May 07, 2026
NEW YORK – In the visiting locker room at Madison Square Garden on Wednesday night, the emotions ranged from wistful to hopeful. None of these Sixers are writing themselves off – not after the historic 3-1 series comeback against the Boston Celtics that got them to this point. But they all knew they let one get away in their Game 2 loss on Wednesday night.
The Sixers, who led the game for a significant period before it became a 108-102 loss, pushed their best players to the limit: Tyrese Maxey only sat for 72 seconds, Paul George neared 43 minutes and VJ Edgecombe and Kelly Oubre Jr. each brushed up against the 40-minute mark. Three-point variance was very much on their side, with the New York Knicks shooting just 7-for-26 from beyond the arc.
The Knicks' best player on most nights, Jalen Brunson, only made nine of his 21 shots. New York's best player on Wednesday, Karl-Anthony Towns, put himself in foul trouble and only played 26 minutes. Mitchell Robinson, Towns' elite backup, was sidelined due to an illness.
Down the stretch, the Sixers generated quality looks time and time again as they tried to put the game away. They failed to knock down any of them.
Brunson connected on a few tough mid-range jumpers, helping drag the Knicks across the finish line. It was a true escape job for New York.
"We felt like we should've won it," Edgecombe said after Game 2. "I'd say it came down to shot-making at the end of the game. They were making shots, we weren't. Brunson made a lot of tough shots towards the end of the game; we missed wide open ones."
But Wednesday's close, spirited loss counts just the same for the Sixers as their 39-point blowout two nights prior in Game 1. It puts them in a challenging 2-0 series hole; the Sixers will need to win four games in five tries to snap their infamous Eastern Conference Finals drought. Maybe that is not such a daunting task for a team that needed to win three games in three tries to eliminate the Boston Celtics and got the job done.
"Don't give up," Edgecombe said. "We're not going to give up. They did what they had to do and [protected] home court. We won't give up. We're going to keep playing hard regardless."
Wednesday was not without silver linings for a Sixers team that did not have any of them on Monday. Even without Joel Embiid, a surprise absence due to ankle and hip ailments, the Sixers were competitive from start to finish, even as fatigue kicked in. Perhaps it started with the rookie Edgecombe, who after a rough defensive outing against Brunson to kick off the series helped set a strong tone defensively. Edgecombe spent the entire game defending Brunson full-court, making New York's superstar earn every point. Kelly Oubre Jr. followed suit, at times bothering Brunson with his length and physicality.
Sixers head coach Nick Nurse said his team submitted an "above-average" defensive performance against Brunson, a sentiment echoed by Edgecombe. That is why Towns became a bigger issue, even in his limited minutes.
Even with Embiid available, the Sixers would not have had any bigs capable of reliably handling Towns. Second-year center Adem Bona, back in the mix with Embiid sidelined, has the physical and athletic makeup, but continues to be prone to miscues that are hard for Nurse to stomach. Andre Drummond is perhaps more trustworthy, but his mobility is nowhere near good enough to handle that matchup. Towns tormented Drummond time and time again, forcing the veteran into last-second closeouts and then easily blowing by him and to the rim.
This has always been a series which called for Nurse to prioritize athleticism over muscle in the frontcourt, and that is why with Bona in foul trouble yet again late in the third quarter of a close game, Nurse finally pulled the lever that probably should have been pulled much earlier. Dominick Barlow, the Sixers' starting power forward for most of the regular season who made sporadic appearances as a small-ball center, entered the game. The whole thing immediately made a lot more sense.
The Sixers suddenly had a quick decision-maker on short rolls as Maxey drew double-teams time and time again. They had a big they could trust to finish inside and avoid making many mistakes. They had someone with the requisite size and athleticism to handle Towns, and the perimeter chops to make Brunson work on switches.
Barlow nearly played 16 consecutive minutes from that point on; as soon as Nurse saw what his team looked like with the 22-year-old playing center he knew he had to stick with it to have any chance to win the game. And perhaps if Maxey or Edgecombe could have knocked down one or two of the open threes they generated in the final frame – the Sixers went nearly six minutes without a basket at one point despite creating efficient opportunities – Barlow would be considered the unsung hero of a series-tying victory.
"We felt we could switch a little bit more, too, with [Barlow]," Nurse said. "We had a couple breakdowns on some of that stuff, but I thought, again, we played good enough defense to win that game, especially in the fourth. I mean, we hold them to 19 in the fourth, you've got to hope you can score more than 20 in a quarter."
Whether Embiid is back for Game 3 in Philadelphia on Friday or not, Barlow is the most obvious candidate to play center minutes off Nurse's bench. He can guard Towns or roam off a suspect three-point shooter with Paul George sliding up to defend Towns, an arrangement Nurse finally looked at late in the fourth quarter and found some success with.
It is a small tweak that might not seem that consequential when a former NBA MVP is sidelined and his running mate commits six turnovers. But had Nurse gone to Barlow earlier, the Sixers might have tied the series on Wednesday.
Every adjustment matters and every possession matters.
"We've got to fight like hell Game 3 if we want to get back in this series," Barlow said. "The goal is just to protect home, but – there's definitely some positives, but we want to walk out with a win, so that's the real positive we're trying to get."
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