Tyrese Maxey, Nicolas Batum and Nick Nurse spoke about the Sixers’ upcoming playoff series against the Knicks.
The Knicks are up next.
By beating the Heat on Wednesday night in the NBA’s play-in tournament, the Sixers earned the Eastern Conference’s No. 7 seed and a first-round playoff matchup with the No. 2 Knicks.
It will be the first Sixers-Knicks postseason series since New York swept Charles Barkley, Maurice Cheeks and the Sixers out of the 1989 playoffs.
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Before that, the last Sixers vs. Knicks playoff meeting was a first-round Sixers sweep on their way to the 1983 NBA title.
Below is the schedule and broadcast information for the best-of-seven 2024 series. Times are to be determined for Game 5 through 7 (if they’re necessary).
- Game 1: Saturday, April 20 — Sixers at Knicks, 6 p.m. ET on NBC Sports Philadelphia. Sixers Pregame Live begins at 5 p.m.
- Game 2: Monday, April 22 — Sixers at Knicks, 7:30 p.m. ET on NBC Sports Philadelphia. Sixers Pregame Live begins at 6:30 p.m.
- Game 3: Thursday, April 25 — Sixers vs. Knicks, 7:30 p.m. ET on NBC Sports Philadelphia. Sixers Pregame Live begins at 7 p.m.
- Game 4: Sunday, April 28 — Sixers vs. Knicks, 1 p.m. ET on ABC. Sixers Pregame Live begins at 12:30 p.m. on NBC Sports Philadelphia.
- Game 5: Tuesday, April 30 — Sixers at Knicks, time TBD on NBC Sports Philadelphia
- Game 6: Thursday, May 2 — Sixers vs. Knicks, time TBD on NBC Sports Philadelphia
- Game 7: Saturday, May 4 — Sixers at Knicks, time TBD on NBC Sports Philadelphia
The Sixers lost three of four regular-season games against the Knicks, including an embarrassing 36-point home defeat on Jan. 5. Their one victory over New York was a defense-dominated, 79-73 game last month at Madison Square Garden.
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“I think they’re for real,” Sixers head coach Nick Nurse said Wednesday night of the Knicks. “I think they’re really good. I think they’re fast. I think they can shoot. I think they hit the glass. I think they guard you. I think they’ve earned that seed.
“They’ve played really well and beaten a lot of good teams, so we’ll have our work to do here in the next couple days to get ready for them.”
Both teams have first-time All-Star guards in Jalen Brunson and Tyrese Maxey. Brunson, who averaged 35.1 points and 7.4 assists across the season’s last 17 games, is one of three Villanova products on the Knicks along with Josh Hart and Donte DiVincenzo.
“They’re tough,” Maxey said. “They start at the head of the snake, Jalen Brunson. We’ve got to find ways to slow him down. We have a few people we can throw at him and we’ve got Joel (Embiid) down there protecting us. But they’re an extremely grimy team. They play hard, they’re physical, they’re tough.
“That’s their identity. ... We have to match that. And not just match it, but overcome that and be better than that, and be extremely physical as well. So I think we know what we have to do. They kicked our tail in the regular season, so it’s time to go in there and fight.”
Counting their play-in win, the Sixers are 32-8 this season in Embiid’s appearances. The Knicks will soon put that sparkling record to the test.
