Shamet & Bridges “Bring It” As Knicks Take 3-0 Lead. NY 108 Philly 94

May 9, 2026 LouV 2025-26 0
Mitchell Robinson poster-izes Joel Embiid.

With OG Anunoby out, Landry Shamet came off the bench and “brought it” — combining with Mikal Bridges and Jalen Brunson to pull NY out of an early 12-pt deficit and take control of the game in the 2nd quarter en route to a 108-94 win on a Friday night in Philly. The Knicks take a 3-0 lead over the 76’ers in the best-of-7 series.

Shamet has been the odd-man-out of the rotation due to the great late-season and playoff play of Jordan Clarkson. But with OG out, the 6’5 Shamet was ready, and rocking — playing tenacious D, hitting 3’s and slam dunk drives off breaks. Mikal Bridges played a tremendous D all night on Tyrese Maxey and continues to be on his game offensively, slashing to the rim for quick buckets or hitting 3’s or midrange’s.

And Brunson made all the big buckets early to keep NY in the game, led the scoring in the 2nd to thrust them back in control, and hit key buckets in the 3rd and 4th to secure the win. He led all scorers with 33 pts on 11-22 shooting (3-8 from 3).

The Battle Inside

Mitchell Robinson came up big, battling Joel Embiid inside and Poster-izing him with the Alley-Oop Dunk of the playoffs. Robinson played 19 minutes, while Karl-Anthony Towns played only 26 minutes due to constant foul trouble from Embiid flopping.

The Guards

Mikal Bridges and the Knick guards did a job on Tyrese Maxey and VJ Edgecombe — limiting their shots. Maxey finished with 17 pts on 8-12 shooting (1-3 from 3); Edgecombe had 11 pts on 4-9 shooting (1-5 from 3).

Philly jumped out to a 12 pt lead in the 1st; NY turned it around in the 2nd to lead by 60-52 at the half; Philly pulled within 2 pts in the 3rd, but NY pushed back to go up by 9 pts after 3; Philly pushed back within 4 pts early in the 4th, but NY dominated the the last 9 minutes, and ended up outscoring the 76’ers 23-18 in the final quarter. It became a NY blowout in the final minutes; both teams emptied the benches with 2 minutes left.

The Fans

And Knick fans provided high-volume support — making up seemingly 40 percent of the fans at Philly’s Xfinity Mobile Arena — and about 70 percent in the upper region “blue seat” area. Cheap-seat tickets for the game on StubHub were going for $185 before the game, vs over $500 for the cheapest ticket for the next scheduled game at MSG. There were also many empty seats.

“Everyone picked it up,” said Josh Hart afterwards. “It’s one of those things — next man up. Kal (Mikal Bridges) did an amazing job, Deuce in the minutes he had. Landry, like I said, is the ultimate professional — giving big minutes offensively and defensively. We responded well to that adversity (OG being out).”

“He’s giving multiple efforts – on the ball, off the ball, back-door cuts,” said Mitchell Robinson about Mikal Bridges, who did a great job Defensively on Tyrese Maxey.

1. Knicks Fans Make Up Approximately 40 Percent of Fans in Arena

After NY won the first 2 games of the series, ticket prices for this game dropped. You could buy a ticket to the ‘blue seats’ area in Xfinity Mobile Arena for $185 — which was super cheap compared to over $500 for the cheapest ticket to Game 5 at MSG if the series goes that long.

And although the 76’ers proclaimed they would only be selling tickets to people who lived in certain zip codes near Philadelphia — tickets were freely available for Knick fans to buy on StubHub and other secondary tickets sites. Joel Embiid had made a public plea to Philly fans to not sell their tickets, and if they needed money “I got you.”

Didn’t work — based on crowd roar, it seemed about 40 percent of the fans in the arena were Knick fans and that number was about 70 percent in the $185 ‘blue seats’. On top of that, there were many empty seats. Philly put a giveaway white t-shirt on every seat — which broadcast how many empty seats there were. Midway thru the 1st quarter you could see about 10 to 20 percent of seats still had the white shirt on them — meaning they probably hadn’t been sold.

Xfinity Mobile Arena midway thru 1st quarter. Note the white shirts still on the seats, signifying the person not there yet or, more probably, the seat not sold.

Philly fans left with a few minutes remaining in the game, and afterwards Knick fans owned the arena and the parking lot outside.

2. PG 3’s Lead Philly to 12-Pt Lead in 1st Quarter

Philly jumped out to a 9-0 and 20-8 lead as Paul George was ON FIRE from 3. The 36-year-old George looked like he was in his prime, scoring 15 pts in the quarter on 6-9 shooting (3-3 from 3). He would go 0-9 the rest of the game.

3. Embiid Flopping; KAT in Foul Trouble

Joel Embiid was flopping all over the place all night — drawing fouls on KAT and Mitch. KAT picked up 2 quick fouls in the 1st quarter, and then a 3rd foul soon after he came in for the 2nd quarter.

NY went to Mitchell Robinson, who did a great job defending Embiid all evening.

4. Shamet, Bridges, & Brunson Lead NY Charge in 2nd

NY was down by 9 pts after another Paul George 3 with 2:32 left in the 1st quarter when Landry Shamet came in. He immediately hit a fadeaway jump shot, then a 3 late in the period to pull NY within 4. And he brought an intensity on both ends of the court.

“Great early minutes and energy on both ends from Landry Shamet,” noted NBA Analyst Ross Kreines. “Hit his first couple of shots and here he puts the ball on the floor and gets to the rim. After catching ,use of jab step , no wasted dribbles then great use of the rim to protect his shot from getting blocked.”

Mikal Bridges — in top form on both ends of the court — joined in with 3’s and slick drives and mid-range jumpers and the Knicks were off to the races. Mitchell Robinson defended inside; Josh Hart was everywhere on D.

Jordan Clarkson got a big bucket and Jose Alvarado hit a 3 to give NY their first lead at 38-35.

And then came the Dunk of the Playoffs — Mitchell Robinson with an Alley Oop Posterizer over Joel Embiid off a Brunson inbounds pass for a 40-35 Knick lead.

Brunson and Bridges kept getting bucket after bucket and NY ran their lead to 12 pts at 54-42.

A Kelly Oubre Jr. 3 at the buzzer pulled Philly with 8 at the half — 60-52.

5. Brunson Carries Knicks in 3rd

NY doubled Tyrese Maxey all night — with Mikal Bridges as the primary defender. But early in the 3rd Maxey broke free for a couple of drives and Philly pulled within 4.

Again Brunson pushed back with consecutive drives to put NY back up 11.

“Jalen Brunson dictates where he wants to go and flat-out beats you,” pointed out NBA Analyst Ross Kreines. “Whether attacking his defenders top foot, keeping his defender on hip to hit floater, finishing in lane, creating contact, hitting his jumper, backing his man down all while finding the open man and using fundamentals.”

6. Knicks Do a Defensive Job on Maxey and Edgecombe

Meanwhile Mikal Bridges was doing a job on Tyrese Maxey defensively, keeping him under control. Afterwards, Maxey said the Knicks were actually bringing 2 people to blitz him, Mikal and another Knick — and when that happens his job is to find the open man.

But within that, Mikal was also taking out Maxey individually.

7. Philly Goes to Hack-a-Mitch in 3rd; Pulls within 2 But Ultimately Gets Burned

But Philly wasn’t done — VJ Edgecombe and Embiid got buckets — and then Philly went to hack-a-Mitch strategy, fouling Robinson purposely to send him to the line with 3:33 left in the 3rd.

  • Robinson hit his first free throw to overwhelming cheers from the Knick fans in the stadium, but missed his second to huge cheers from the Philly fans.
  • Free throws off a drive by Embiid on the other end pulled Philly within 3 at 77-74 NY.
  • Philly fouled Robinson again on next possession, and again Robinson made the 1st free throw, and missed the 2nd.
  • A bucket by Embiid down the other end pulled Philly within 2 pts at 78-76.
  • Philly fouled Robinson again on next possession (with 2:23 left) and this time Robinson made both free throws. NY 80-76.
  • On next possession, Brunson missed a 3, Robinson got the offensive rebound and was immediately fouled by Kelly Oubre Jr. This time Robinson missed both free throws.
  • But Robinson stayed in the game and forced an Embiid miss on a 3, then grabbed the defensive rebound and on the ensuing possession, Brunson drew an off-ball foul on Oubre and got 2 free throws, making both to put NY up 82-76.

Shamet finished the quarter with a 3 to put NY up 85-76 after 3.

8. Philly Pulls within 4 in 4th

Quentin Grimes hit a 3 early in the 4th, followed by a Tyrese Maxey drive, and another QGrimes 3 to pull Philly within 88-84 with 9 minutes left.

9. Knick DEFENSE & Brunson Control Last 9 Minutes

But after that it was all NY as the Knick Defense intensified and Jalen Brunson and Mikal Bridges and Josh Hart and Landry Shamet went to work on the offensive end.

A Brunson rebound and fast-break pass to Bridges for an ahead-of-the-field drive gave NY a 14-pt lead off a 13-3 run and ballgame.

NY took a 106-91 lead with 2 minutes left when both teams emptied their benches.

Etcetera

Embiid’s flopping and Robinson’s posterizing dunk over him brought back memories of when an out-of-control Embiid injured Robinson and caused surgery to his ankle in the playoffs 2 years ago.

Embiid’s pull down of Robinson’s leg was not the event that caused the injury that forced Robinson from the playoffs and required surgery — it came later in the same game:

Back in 2024, Robinson was seen leaving the arena with a boot on — his season would be over, and he would undergo ankle surgery that would keep him out until the next February.

Mitchell Robinson leaves the arena in 2024, his season over after Embiid fell on his ankle.

The Boxscore

https://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore/_/gameId/401871161

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