Jalen Brunson and the New York Knicks absorbed a disappointing loss Tuesday, but they certainly don’t have time to sulk.
The Knicks are back on the court Wednesday as they travel south for a matchup with the Philadelphia 76ers.
Brunson scored 40 points Tuesday in a 137-134 home loss to the Indiana Pacers, who had been 3-22 away from home. The grueling game featured 39 lead changes — the most in the league this season — and saw New York allow the first nine points of overtime before a furious last-minute rally fell short.
“We didn’t execute the way that we should have,” Knicks coach Mike Brown said.
Mikal Bridges and Karl-Anthony Towns added 22 points apiece for the Knicks, while Josh Hart had 15 points, 11 rebounds and 11 assists. Brunson, Bridges and Hart each played more than 40 minutes in the front end of a back-to-back.
The Knicks’ defense allowed the Pacers to shoot 51.5% from the field and 40% from 3-point range. New York has lost two of three following an eight-game winning streak.
“They hit tough shots,” said Towns, who shot 1 of 6 from 3-point range as part of a teamwide 14-of-46 effort (30.4%) from downtown. “They made threes, and on the other side, we didn’t make enough threes to combat the amount of shots they were hitting from three. We didn’t reach the standard of defense that we have shown recently, and it came back to bite us today.”
Meanwhile, Philadelphia is coming off a 3-2 Western Conference road trip that included wins over the Los Angeles Clippers, Golden State Warriors and Phoenix Suns. The only blemishes were a narrow loss to the Los Angeles Lakers and a blowout defeat at the hands of the Portland Trail Blazers.
“Five games (on this road trip)?” coach Nick Nurse said Monday after his team’s 135-118 loss to the Blazers. “Four and a half really good games. I think there’s a quarter here tonight that’s really bad (and) one quarter in L.A., but most of it was really good basketball. Not bad.”
The one bad quarter in Portland that Nurse referenced was the third period in which the Sixers were outscored 49-22. Philadelphia played the Blazers without Joel Embiid and Paul George, leaving Tyrese Maxey (30 points) as the lone member of the Sixers’ “Big Three” in the final game of the trek.
Kelly Oubre Jr. chipped in with 19 points for the Sixers. Deeper down the roster, Justin Edwards (12 points) and recently signed MarJon Beauchamp (10) made solid contributions as well.
“Those guys need more minutes. We’re learning (how to use) them, but they need more minutes,” Nurse said of Edwards, Beauchamp and Trendon Watford, who contributed 12 points on 5-of-7 shooting. “But the guys that stepped in there did OK.”
Embiid (knee) is questionable for the Wednesday contest, as are Dominick Barlow and Quentin Grimes, both due to illness. George will miss the seventh game of his 25-game suspension for violating the league’s drug policy.
For New York, Mitchell Robinson (left ankle injury management) didn’t play on Tuesday in the first half of the team’s back-to-back. OG Anunoby (right toenail avulsion) sat out his third consecutive game.
This is the fourth and final regular-season meeting between the teams in 2025-26. The Sixers won the first two matchups before the Knicks posted a 112-109 win in Philadelphia on Jan. 24 behind Brunson’s 31 points.
