The Philadelphia 76ers were able to handle business in the NBA Play-In Tournament against the Miami Heat. Playing on their homecourt, Philadelphia won 105-104, earning the No. 7 seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs.
That means a matchup with the No. 2 seed New York Knicks. These are teams that know each other well as they faced off four times in the regular season as Atlantic Division rivals. Head coach Nick Nurse is familiar with the Knicks as he spent five seasons coaching the Toronto Raptors, who are also in the Atlantic, before heading to Philadelphia.
This is going to be a hard-fought, drag-’em-out series between two physical teams. This is a closer matchup than many 2/7 series normally are as Philadelphia was only that far down the standings because of an injury to Joel Embiid.
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While they had to fight their way to the NBA Playoffs with an extra game, things have turned out just as they had hoped they would. Backup center Paul Reed revealed that the Knicks are who the 76ers wanted to draw a matchup with.
“We ain’t ducking no smoke, but yeah we wanted the #Knicks matchup, that’s the easier team…” Reed said when making an appearance on Run It Back on FanDuel TV.
While Reed may not have meant that as a shot at the Knicks, he has provided an already motivated team with more bulletin board material. As if New York didn’t have a big enough chip on their shoulder already by being listed as underdogs, Reed just provided them more ammunition.
While regular season results are tough to glean anything from once in the NBA Playoffs, it does mean something. New York found success against Philadelphia in the regular season, going 3-1. All three wins were by at least 14 points, including one blowout with Embiid in the lineup.
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Alas, Julius Randle was in the lineup for that victory and he won’t be for the remainder of the season because of shoulder surgery. But, you know what you are going to get when facing off against the Knicks.
They are a well-coached team and always prepared with Tom Thibodeau at the helm. You can be sure they heard what Reed said and will be using that as motivation to try and advance to the Eastern Conference semifinals for the second straight year.
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