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Philadelphia 76ers: 5 Takeaways from New York Knicks Game

Updated Mar. 4, 2020 8:14 p.m. ET

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Fansided, Kevin Kolodziej/FanSided via The Sixer Sense

The Philadelphia 76ers defeated the New York Knicks by a final score of 98-97 on Wednesday night, and there was plenty to take away from the contest.

Michael Jordan is the greatest NBA player of all time. For short, he went by the nickname “M.J.”. The Philadelphia 76ers‘ second-year point guard out of the University of Arizona is named Timothy John McConnell. For short, he goes by the nickname “T.J.”.

Coincidence? Not a chance.

Jordan cemented his legacy by consistently making game-winning jump shots. On Wednesday night against the New York Knicks, McConnell hit the first game-winning shot of his career to give the Sixers a 98-97 home victory.

Jokes aside, and while it certainly isn’t on the magnitude of any of Jordan’s magnificent game-winners, McConnell’s turnaround buzzer-beating jumper in between Carmelo Anthony and Kristaps Porzingis was the 76ers’ biggest shot of the season.

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The victory improved the Sixers’ record to 11-25 on the year, and Philadelphia has now won four of its last five games. This is the same team that won just 10 games all of last season.

Aside from McConnell’s clutch buzzer-beater, Joel Embiid shined and led the team in both points (21) and rebounds (14). His 14 boards are a new career high.

Nerlens Noel contributed 13 points with 8 rebounds while Ersan Ilyasova scored 16 points. Robert Covington and Gerald Henderson went for 13 and 12 points, respectively.

For the Knicks, Carmelo Anthony dropped a game-high 28 points and Derrick Rose contributed 25. Reserve forward Kyle O’Quinn had 10 points and 15 rebounds in the loss.

There was plenty that we learned during the thrilling victory, and here’s a look at five of the main takeaways from Wednesday night.

1 – McConnell Deserves to Start

Aside from the game-winning shot against the New York Knicks on Wednesday night, T.J. McConnell has elevated his game to another level this season, specifically over the past month.

Last year, he was a fringe-NBA player, but this year, the Philadelphia 76ers have a 5-1 record with McConnell as a starter.

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Against the Boston Celtics on Jan. 6, McConnell dished out 17 assists (tied for the fourth highest total in a single game this season, only behind Russell Westbrook, Chris Paul and John Wall).

He’s excelling on the defensive end of the floor, as well, and is second on the Sixers’ roster (only behind Robert Covington’s 1.6) with 1.4 steals per game despite only averaging 21.7 minutes per outing (10th-highest minutes total on the team) .

McConnell is looking more confident out on the floor and his teammates are beginning to trust him.

Sixers coach Brett Brown had some high praise for McConnell following Wednesday’s win.

There has been a lot of debate this season as to who should start for the 76ers at point guard this year, and now that Sergio Rodriguez (who started the year as the team’s starter) is back healthy, the debate will almost certainly start back up again soon.

But if McConnell keeps playing at the level he has been over the past month or so, the Sixers will have no option but to continue starting the second-year guard out of the University of Arizona.

Dec 29, 2016; Salt Lake City, UT, USA; Philadelphia 76ers forward Ersan Ilyasova (7) brings the ball up the court against the Utah Jazz during the first quarter at Vivint Smart Home Arena. Mandatory Credit: Chris Nicoll-USA TODAY Sports

2 – Ilyasova Needs to Find His Stroke Again

When the Philadelphia 76ers traded for Ersan Ilyasova in the beginning of the season, it was a move that brought a shooter to the City of Brotherly Love. While Ilyasova has been a consistent outside threat for the majority of the season, that trend has changed as of late.

During his first 30 games with the Sixers, Ilyasova made 40 percent of his shots from 3-point land. But over his last three games, he hasn’t been anywhere near that mark.

Against the Boston Celtics three games ago, he went just 4-for-14 from behind the arc. Two games ago against the Brooklyn Nets, he made just 1 of his 7 3-point attempts. On Wednesday against the New York Knicks, he went just 1-for-8 from downtown.

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In total, that’s 6-for-29: a total of just 20.6-percent.

Now, I understand the old basketball saying that “shooters gotta shoot”, and that’s quite literally the only way to get out of a shooting slump, but at what point does Ilyasova need to think about taking a few steps in from the 3-point line? Or maybe taking a few less attempts from outside the arc for the time being?

Sure, he managed to finish with 16 points, but much of that was due to his midrange game. He also had a couple nice dump-offs in the lane (he finished with four assists, including the game-winning assist to McConnell) and managed to grab 5 rebounds, but when you’re a shooting specialist, you have to be a better shooter.

I’m confident that Ilyasova will turn things back around (using his track record/career shooting percentages as a guideline), but for the Sixers’ sake, they better hope it’s sooner rather than later.

If he can get back to shooting to a 40 percent clip how he was earlier in the year, it would help the team tremendously.

3 – The Sixers are Showing Poise Under Pressure

Despite trailing by as many as 17 points in the first quarter, the Philadelphia 76ers kept their composure and fought their way back to a victory on Wednesday night.

That says a lot about a team that lost so many close games early in the year.

The Sixers are now 4-1 over their last five games and have won all four by 10 points or less. In fact, three of those victories (Denver Nuggets:124-122, Minnesota Timberwolves: 93-91, New York Knicks: 98-97) have been decided by two points or less. The 10-point victory came against the Brooklyn Nets (105-95 final).

Philadelphia coach Brett Brown deserves a lot of the credit for his team’s late-game success. Against the Timberwolves, he drew up a brilliant play with under two seconds left to seal the victory. In case you missed it, here is the video:

With the seconds ticking down against the Knicks on Wednesday, Brown let his players do just that – play. It ended up being the right decision to not call the timeout as McConnell buried the turnaround jumper over Carmelo Anthony as the buzzer sounded.

In case you missed it, here’s the video of the final sequence:

Brown was receiving a lot of criticism for his young team’s late-game woes earlier in the season, but it appears the former San Antonio Spurs assistant has found his groove.

It’s hard to imagine the Sixers would even be in this many close game without Brown at the helm, let alone succeeding in them.

Their crunch-time play as of late is a testament to both Brown and the players’d efforts this season.

2 – Can’t allow

4 – Embiid Deserves to be an All Star

It feels like we’re beating a dead horse by saying this again, but it’s borderline unbelievable to think that Joel Embiid has still only ever played 26 games in his NBA career.

Of course, being so young, you’d expect him to continue to get better, but did anyone really expect him to progress this much this quickly?

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During Wednesday’s win over the Knicks, the former Kansas Jayhawk dropped 21 points to go along with a career-high 14 rebounds.

While he was certainly the Sixers’ best player, it wasn’t exactly smooth sailing from beginning to end.

To start the game, Knicks reserve forward Kyle O’Quinn posted 10 points and 11 rebounds before halftime. Despite his All-Star numbers early on, O’Quinn is nowhere close to an All-Star talent.

Once Embiid and the Sixers’ defense made adjustments, O’Quinn was held scoreless in the second half and only grabbed four more rebounds. It just goes to show that, despite his lack of experience, Embiid already has one of the highest basketball IQ’s in the entire NBA and is extremely effective on both sides of the court. When he wants to, he can completely shut down certain NBA players.

Last week, the NBA announced the current All Star votes across the league, and Embiid received the fourth-most votes among forwards in the Eastern Conference.

Embiid is already among the best big men in the entire NBA, and he continues to get better each game.

Due to his play so far this season, there’s no denying that Embiid deserves to be an All-Star.

5 – Okafor Needs to Get Traded

It’s no longer a question of “which big man should the Philadelphia 76ers trade in order to unclog their front-court log-jam?” The question has essentially answered itself over the past couple of weeks.

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While Jahlil Okafor is certainly a very talented offensive-minded big man in the NBA, and should almost definitely have a long NBA career, it’s become clear that he just doesn’t fit with what the Sixers are trying to do as a team.

Since Okafor has been out of the rotation, the Sixers have gone 4-1. In 31 games before Okafor was taken out of the rotation, Philadelphia went 7-24.

Simply taking Okafor out of the lineup with no replacement has tremendously improved the team’s production on both ends of the floor.

Sure, the whole league knows that the Sixers have too many big men, and he might not bring back the biggest haul in return, but imagine if they traded him for even an above-average outside shooter. As it stands, the 76ers are tied with the Minnesota Timberwolves for the 19th-highest team 3-point percentage in the league (35.2-percent). Even someone who does nothing but shoot consistently from 3-point range would benefit this team greatly, especially when Ben Simmons comes back.

As it stands, Okafor is burning a whole in the 76ers’ bench while watching Nerlens Noel take the minutes that were once his (and rightfully so). Noel is a better fit with Joel Embiid both offensively and defensively, and complements Embiid’s game well.

The Sixers have tried to play Okafor alongside both Embiid and Noel, and it just doesn’t work.

There’s no denying that Okafor is a talented offensive player, but there’s also no denying that he just doesn’t fit with the Philadelphia 76ers.

Next up, the Philadelphia 76ers will host the Charlotte Hornets on Friday, Jan. 13, with the tipoff slated for 7 p.m.

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