Game Recap: 2026 NBA Playoffs Round 2, Game 3 – NYK at PHI; W; NYK: 108, PHI: 94

Life is awesome when a team wins a playoff game without one of its biggest stars. The Knicks didn’t need OG Anunoby to stuff the 76ers in a 0-3 hole.

No NBA team has ever overcome a three-game deficit in a best-of-seven series, and despite being without OG Anunoby, the Knicks sealed the envelope with a 108-94 victory in Philadelphia.

One of the hardest playoff games to win is the first on the road against a desperate, winless opponent. From the opening buzzer, the Sixers tried to make their mark. They scratched and clawed at the Knicks, getting the benefit of just about every foul call in the early minutes of the opening quarter.

The Knicks trailed by as many as eight points in the first quarter, but they cut the deficit to four by the end of the frame. With 8:20 remaining in the second quarter, Jose Alvarado drained a go-ahead triple, and the Knicks never looked back. They fought, shorthanded, for a victory before an orange-and-blue road crowd.

“It was definitely a team effort,” Jalen Brunson said. “Obviously, we want everyone back healthy, but it was important for everyone to step up and have the right mindset: to do whatever you’ve got to do to win.”

Without Anunoby, who is nursing a minor hamstring injury with an undisclosed timeline, everybody had to step up for the Knicks. In the first quarter, Paul George, matched up with Miles McBride, scored 15 points. It looked like George was going to take over the game, but Mike Brown rearranged the matchup and put Josh Hart on him instead. For the next 36 minutes, George didn’t score a single point.

“Everybody stepped up,” Mikal Bridges said. “We know how much OG means to us, and everybody has to do their part. Everybody has to lend a hand. I think we all did that.”

Hart hurt his hand in Game 2, but he played through the pain yesterday. His scoring production has been limited in this series, with just 12 points in 40 minutes yesterday, but that is because he has stepped primarily into a defensive role, which has created more scoring opportunities for Bridges.

Remember, Bridges couldn’t find the basket for six straight quarters in the Knicks’ first-round series versus Atlanta. Against Philadelphia, his hometown team, he has played with a chip on his shoulder. In Game 3, he scored 23 points, the second most on the Knicks, shooting 8-of-14 from the field. Also, for the third straight game, he brilliantly limited Tyrese Maxey’s production to 17 points in 44 minutes.

“I wouldn’t be doing my job if I didn’t point out the continued work Mikal is doing at the point of attack with Maxey,” Brown said. “Maxey is a great player, and you’re not going to stop him. You’ve got to give multiple efforts while guarding him. Mikal’s busting his behind trying to do that while also doing well offensively.”

Brunson also had a fantastic Game 3 despite a 0-for-4 start from the field and a 2-for-8 first quarter. He finished with 33 points and nine assists in 38 minutes, which was especially important because Karl-Anthony Towns endured early foul trouble. He had three fouls by the end of the first half.

Towns finished the game with eight points and 12 rebounds, and some of his foul calls were questionable at best. “I’m not surprised at anything anymore,” Towns said of the officiating.

Whenever the Knicks can run their offense through Brunson, they are in business, and his success without Towns was noteworthy. A Brunson-oriented offense seldom worked against Atlanta, and it probably will not be as effective in the conference finals. But it worked yesterday, with Brunson primarily matched up against VJ Edgecombe and Kelly Oubre Jr.

“What’s the dude’s name on Snoopy? Linus?” Brown inquired. “He’s got a blanket. I’m Linus, and Jalen is my blanket.

“He helps me relax a lot of different times throughout the course of the game. That’s what great players do. They keep you poised, they make the game easier for everybody else, and they help you get through the stretch.”

Anunoby’s absence, combined with McBride’s shooting woes, also created a lane for Landry Shamet, who recorded a team-best +20 rating with 15 bench points. Shamet, often regarded as a one-trick pony for his three-point shooting prowess, hasn’t gotten much playing time this postseason, but when his number was called last night, he was ready.

“Landry hadn’t played a drop all playoffs,” Brown said. “I think the first game, he was in the rotation, and then the second game, a little bit, then he was out. That’s six, seven games that he hadn’t seen significant minutes on the court.

"Landry was huge for us tonight. He was huge on both ends of the floor. We needed a spark from somebody when we were down, and they hit us in the mouth, and Landry gave it to us.”

With all the time Towns spent on the bench, Mitchell Robinson received additional playing time. He only scored six points, but his energy proved infectious as he helped the Knicks maintain their lead throughout the second half.

Remember Joel Embiid’s dirty play two years ago that injured Robinson’s ankle, ending his postseason and delaying the start of his next season? Robinson hasn’t discussed his opinions on that play or on Embiid recently, but he got his revenge yesterday with a play that Knicks fans will remember forever:

Image Courtesy: Jesse D. Garrabrant; NBAE via Getty Images

Thanks to a perfect inbound pass by Brunson, Robinson engulfed Embiid with his entire body and knocked him to the deck. He turned one of the NBA’s biggest players into his personal punching bag. He made Embiid look small. Yet, Robinson insisted he no longer thinks about Embiid’s dirty play two years ago that caused him to miss significant time. Or maybe his emotions subsided after squashing his foe.

“I hear people talk about it,” Robinson said. “I kind of just channel it out. At the end of the day, it happened two years ago. You can’t go back in the past, and I don’t want to go back in the past and relive it. So, it’s like, just learn, move on from it, keep pushing.”

I wrote yesterday that it would be bullying for the Knicks to kick the pitiful Sixers while they were down. Well, the Knicks didn’t directly target an injured Embiid yesterday, but Robinson sure looked like he wanted a piece of one of the Knicks fans’ most hated players. I was at the Madison Square Garden watch party yesterday, so I can tell you first-hand just how rambunctious the fans were after that play.

“You talk about being physical without fouling defensively,” Brown said. “You can be physical without fouling offensively, too. He set some great screens. And you can talk about it, too, driving to the paint for a paint touch and a spray 3. His rolls — he’s a dynamic roller — his rolls caused Philadelphia’s defense [to collapse], and that allows us to spray.”

Tomorrow, the Knicks will go for the sweep against the not-so-brotherly 76ers. Tip-off is scheduled for 3:30 PM on ABC.

Cover Image Courtesy: New York Knicks; Jesse D. Garrabrant; NBAE via Getty Images