PHILADELPHIA — Jalen Brunson scored a career playoff-high 47 points and added 10 assists as the New York Knicks beat the Philadelphia 76ers 97-92 on Sunday to take a 3-1 lead in their first-round playoff series.
OG Anunoby added 16 points and 14 rebounds and took on some of the defensive assignment against Joel Embiid in the fourth quarter as the Knicks moved within a victory of getting to the Eastern Conference semifinals for the second straight year.
The No. 2-seeded Knicks can do that with a victory at home on Tuesday night.
Embiid played the entire second half after the 76ers faltered badly when he sat in the first. But the All-Star center, who has been dealing with lingering problems from his surgically repaired left knee that he appeared to reinjure after a dunk in Game 1, and was recently diagnosed with Bell’s palsy, a form of facial paralysis, couldn’t muster a basket in the fourth quarter.
Embiid finished with 27 points, 10 rebounds and six assists. Tyrese Maxey added 23 points for the 76ers, who will try to force another game at home, which would be Thursday.
Not that the 76ers had much of a home-court advantage Sunday. Knicks fans were all over the arena and gave Brunson louder chants of “MVP! MVP!” than Embiid — who won the award last season — received from the home fans.
Brunson earned every one of them on a day some of his usual support couldn’t get going.
Josh Hart missed all seven shots and Donte DiVincenzo missed his first seven. But Hart grabbed 17 rebounds and the Knicks kept going after missed shots, especially when it was clear Embiid didn’t have the energy to keep chasing them, and scored 21 second-chance points.
Brunson was in the locker room to start the fourth quarter but returned to hit a basket over Embiid during a 6-0 Knicks run that gave them the lead for good and made it 86-81. He had another basket that made it 95-89 with 55 seconds remaining and the Knicks closed it out.
