Knicks Take Late Lead But LeBron Tip-In Sinks Them. Philly 98 NY 93

October 31, 2026 LouV 2026-27 0
OG took it to the rim several times against Philly's interior D.

The Knicks came back from 11 points down in the 4th quarter to take the lead at 90-89 with 1:31 left off a Jalen Brunson 3 — but LeBron James scored a bucket inside, Tyrese Maxey hit a 3, and LeBron got an offensive rebound and put-back with 31 seconds left to extinguish the Knicks, 98-93, on a Friday night in Philadelphia.

LeBron’s offensive rebound and put-back came with 11 seconds left and NY down by 3.

Both teams played tremendous defense all night, causing a low-scoring affair. NY wasn’t hitting it’s 3 in the 1st half, and turned the ball over a bit much (8 turnovers in 1st half; 13 in game to Philly’s 14) to fall into a 14-pt deficit early in the 3rd quarter.

Brunson led NY with 24 pts on 8-22 shooting (3-10 from 3), while Karl-Anthony Towns had 22 pts on 8-15 shooting (3-7 from 3).

NY got good games from guys who had been shooting poorly, in Mikal Bridges, who had 12 pts on 5-8 shooting (2-4 from 3), and Miles McBride who had 10 pts on 4-8 shooting (2-5 from 3). Jose Alvarado was out for NY. OG Anunoby had 9 pts on 4-10 shooting (1-3 from 3), and Josh Hart had 7 pts, 6 rebounds, and 3 assists.

Maxey led Philly with 27 pts on 10-19 shooting (3-8 from 3), while LeBron James had 20 pts on 8-15 shooting (2-6 from 3) and Anfernee Simons had 21 pts on 7-11 shooting (5-8 from 3). Simons played 31 minutes due to Jaylen Brown being out. Former Cavalier Dean Wade played 27 minutes as a starter and didn’t take a shot but played strong defense.

Joel Embiid played better than he had vs the Knicks in game 1, but still seemed to have no legs under him. He had 12 pts on 4-12 shooting (0-4 from 3), but did not drive to the hoop much and had only 7 rebounds in 33 minutes.

The game was an in-season tournament game, so the court in Philly was especially colorful.

Coach Brown’s Thoughts — Knicks Need to Play “Summer Time”

“Some of our turnovers offensively — and it’s been going on all year,” said coach Mike Brown afterwards. “We’re trying to hit a home run every time we get the ball. And we have to hit singles. And if our play breaks down we have to move. Too many times where we have too many guys trying to iso and the other 4 guys standing there staring at the ball the whole possession and then we’re burping up bad shots.”

“So we have to do a better job when the play breaks down, and get into what we call “Summer Time”, and we know what principles we need to use in order to do that,” added Brown. “And we got to take care of the basketball offensively.”

“And all of this can be done,” continued Brown, “Because, literally, all we watched and talked about at halftime was ‘keeping the ball out of the paint, keeping the ball out of the paint, keeping the ball out of the paint’ — which resulted in them scoring 10 paint points in the 2nd half, which gave us a chance, and on top of that we did a better job with our turnovers but more importantly we reacted better when we turned the ball over — we had 5 turnovers for 6 pts.”

“Against a good team on the road, if you let go of those things in a half, you’re in trouble,” said Brown. “So somehow someway we have to be cognizant of doing these things for 48 minutes, which we’re not doing right now.”

NY drops to 2-4. Philly improves to 5-1.

1. Philly Gets Out to 29-21 Lead After 1 Quarter

This was the 2nd game of year between the two teams, as Philly won the opening game of the season at Madison Square Garden, ruining the Knicks’ ring-and-championship-banner night.

The two teams felt each other out during the 1st quarter. The game went back and forth — with Philly hitting a few more of their shots to take a 29-21 lead.

2. Knicks Miss their 3’s — Philly Up by 9 at Half

The defensive intensity picked up for both teams in the 2nd quarter. The Amazon broadcasters took note of the tremendous D both teams were playing.

NY was not penetrating to the rim as much as Philly was against the Knicks — NY was resorting to shooting more 3’s.

NY ended up shooting 13-41 from 3 for the game for 32 % while Philly shot 12-34 for 35%.

3. Philly Goes Up by 14 Early in 3rd

A Tyrese Maxey 3 to start the 3rd put Philly up by 12, and a Maxey step-back jumper a minute later put Philly up by 14 at 58-44.

NY pushed back — pulling to 6 down midway thru the period — but Philly pushed back against that push back — going up by 12.

NY again pulled back into it — a 3-pointer by Miles McBride bringing them 6 down with 58 seconds left in the 3rd.

But Anfernee Simons hit a 3 with 5 seconds left in the quarter and Philly was back up by 9 entering the 4th.

4. Knicks Down 11 Early in 4th — Fight Back & Take Lead

VJ Edgecombe scored a bucket to start the 4th, putting NY down by 11 pts.

But KAT started NY’s charge by hitting a bucket-and-1, then a 3 next time down to pull NY within 6 again at 80–74.

Anfernee Simons kept getting buckets to stave the Knicks off — hitting a 3 and a deuce — but NY was relentless, and kept cutting into the lead.

A Tyler Kolek 3 pulled NY within 5, and a Jordan Clarkson offensive rebound and tip-in pulled NY within 85-82 with 6:44 left.

A KAT 3 a minute later pulled NY within 2, and then LeBron and Mikal Bridges traded deuces as NY hung in, 2 pts down with 2 minutes left.

And then Jalen Brunson hit a step-back 3 from the corner to put NY ahead 90-89 with 1:32 left.

5. LeBron & Maxey Sink Knicks in Final Minute

But LeBron answered with a step-back 12 footer, Brunson missed a drive, and VJ Edgecombe hit a 3 and Philly was up 4 with 33 seconds left.

Brunson hit 1 of 2 free throws after being tripped by Edgecombe — Philly challenging the call but losing the challenge.

That put NY down by 3 with 30 seconds left and a chance. Ty Maxey missed a shot — but LeBron James was right there underneath for the offensive rebound and tip back in for a 5-pt Philly lead with 11.9 seconds left.

OG scored on a drive with 8 seconds left to put NY down 3 — but NY was forced to foul and Maxey hit 2 free throws for the old ballgame.

The Boxscore

https://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore/_/gameId/401909280

 

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