third quarter was 7 of 8, with 18 points, 2 rebounds and 2 assists, and he was the number one contributor to the 76ers' victory! As the Knicks' number one star, Brunson also contributed 39 points and 13 assists, but these statistics could not hide his problems in the game, and his performance on 13-of-27 shooting was slightly inefficient, and the garbage time brushed the data, except for making his personal stats look better, did not contribute any substantial help and contribution to the team's overall victory.
It is worth mentioning that in the last two minutes of the G2 game, there were a staggering number of blow errors, three of which were clearly against the 76ers, while the Knicks suffered only one unfavorable miss. To make matters worse, the referee's report also revealed an important detail: the referee ignored Coach Nas's request for a timeout at a critical moment.
In the final 1 minute and 14 seconds, OG Anunoby had a clear three-second violation on the defensive end, but the referee failed to blow the penalty in time, which was undoubtedly a clear miss. In the final 34.7 seconds of the game, Embiid accidentally hit Divin in the head/face with his left hand during the scramble, and this obvious foul action was also missed by the referee.
In the final 27.2 seconds of the match, Maxi and Hart separated after a slight physical contact, at which point the referee did not blow the penalty, which was accurate. However, immediately after 76ers coach Nurse asked for a timeout, but surprisingly, no referee on the court noticed and gave a timeout, which was undoubtedly a major blow to the 76ers.
In the final 27 seconds of the game, Brunson tugged on Maxey's jersey while defending, which obviously affected his passing ability, but this obvious foul was also ignored by the referee. In the final 24.9 seconds of the game, Hart violated Maxey's cylinder during the defense, and the two made contact with the lower half of their bodies, causing Maxey to lose his balance and fall to the ground, which was also a missed judgment against the 76ers.
This series of missed decisions undoubtedly made the 76ers players and coaches extremely unhappy, Embiid almost cried in the locker room, bluntly saying that the referees stole their victory, and after the game, the 76ers management threatened to appeal. However, in this game, Embiid got the whistle he wanted, and the Knicks got a total of 19 free throws in the whole game, while the 76ers got 33 free throws as a team, and Embiid alone got 21 free throws, and Embiid scored 19 points through free throws. It's worth mentioning that the Knicks are not a team that relies on 3-point shooting, they took one less shot from beyond the 3-point line than the 76ers, and Brunson, Hart and others all had enough impact on the paint area. This kind of "compensatory" blowing penalty in the NBA league obviously affects the perception of the game!