Do the Knicks now know what to do to beat the Sixers going forward this season? It’s a fair question.

“I thought our physicality defensively was there,” said Knicks coach Mike Brown. “We started getting it up into the basketball and made it a little bit harder for them to try to make plays."

Knicks forward Guerschon Yabusele (left) and guard Mikal Bridges box out Sixers guard VJ Edgecombe in Saturday's game. The Knicks narrowly won, 112-109.Read moreYong Kim / Staff Photographer

by Gabriela Carroll

Published Jan. 24, 2026, 10:35 p.m. ET

After ripping off two wins to start the year over the New York Knicks, the Sixers lost their first game against them on Saturday, 112-109.

Despite the close score, the Sixers ultimately let the game slip away in the third quarter, going from up four at halftime to down 13 by the end of the quarter. It was the Sixers’ lowest scoring quarter since a 12-point fourth quarter against the Bulls on Jan. 2, 2024.

“I thought our physicality defensively was there,” Knicks coach Mike Brown said. “We started getting it up into the basketball and made it a little bit harder for them to try to make plays and/or move freely.”

Key to that defensive transformation in the third was backup center Mitchell Robinson, whom Brown anointed as the defensive player of the game. With Karl-Anthony Towns already in foul trouble, Robinson entered the game early in the third and immediately started making an impact.

Robinson was +14 in his 27 minutes, grabbing six offensive rebounds. The Knicks secured 19 offensive rebounds compared to just six for the Sixers, and turned them into 26 points.

He played a key role in keeping Joel Embiid, who’d dominated the first half with 28 points, off the scoresheet in the third.

“I know he got it going early on, and you know he’s an All-Star player,” Robinson said postgame. “What you do with a guy like that is, he‘s going to come out there and fight, you make some adjustments in the [offensive] zone, show your hands. He draws a lot of fouls, so you know you have to be careful.”

Brown also praised guard OG Anunoby’s defense on Embiid down the stretch. Embiid scored just 10 points in the second half, going 3-for-9 from the field.

Anunoby said the key to grappling with Embiid was his lower-body strength, to maintain leverage going for the ball.

“Try to steal the ball, we always try to steal the ball,” Anunoby said. “We try to make it as difficult as possible. He’s a great player, so just trying to make him as uncomfortable as possible.”

“Just fight him, and then if he turns and someone flashes to the middle, know that they’re trying to go over the top,” Anunoby continued. “Just communication on the backside.”

These two teams met one another in a first-round playoff series just two years ago, and with both teams back in the top 8 of the Eastern Conference standings, they could be on track to meet one another again in the playoffs later this year.

So far, the season series is 2-1 in Philadelphia’s favor. But Saturday’s matchup was the first this year with both teams mostly healthy. Embiid and Deuce McBride missed the first matchup, and Josh Hart missed the second.

Despite their successful halftime adjustments, the Knicks know that both teams will need to execute better down the stretch to win a playoff series.

“I mean, we played well, but our execution last couple minutes, I don’t know if we deserved to win the game,” Hart said. “I don’t know if they deserved to win the game either. We could have just tied, honestly, at that point, all the miscues that we did.”