After finally toppling Boston, Sixers quickly flip the switch to second-round matchup against Knicks

NEW YORK — The calendar had already flipped from Saturday to Sunday by the time a sunglasses-wearing Joel Embiid took his seat for his postgame news conference. Which meant the 76ers’ star big man could no longer bask in one of the biggest wins of his career.

“I had until midnight to celebrate it,” Embiid said. “It’s past midnight. It’s over with.”

That is the jarring reality of the NBA playoffs. The Sixers finished off a stunning rally from down three games to one against the Boston Celtics to win a dramatic Game 7 at TD Garden. Their reward for eliminating the Celtics from the postseason for the first time in more than four decades? A rapid turnaround to Monday’s Game 1 of their second-round matchup against the third-seeded (and fellow rival) New York Knicks.

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The Sixers did not bother returning to Philly after Saturday’s victory, instead traveling straight from Boston to Manhattan.

“Both teams are going to come out there and be extremely competitive,” All-Star guard Tyrese Maxey said. “It’s going to be a dogfight. It’s going to be a chess match.”

Maxey has reason to believe that, following a fantastic first-round matchup between these two teams in 2024. Though the Knicks won in six games, the series’ total point differential was a minuscule 650-649. And the atmospheres reached ear-piercing levels, though, due to the Knicks fans invaded Xfinity Mobile Arena, Embiid on Saturday implored Sixers fans not to sell their tickets to the enemy.

This season, the Sixers and Knicks split their four regular-season matchups, though the last occurred in mid-February. And some key characters on both sides have changed since their last postseason showdown.

The Knicks made all-in blockbuster trades for All-Star Karl-Anthony Towns and wing Mikal Bridges, who helped them advance last season to the Eastern Conference finals for the first time since 2000 but often have become the subject of harsh outside criticism.

The Sixers, meanwhile, signed Paul George and drafted VJ Edgecombe, creating what Embiid called a “much better team” that is “in sync” on both ends of the floor this time around. Coach Nick Nurse also commended the way the Sixers responded to Boston’s first-round punches, including two dreadful blowout losses and the palpable intensity of Game 7.

“We seem to bounce back almost every time,” Nurse said. “ … We seem to kind of have that in us. But this is different than [the regular season], so that’s a lesson we can learn. I do think that, these games and these series, you’re going to have really high highs and really low lows, man. You are.

“It’s just the way it is, and you’ve got to be able to handle both of them.”

» READ MORE: VJ Edgecombe shines again at TD Garden, sending his terrific rookie season to the playoffs’ second round

Still, Embiid called this season’s version of the Knicks a “really good frickin’ team.”

During the regular season, New York ranked fourth in offensive efficiency (119.7 points per 100 possessions), sixth in defensive efficiency (113.3 points allowed per 100 possessions), and fifth in net rating (plus-6.5). After a shaky start to the playoffs, the Knicks eliminated the sixth-seeded Atlanta Hawks with an eye-popping 140-89 Game 6 victory in Round 1.

Their massive internal expectations have been publicly declared from the very top, after owner Jim Dolan said during a January radio interview that, with this roster, “getting to the Finals, we absolutely have to do. Winning the Finals, we should do.” Though their season has meandered at times, the Knicks could now be viewed as the favorite to win the conference after Boston’s shocking first-round exit and the top-seeded Detroit Pistons’ early falters before coming back to beat the eighth-seeded Orlando Magic in Sunday’s Game 7.

All-NBA guard Jalen Brunson (26 points, 6.8 assists per game) is still a scoring maestro with the ball in his hands — especially in crunch time — and will require similar on-ball perimeter defensive performances to what the Sixers mustered against the Celtics’ Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum. Offensive rebounding will again be a prominent storyline, after the Knicks blasted the Sixers in that category two years ago and ranked sixth in the NBA during the regular season (12.7 per game).

The Sixers will counter with their own star power of Maxey, who vaulted into that stratosphere in that 2024 playoff series with a 46-point, season-saving flurry in Game 5 at Madison Square Garden. The 25-year-old is even better now, ranking fifth in the league in scoring (28.3 points per game) while adding 6.6 assists, 4.1 rebounds, and 1.9 steals during the regular season to put himself in All-NBA contention.

Yet the overwhelming caveat while evaluating this matchup is whether Embiid can remain healthy enough to play at this level for another series.

He alluded that he was “dealing with some stuff” — aka Bell’s palsy that paralyzed part of his face, along with the aftermath of knee surgery — during his last playoff series against the Knicks. This year, he is still less than a month removed from an appendectomy. During Game 7, Embiid was limping late in the game after Maxey inadvertently fell into his legs, and television cameras caught him doing some elaborate full-body stretches while laying on the floor.

“I feel great. I feel amazing,” Embiid said again, after acknowledging after Game 6 that is what his brain has been telling him. “I was faking it [the previous injuries].”

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How much energy do Embiid and the Sixers have left, after expending so much to rally to their first-round upset?

Embiid had already moved on before he even left Boston’s TD Garden.

And on the trip straight to New York, the Sixers brought their confidence.

“If we play hard from start to finish,” George said, “we can beat anybody.”