Sixers gave everything they had in Game 2 loss to the Knicks, but find themselves in familiar straits

NEW YORK — Tyrese Maxey stood a few feet behind the three-point line, bent at the waist, his weight supported by fistfuls of basketball shorts. There were 22 seconds left and the Sixers were down by two possessions. Reality’s harsh fatigue was settling in.

The hope for the Sixers is that their 108-102 loss in Game 2 against the Knicks wasn’t what it looked like. That we just saw them give every ounce of the best they have. They made more shots. They grabbed more rebounds. They got the breadth of individual performances they needed to offset the absence of Joel Embiid. Yet, here they were, heading back home from Madison Square Garden with a two-games-to-none deficit, same as they did two seasons ago.

The specter of that 2024 first-round series looms large as the Sixers ponder life two losses away from the offseason. That series featured six games like the one the Sixers and Knicks played Wednesday night: knockdown, drag-out, heavyweight, all the clichés. The Sixers managed to win two of them, losing in six despite finishing just minus-1 in overall point differential. The Knicks have long been adept at walking out of games with bloody noses and black eyes and being able to say, “You should see the other guy.”

» READ MORE: The Sixers missed Joel Embiid, quiet second half from stars, and more from a 108-102 loss in Game 2

Midway through the fourth quarter, the score tied at 92, the two likeliest possibilities were diametrically opposed. Either the Sixers were going to set a new tone for the series or they were going to slump to the mat knowing they just delivered their best shot.

Those are only the likeliest possibilities, mind you. We just saw the Sixers rattle off three straight wins while trailing by two games in a series. You can’t count them out. Not yet.

That being said, the opponent is different this time around.

“It’s more of a challenge,” Sixers coach Nick Nurse said. “Last series was 1-1.”

As impressive as the Sixers were in winning four out of seven against the Celtics, they didn’t lose a game like this. The Sixers finished Game 2 against the Knicks with advantages in a lot of the bellwether categories that usually portend victory. They shot 13-of-34 from three-point range while holding the Knicks to a dismal 7-of-26. They grabbed two more offensive rebounds and attempted three more foul shots. They held Knicks star Jalen Brunson to 9-of-21 shooting after allowing him to hit 12-of-18 in Game 1. They had Knicks forward Karl-Anthony Towns in foul trouble, which limited him to 27 minutes.

The Sixers were not perfect. Far from it.

They finished minus-5 in the turnover margin, including some uncharacteristic sloppy play from Maxey, who tied a season-high with six turnovers. Maxey now has 10 of them in the first two games of the series after finishing the seven-game Celtics series with nine.

They missed a number of shots at the rim, and several open looks from three-point range. They missed seven of their 28 free throw attempts.

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But a lot of these things were well within the margins of typical operating costs. And they were offset by some low-percentage makes, particularly during an early flurry from Paul George, who scored 11 points in the game’s first five minutes, nine of them on a trio of tough threes.

Maxey played 47 of the game’s 48 minutes. George played 43. How much more do they have to give?

“It’s going to be a dogfight,” said rookie VJ Edgecombe.

The only choice is to keep swinging.