The 76ers beat the Knicks 125-114 at home today to tie the score to 1-2. Embiid was a stellar performer, scoring 50 points on 13-of-19 shooting. Maxey had 25 points, Oubre had 15 and Payne had 11 off the bench. For the Knicks, Brunson had 39 points and 13 assists, Hart had 20 points, 6 rebounds and 6 assists, Anunoby had 17 points and Harden had 14 points.
With a 2-0 lead, the Knicks did not slack off at all and still maintained a high-intensity game mode. They also know that they can't give the 76ers a chance to recover, and they must always stay motivated. But today's 76ers are clearly the more winning-minded side, as they are already 2-0 down and can't afford to lose.
So after both sides increased the intensity, the process of the game was once a variety of pictures of holding and falling to the ground, but compared to Harden and Miro, Embiid is a higher-level athlete after all, and after matching the intensity, there is no interference from other factors, and the strength of the 76ers is obviously stronger than the Knicks. Although Embiid went to the free throw line 21 times, it wasn't Embiid's free throws that affected the game.
There's a free throw controversy about Embiid, a few words in a nutshell. Most of Embiid's free throws came in the fourth quarter, and by this time the 76ers already had a 7- or 8-point lead. The 76ers took a big lead in the second half of the third quarter, and during that time, Embiid relied on consecutive three-pointers to score points, not by standing at the free throw line. So today the Knicks lost to Embiid's three-pointer.
But Embiid's three-point shooting is not a regular scoring method after all, and no one knows if the next game can shoot the effect of the second half of the third quarter today. Therefore, the main theme of this round of the series may still be hand-to-hand combat and grappling, and once it comes to this level, it depends on the referee's penalty scale. As a weaker Knicks, they may want to loosen the scale a little and allow the body to have a bigger confrontation. As for the stronger 76ers, they may still want to tighten the scale and try to keep the game from too many other factors.