Jalen Brunson and the New York Knicks walked out of Xfinity Mobile Arena with a sweep Sunday, beating the Sixers 144-114 to end Philadelphia’s season in emphatic fashion. The loss sent the Sixers out of the playoffs in the second round after a series that closed with an average margin of 22.3 points per game.
Joel Embiid did not hide from it. “They were just better than us in everything,” he said after the defeat. “We’ve just got to look at each other, starting with me.”
The Sixers did not get here by accident. They won 45 regular-season games and then knocked off the Boston Celtics in the first round, a stunning rebound after falling behind Boston three games to one in the series that followed Embiid’s return to the court 17 days after an emergency appendectomy. Philadelphia erased that deficit with a Game 7 win in Boston, ending more than four decades without a playoff victory over the Celtics.
But the sweep by New York laid bare the same problems that had shadowed the team all season. The Sixers finished 16th in the NBA at 114.3 points per 100 possessions and 17th at 114.4 points allowed per 100 possessions. Tyrese Maxey carried much of the scoring load, finishing fifth in the league at 28.3 points per game and earning his second All-Star appearance, while rookie VJ Edgecombe provided one of the few bright spots with averages of 16 points, 5.6 rebounds, 4.2 assists and 1.4 steals, good for third in voting for Rookie of the Year.
The larger picture around the team was less encouraging. The previous season began with championship talk after Paul George arrived in free agency, but it turned into an injury-riddled mess. The Sixers had improved from a 24-58 record, yet the roster still lacked outside shooting, rebounding and dependable depth, and its aging, highest-paid players were often unavailable. That left the team leaning too heavily on a few healthy bodies and too little on a sustainable structure.
For daryl morey and the front office, the sweep is not just a bad ending. It is evidence that one strong first round could not disguise deeper flaws in how the roster was built, and those flaws now define the offseason ahead.
