Morning After: 76ers 98, Knicks 93 as LeBron Takes Over Late and Spoils the Comeback

That one stings. The Knicks fought all the way back from 14 down, finally grabbed a lead on a Jalen Brunson step-back three with 1:32 left, and then watched LeBron James take the last minute away. Final from Philadelphia: 76ers 98, Knicks 93 in our NBA Cup group opener, per the NBA.com box score. We're 2-4, the Sixers are 5-1 and already 2-0 against us this season, per the AP, and next up is Brooklyn at the Garden on Monday night (6:30 p.m. CT), per ESPN's schedule.

I'll be honest, the first half had me yelling at the TV. Philly scored 26 points in the paint before halftime while we managed 10, per SNY, and we coughed it up eight times. Mike Brown didn't sugarcoat it afterward. "They were getting in our paint left and right, right and left, and it was really, really easy doing it," he said, per SNY. The Sixers led by as many as 14, per ESPN's team stats, and Tyrese Maxey opened the third with a three and a step-back that made it 58-44 and forced a Knicks timeout, per ESPN's play-by-play. Maxey finished with a game-high 27, and Anfernee Simons came off their bench with 21 on 5-of-8 from deep, per the box score. Their bench outscored ours 28-19, per NBA.com.

The comeback says a lot about this team

Here's the thing I keep coming back to: when we stopped settling, we were the better team. The Knicks scored 24 points in the paint in the second half after just 10 in the first, per SNY. Down 79-68 early in the fourth, we went on a 22-10 run to take that 90-89 lead, per ESPN's play-by-play. Karl-Anthony Towns kicked it off by scoring eight points in about two minutes, an and-one, a three and a driving layup, with Tyler Kolek setting him up on all three, per the play-by-play. That's the five-out look I'll defend forever. Cat at the top, the floor spread, and when Philly closed out, he put it on the deck. He finished with 22 points and 12 rebounds on 8-of-15 shooting and 3-of-7 from three, per the box score.

Mikal Bridges also looked a lot more like himself after the Chicago game, when he barely played. He had 12 points on 5-of-8 with three steals in 30 minutes, per NBA.com, and his pull-up with 2:29 left cut it to 89-87. Miles McBride gave us 10 off the bench. But OG Anunoby had a quiet 9 on 4-of-10, and Josh Hart went 2-of-9. With both wings out there together I want more than that, and I want it on the glass and at the rim, where we're built to hurt people.

If you want to relive the comeback (and the ending, if you're a glutton for punishment), here's the NBA's official full-game highlights:

The last 90 seconds belonged to LeBron

Brunson's three should have been the moment. Instead, James answered with a turnaround fadeaway over Anunoby with 1:10 left, VJ Edgecombe buried a three from 27 feet to make it 94-90, and after Brunson split a pair at the line with 30.8 seconds left, Maxey got downhill, missed the layup, and James skied for the tip-in to make it 96-91 with 11.9 to go, per ESPN's play-by-play and the AP. Hart explained it plainly afterward: he stepped up to help on Maxey, "there was a lot of space," and James "made a good play hitting the offensive glass," per the New York Post. James finished with 20 points, nine rebounds and eight assists, per the box score. At 41.

And look, I love Brunson. He gave us 38 in Chicago two nights earlier. But the New York Post's Stefan Bondy noted he went 1-for-5 over the final six-plus minutes, and he finished 8-of-22 overall for 24 points, per the box score. The AP also said he appeared to roll an ankle late. I haven't seen any update on that yet, so I'm not going to guess, but that's the first thing I'll be watching for before Monday.

Zoom out and the problem is the one Brown named. We shot 13-of-41 from three, per the box score, and too many of those were forced. A balanced team takes the paint first and lets the threes come; we did the opposite for a half. Philly also scored 23 points off our 13 turnovers, per NBA.com. "We're trying to hit a home run every time we get the ball and we have to hit singles," Brown said, per SNY. Hart added the honest part, per the Post: "We all feel the fatigue. So we've got to fight through it." Six games in, I'll give them a little rope on the legs. I won't give them rope on the effort in the first half, and I don't think Brown will either.

If you missed it, here's our Game Day Preview for this one: https://knicks365.com/blog/knicks-76ers-game-day-preview-2026-10-30. Nets on Monday. Let's get that one back.