Knicks bury 76ers 144-114 behind
Game 4 3-point barrage, back in East finals for 2nd straight year
[May 11, 2026]
By DAN GELSTON
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Jalen Brunson, Josh Hart and the New York Knicks
are back in the Eastern Conference finals, tying the NBA postseason
record with 25 3-pointers in front of a raucous crowd rooting for
the road team and rolling past the Philadelphia 76ers 144-114 on
Sunday to sweep the second-round series.
Deuce McBride started in place of the injured OG Anunoby and hit
seven 3-pointers, going 4 for 4 in the first quarter when the Knicks
had another record with 11, and scored 25 points. Brunson had 22
points and Hart and Karl-Anthony Towns each scored 17 in the Knicks'
latest lopsided playoff victory.
The Knicks' 19.4 point-per-game margin of victory is the largest
through two rounds since the playoffs went to 16 teams in 1984.
“It's just us being very locked in to the moment,” Towns said.
The Knicks advanced to the East finals for the second straight
season and will play the winner of the Cleveland-Detroit series. The
Pistons lead 2-1.
The Knicks last season reached the conference finals for the first
time in 25 years before losing to Indiana. The Knicks then fired
coach Tom Thibodeau and replaced him with Mike Brown, who has guided
them to seven straight playoff wins, starting with the last three
games against Atlanta.
“Our guys tried to take it to another level with their focus on the
details and their energy and effort level,” Brown said. “That's a
lot of the reason why we're playing pretty good basketball.”
Knicks fans made a habit of scooping up tickets by the thousands at
the Sixers' arena for playoffs games over the years, and in Game 4,
they may have made the loudest statement yet. They raised brooms
outside the arena and waved “Always Knicks” towels once inside, all
while noisily neutering the few Sixers fans that didn't make a few
extra bucks on the secondary market and stuck around.
The 76ers' franchise failed to stop Knicks fans in their effort to
buy tickets.
The 76ers were greater failures in trying to stop the Knicks on the
floor.
Game 4 was a laugher from the tip, with the Knicks using the 3-point
arc as a starting point for their personal pop-a-shot game.
With Knicks fans on their feet and exclaiming “Deuuuce," McBride hit
one, two, three, four — four! — 3-pointers in succession for a 20-6
lead and the Sixers were already on their heels. McBride became the
first Knick (since play-by-play tracking began in 1997) to hit four
3s in the first quarter of a playoff game.
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New York Knicks' fans hold up a photo as Philadelphia 76ers' Joel
Embiid takes a free-throw shot during the first half of Game 4
against the New York Knicks in a second-round NBA basketball
playoffs series Sunday, May 10, 2026, in Philadelphia. (AP
Photo/Matt Slocum)
New York's 3-point records were just heating up.
Brunson added two in the period (six total) to help make the Knicks
11 of 13, which tied the NBA mark for most makes in a quarter.
The Knicks totaled 18 3s in the first half to score 54 points off
the long ball, compared to 57 total for the 76ers. Overall, that was
an 81-57 lead and helped power the Knicks toward their first
best-of-seven series sweep since the 1999 East semis against
Atlanta.
The Knicks scored 80-plus points in the first half twice in five
road playoff games this season.
The second half was a mere formality, and the Sixers are headed home
after a gutsy 3-1 series comeback to beat Boston in the first round.
“The energy was a big gap between their energy and our energy, I
thought," Sixers coach Nick Nurse said.
Joel Embiid ended another injury-riddled season with 24 points,
Tyrese Maxey had 17 and the Sixers still have not advanced out of
the second round since 2001.
“I came into this year not knowing where I was going to be (with
health), how long I was going to play, if I was even going to play
based on how the knee was the last few years,” Embiid said. “I came
in just hoping for the best and I feel like we're in a position
where we figured out the knee. It hasn't been an issue.”
Towns had 10 assists. Hart hit four 3-pointers and celebrated by
stripping off his jersey and tossing it to a woman in Sixers gear.
“My right hand remembered that the goal was to make 3s,” Hart said.
“Happy to have her back.”
If the sweep and the Knicks' fan takeover didn't saddle the Sixers
with enough bad news, there was one final cutting blow to the ego —
Philadelphia's two first-round 2018 draft picks are still playing:
Mikal Bridges and Landry Shamet, of course, for the Knicks.
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