Three Sixers keys for Game 3 against the Knicks to avoid an 0-3 deficit: ‘Got to go home and get two’

When asked if the “level of challenge” now facing the 76ers — down 0-2 to the New York Knicks in their second-round playoff series — feels similar to their first round matchup against the Boston Celtics, Nick Nurse candidly acknowledged it is a more daunting task.

“It was 1-1 after two games [against Boston],” the Sixers’ coach said. “ … It puts a lot on this next game, for sure. But it’s OK.”

The cliché states that a playoff series does not begin until the home team loses, and the Knicks handled business in the friendly (and rowdy) confines of Madison Square Garden. And optimism still exists within the Sixers who, after a dreadful Game 1 defeat, went down to the wire with the Knicks in Game 2 — even without star center Joel Embiid — before a cold offensive stretch doomed them in a 108-102 defeat. The Sixers also boast the recent evidence of clawing back from down 3-1 against the Celtics to win a road Game 7.

» READ MORE: Without Joel Embiid, Sixers again forced into patchwork center rotation in Game 2 loss at Knicks

“We definitely feel like we can pull ourselves out of this one,” All-Star point guard Tyrese Maxey said after Wednesday’s loss. “Got to go home and get two.”

Or, at the very least, the first one. History says that the Sixers’ season is dead if they do not win Friday’s Game 3 at Xfinity Mobile Arena, because no NBA team has ever overcome an 0-3 deficit to win a best-of-seven series.

So here are three keys, for Game 3, to avoid that presumably insurmountable 0-3 hole.

Embiid lasted five playoff games before getting banged up again, with a sprained ankle and hip soreness sidelining him for Game 2. Embiid also got knocked in the midsection by New York’s Mikal Bridges during Game 1, contact that Embiid called unnecessary while noting he needs to protect that area of his body more.

In Embiid’s place, Andre Drummond was the starter for Game 2 and Adem Bona the backup, though both players (plus Knicks big man Karl-Anthony Towns) were in foul trouble. That opened the door for productive second-half minutes from Dominick Barlow as a small-ball center, and even for Paul George to guard Towns.

It will be interesting to see if Barlow, who was the Sixers’ starting power forward for much of the regular season, has re-earned a rotation spot — even if Embiid and/or the Knicks’ Mitchell Robinson return for Game 3. Mitchell was listed as probable for Game 3 on Thursday.

The 6-foot-9 Barlow possesses the athleticism to better stick with Towns than Drummond, and can be more relied upon to stay on the court than the foul-prone Bona. Barlow also allows the Sixers to switch more on screens — he spent time defending All-NBA guard Jalen Brunson — and is an intelligent offensive player who cuts and crashes the offensive glass.

» READ MORE: Tyrese Maxey and the Sixers matched the Knicks shot-for-shot. Then, they went cold to close out Game 2.

And even if Embiid, who was listed as questionable in Thursday’s injury report, returns Friday, he and the Sixers have adjustments to make. His shooting touch still has not returned after going 3-of-11 from the floor in Game 1. And the Knicks attacked Embiid’s more limited post-knee-injury mobility in the pick-and-roll during that offensive onslaught. According to Second Spectrum, the Sixers allowed 44 points in 27 of those actions with Embiid on the back end.

In Game 1, Maxey did not get enough shots up — especially early.

In Game 2, he committed “way, way, way” too many turnovers — six of the Sixers’ 18, an uncharacteristic mark for a team that ranked fifth in the NBA in fewest turnovers during the regular season.

Perhaps most concerning is that Maxey revealed he jammed his injured pinkie finger again, and that he did not feel comfortable dribbling around and splitting the Knicks’ aggressive double-teams.

In short: Maxey has not been elite enough in a series of this magnitude. The only stretch that the NBA’s fifth-leading scorer looked like his lethal self was in Wednesday’s second quarter, when he scored 15 of his 26 points on a blend of three-pointers, midrange jumpers, and aggressive drives to the basket, and added three assists. Then he only had two shot attempts in the third quarter, and went 2-of-7 from the floor in that decisive final period.

Maxey has become accustomed to being swarmed by a variety of defensive coverages while ascending to the Sixers’ top offensive option during Embiid’s injury struggles. But, like everything in the playoffs, the intensity from that end of the floor ramps up this time of year. Maxey said the Knicks “like, really, really trapped me,” taking away the passes he prefers to wiggle out of such situations with and forcing the Sixers into subpar execution.

“I was just trying to get off the ball and trying to create actions,” Maxey said. “But that’s fine. They can put two on the ball. Just got to get more comfortable making the reads.”

An Embiid return would alleviate some of that defensive attention, of course. Fellow standouts George and VJ Edgecombe — or even Kelly Oubre Jr. and Quentin Grimes — also are capable of big scoring outbursts that would take some burden off Maxey.

» READ MORE: David Murphy: Sixers gave everything they had in Game 2 loss to the Knicks, but find themselves in familiar straits

But the Sixers need Maxey to be an All-NBA performer — even after logging nearly 47 of Wednesday’s 48 minutes. Nurse noted that the Sixers were a minus-6 in the collection of seconds Maxey was off the floor, and he looked exhausted during his postgame news conference.

Unsurprisingly, Maxey said he would spend Thursday doing “a whole bunch of nothing” to recover for Game 3.

Nurse called the Sixers’ defense on Brunson in Game 2 “above average.” Yet that was a clear positive step from Game 1, when the former Villanova star went 12-of-18 from the floor to score 35 points in 31 minutes, to Game 2, when made nine of his 21 attempts (and only 1-of-5 from three-point range) to finish with 26 points.

Edgecombe took the initial assignment on Brunson, after some lockdown regular-season moments against the crafty shotmaker. Oubre, who also guarded Brunson during their 2024 playoff series, also spent time with that matchup. They used their length and tenacity to pressure Brunson, who was not able to walk right into space for near-automatic midrange jumpers.

“He certainly wasn’t getting near the clearance as he was in Game 1,” Nurse said. “Because he was getting practice shots a lot in that game. So I think the challenges were much better.”

Brunson did go 3-of-4 from the floor in the fourth quarter, pushing the Knicks over the finish line while the Sixers went cold. Still, it is time for Brunson and the rest of the Knicks’ offense — which finally came back down to Earth by shooting 7-of-26 from three-point range — to counter the Sixers’ improved defensive effort.

“Just try to get a stop,” Barlow said of when he gets switched onto Brunson.