Jalen Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns dominated the paint and capitalized on turnovers, fueling a late run to push New York halfway to a second-round series sweep.
The New York Knicks are off to a commanding start in their second-round series against the Philadelphia 76ers.
Behind Jalen Brunson’s 26 points, OG Anunoby’s 24 and Karl-Anthony Towns’ 20 point, 10 rebound double-double, the Knicks picked up a late advantage and coasted to a 108-103 victory after a 9-3 run to close out the game.
For a look at the matchup, here is Knicks Roundtable writer Jack Haslett’s recap.
The wind and be attributed to two key stats.
First, New York’s as unstoppable in the paint. It outpaced Philadelphia in points scoring 56 to the Sixers’ 30.
Second, scoring off of turnovers. The two teams were nearly matched in giveaways, with the Knicks committing 13 turnovers to the 76ers’ 18. But New York was much more effective turning those takeaways into points.
While New York only conceded nine points off of turnovers, Philadelphia gave up 23.
After opening their first series down 2-1 against the Atlanta Hawks, the 3-seeded Knicks are coming out hot against the 7-seed Atlanta Hawks.
The fist round of playoffs proved that 3-1 leads aren’t safe, with a pair of teams coming back from those deficits to win their opening series’, including Philadelphia in their thrilling series win over the Boston Celtics.
Therefore, there’s no need to could the Sixers out just yet.
But the Knicks have now shown that they can win in a variety of ways. Pulling away late in game two follows a 39-point blowout from game one.
The momentum is all New York for now as the two teams are set ton square off in Game 3 on Friday.