Knicks at 76ers
The Philadelphia 76ers announced on Wednesday that star rookie center Joel Embiid's season was over due to a knee injury and then went out and played like a team that had lost hope. The 76ers will try to find the energy to compete when they return home and host the New York Knicks on Friday.
Embiid missed 17 of the previous 18 games but there was still hope he could come back and resume his place as the center of Philadelphia's rebuilding process before it was announced on Wednesday that MRI scans revealed a more pronounced meniscus tear than originally assumed, and the team went on to suffer a 125-98 loss at Miami later that night. "That is an outlier, that’s not who we are," 76ers coach Brett Brown told reporters. "They exposed us individually, our inability to guard them, but that type of result has not been us. It’s part of the NBA landscape - we win together, we lose together, and we move on." The Knicks got their young frontcourt star - Kristaps Porzingis - back from a two-game absence due to an ankle injury on Wednesday and managed to pull off a 101-90 win at Orlando to pull within four games of the No. 8 spot in the Eastern Conference. “We’re still playing for something,” All-Star forward Carmelo Anthony told reporters. “We’re not just going out there just to be playing basketball. We have the mindset of still trying to make something happen."
TV: 7 p.m. ET, MSG (New York), CSN Philadelphia
ABOUT THE KNICKS (25-36): Porzingis started at center in a smaller lineup on Wednesday and scored a team-high 20 points in the win. “I haven’t heard anything from any guy that doesn’t still believe we can make the playoffs,” Porzingis told reporters. “It’s very tough but mathematically we have a chance. Until we don’t have a chance, we’re not going to just give up. We got to keep fighting." Getting more from Anthony would help the climb toward contention, but he went 4-of-16 from the field on Wednesday and is 8-of-31 from 3-point range in the four games since the All-Star break.
ABOUT THE 76ERS (22-38): One jumper Anthony did manage to hit in the last several games came against Philadelphia on Saturday, when his shot with 0.3 seconds left gave the Knicks a 110-109 win over the 76ers. Center Jahlil Okafor collected 28 points and 10 rebounds to help keep the 76ers in that game but totaled 10 points, 10 boards and 12 turnovers in the last two contests as the latest losing streak reached three straight. Philadelphia bottomed out defensively on Wednesday by allowing Miami to shoot 54.4 percent from the field while matching a season high in points allowed.
BUZZER BEATERS
1. 76ers PF Richaun Holmes is 22-of-34 from the field in four games since the break.
2. New York C Wily Hernangomez (ankle) sat out the last game and is day-to-day.
3. Both meetings were decided by a single point this season, with Philadelphia earning a 98-97 home win on Jan. 11.