Knicks crush 76ers in Game 1 of Eastern Conference semifinals

After the Knicks put on a clinic in a one-sided demolition of Atlanta in the opening round, Jalen Brunson was asked if the Knicks were now playing championship-level basketball, a reasonable question.

Brunson was blunt, noting, “It was a level to get out of the first round.”

So how about now?

The Knicks followed the 51-point closeout of the first round with a performance nearly as impressive to open the Eastern Conference semifinals, easily handling the Philadelphia 76ers in a 137-98 win at Madison Square Garden on Monday night.

The inconsistencies of the regular season and even the first three games of the opening round of the playoffs seem to have faded as the Knicks won the final three games of that series by 16, 29 and 51 points and led by as many as 40 Monday — becoming the first team in the play-by-play era (since 1996-97) to lead by at least 30 in three consecutive postseason games. Even with foul trouble, the Knicks eased past Philadelphia with a balanced attack that left nowhere for the Sixers to attack.

“It’s a lot of fun when you have concepts on either end of the floor and the guys are trying to embrace those concepts at the highest level,” Mike Brown said. “And when they do, it doesn’t really matter what you call or who initiates the action, because guys are trying to play the right way. And these guys are pros . . . If you’re sacrificing and believing and connecting, all that other stuff, it can be a lot of fun to watch.”

Brunson got the Knicks started, scoring 27 of his 35 points in the first half, the second most scored in a half in Knicks postseason history since tracking began in 1996-97, behind his own 28 against Philadelphia two years ago when he topped 40 points in three straight games. He shot 12-for-18.

Asked before the game if he’d studied video going back to that 2024 first-round series, Sixers coach Nick Nurse said: “You look back, certainly some stuff you can take from it. You try to get as current as you can with what they’re doing in the playoffs. They had their ups and downs, finished on a huge up. You try to take anything from what Atlanta was doing, see what changes they made from game to game.”

Maybe looking for things Atlanta was doing isn’t the best idea. But it was more than just Brunson. Through the first three quarters before the extended bench time took over, the Knicks shot 67.7% from the floor, including 58.3% from beyond the arc. By the opening minutes of the fourth quarter, the cries of, “We want [Tyler] Kolek” were answered as Brown began clearing the bench, even replacing the second unit for nearly the entire final period

OG Anunoby was 7-for-8 for 18 points, Mikal Bridges was 7-for-10 for 17 points and Karl-Anthony Towns was 7-for-11 for 17 points to go along with six rebounds and six assists.

The defense limited the Sixers’ explosive pairing of Joel Embiid (3-for-11, 14 points) and Tyrese Maxey (3-for-9, 13 points).

“Honestly, you’ve got to take this game with a grain of salt,” Brunson said. “I don’t think we’re going to see that team that we saw in Game 1 in Game 2. They’re going to be ready to go.”

“We’re playing well,” Towns said. “But it doesn’t mean anything if we can’t find a way to get three more wins, so we just got to stick to the task at hand.”

There were excuses available for the Sixers. They finished a taxing seven-game series in Boston on Saturday night and flew right to New York with one day to prepare for this task.

And it would be a massive task as the Knicks seemed to pick up right where they left off with the historic Game 6 closeout blowout in Atlanta when they won by 51 points. The challenge of the Sixers was the unknown, the starting five having spent little time together as a unit because of injuries, along with the 25-game suspension of Paul George.

“A lot of people when they look at this they see, I think they were seventh [in the East],” Brown said. “They see seven versus three and they automatically assume we’ll win. When that combination was on the floor together, they won I think almost 65% of their games. They were on pace to be almost a 60-win team . . . That’s better than us record-wise. They’re completely healthy. It’s going to be a tough series.”

Still, in this first test there was little Nurse tried that did anything to slow down the Knicks. Foul trouble seemed to be the only thing that could hamper them as Embiid baited both Towns and Robinson into three first-half fouls. But with Brunson doing what he does, it mattered little who was surrounding him. For example, Ariel Hukporti was pressed into service and in three first-half minutes, he was a plus-10 thanks to being on the floor with Brunson.

With 6:55 to go in the first quarter, Towns was forced to the bench with two fouls, both drawn by Embiid. Robinson entered and a combination of two fouls on him, as well as Nurse employing a “hack-a-Mitch” strategy with four straight missed free throws sent him to the bench, too. But it didn’t matter as the Knicks took a 74-51 lead into the break.

By Steve Popper

steve.popper@newsday.com@StevePopper

Steve Popper covers the Knicks for Newsday. He has spent nearly three decades covering the Knicks and the NBA, along with just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.