Jalen Brunson scores a franchise-record 47 points, in part due to a very pointed game plan.
The New York Knicks are 22-3 when they’ve had both Jalen Brunson and OG Anunoby in the lineup.
They were two of the five players who played more than 43 minutes of Game 4 of the Knicks’ first-round series against the Philadelphia 76ers on Sunday afternoon, and they had their fingerprints all over New York’s 97-92 victory.
Brunson scored 47 points, a new Knicks playoff record, topping two 46-point performances from Bernard King in 1984. He also dished out 10 assists with only one turnover.
Anunoby added 16 points, 14 rebounds and three blocks while also playing some critical defense on Joel Embiid.
Here are some numbers, notes and film as the Knicks took a 3-1 series lead…
1. Knicks and Brunson target Embiid
According to Second Spectrum tracking, the Knicks set 52 ball screens for Brunson, with 35 of those 52 ball screens being set by the guy Embiid was guarding. So while the team’s two MVPs were not guarding each other, this game was very much Brunson vs. Embiid on the Knicks’ end of the floor.
It started with Embiid in drop coverage, protecting the rim and (if Brunson’s defender got caught in the screen) allowing Brunson to step into comfortable jump shots.
Sometimes Embiid was higher and Brunson was able to put him on his heels…
That “at the level” coverage can sometimes provide a runway for the roll man, but Embiid was twice able to recover and contest or block a layup attempt by the Knicks’ bigs.
In the end, Brunson got the better of Embiid. He did score 47 points, after all. The most spectacular of those 47 was a crazy, fading runner across his body at the shot clock buzzer after Embiid was forced to switch…
A few minutes later, Embiid was well beyond the 3-point line and got caught on the wrong side of the screen as Brunson drove for a layup to put the Knicks up three with a little more than five minutes left.
Philly obviously needs to do a better job of getting the ball out of Brunson’s hands, and having Embiid guard pick-and-rolls more aggressively is not the solution. It will be up to the other Sixers to navigate those screens better and be ready to help off Brunson’s teammates.
2. Knicks continue to dominate the glass
Those New York teammates were just 5-for-19 from 3-point range on Sunday, but are still 40-for-98 (41%) from beyond the arc on the series.
Sending help to the ball also leaves a defense vulnerable on the glass, and the Knicks once again punished the Sixers with offensive rebounds…
- In Game 2, the Knicks had just 12 and 12, but it was Isaiah Hartenstein’s offensive rebound that led to Donte DiVincenzo’s game-winning 3-pointer.
- In Game 4, the Knicks turned 15 offensive rebounds (and other second-chance opportunities thanks to loose-ball fouls or rebounds that went out of bounds) into 21 second-chance points.
More than half (11) of those second-chance points came in the fourth quarter. And those 11 second-chance points accounted for more than half of the Knicks’ 20 points in the period. It was a one-point game after the third quarter and it was an ugly fourth, with the two teams combining to shoot 12-for-45 (27%).
When the field goal percentage is a little more than half the league average, rebounding is almost twice as important. The winner on Sunday was the better rebounding team.
In the first round against the Cleveland Cavaliers last year, the Knicks retained 39.4% of available offensive boards, the highest rate for any team in any series in the last 10 years. Their offensive rebounding percentage in this series (38.9%) is only a tick lower than that.
3. Defending Embiid is not a one-man job
The Knicks were without Mitchell Robinson, who re-injured his ankle in Game 3. And after committing zero fouls in the first half, Hartenstein picked up five in the third quarter. So Precious Achiuwa played the final 13:25.
But he didn’t guard Embiid over that stretch. That job belonged to the 6-foot-8 Anunoby, though he had plenty of help.
“Embiid is a load,” Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau said afterward. “You’re not guarding him individually. You gotta guard him with your team.”
The Sixers’ execution against double-teams was a mixed bag. There were possessions in the third quarter where Tyrese Maxey shot too quickly or Kelly Oubre Jr. stopped the ball instead of swinging it to a wide-open teammate.
They did get a couple good shots out of the double midway through the fourth. Down three, Kyle Lowry swung the ball to Maxey, who attacked the seam in the Knicks’ defense and found Oubre under the basket for a dunk…
On the next possession, Maxey missed a wide-open 3 when the Knicks’ first rotation was late (and coming from too far away).
4. Knicks force Sixers to play late in the clock
That Oubre dunk with 5:04 left was the Sixers’ last field goal of the game. The Knicks allowed that open Maxey 3 on the next possession, but their defense was much better after that.
It started with keeping the Sixers from getting into their offense. With the Knicks still up three and a little more than three minutes left, Philly tried to get Brunson switched onto Maxey. But Brunson and Miles McBride (with a little help from Achiuwa) didn’t let it happen…
When the Sixers finally got the switch, there were just five seconds left on the shot clock. Brunson was able to contain Maxey’s initial drive, McBride came back with a double-team, Anunoby rotated and scared Lowry off a 3-pointer, and Achiuwa rotated to block Embiid’s 3 as the shot clock expired…
On the next possession, there were eight seconds left on the clock before the Sixers got what they wanted (an Embiid post catch), because Anunoby initially kept the big man from using an Oubre screen. The Knicks doubled Embiid, Achiuwa rotated up to Maxey, kept him out of the paint (as the other Knicks stayed home on shooters), and forced him into a tough, step-back jumper that came up way short.
5. Knicks double, scramble and contest
The Sixers were still down just four when Lowry rebounded an Oubre miss. He immediately got the ball to Embiid on the left side of the floor with 11 seconds left on the shot clock. Once again, the Knicks brought a double-team.
And once again, their rotations were terrific, with Josh Hart making a great contest on Tobias Harris’ corner 3-point attempt…
At that point in the game, Anunoby had played more than 45 minutes, Hart had played more than 44 and Brunson had played more than 42. But the Knicks’ defensive energy was still as good as it gets.
After scoring 125 points on just 91 possessions (137 per 100) in Game 3, the Sixers had just 92 on 91 in Game 4, including just 16 on 21 (76 per 100) in the fourth quarter.
That 22-3 record that the Knicks have with both Brunson and Anunoby includes a 13-0 mark at Madison Square Garden, where they can end this series in Game 5 on Tuesday (7 p.m. ET, TNT).
* * *
John Schuhmann is a senior stats analyst for NBA.com. You can e-mail him here, find his archive here and follow him on X.
The views on this page do not necessarily reflect the views of the NBA, its clubs or Warner Bros. Discovery
