With less than a minute left in regulation on Monday night, the Philadelphia 76ers had just come off of a 14-6 run to take a 101-96 lead over the Knicks, and appeared set to escape from New York with an upset victory in Game 2 of their first-round series.
Then pandemonium broke out. Because what followed was what very well might go down as the most chaotic finish of the entire NBA playoffs: Thee Knicks scored 6 points in about 14 seconds of game time to pull a reverse Reggie Miller and finish off the Sixers.
After Jalen Brunson got just about the luckiest bounce you’re ever going to see on a second-chance three, the Knicks managed to steal the inbounds pass, get another offensive rebound, and allow Donte DiVincenzo to hit his second 3-point attempt of the game to retake a lead they wouldn’t relinquish again, going on to win 104-101 after two subsequent OG Anunoby free-throws.
Seriously, watch this clip — or if you’re Philly fan, don’t — because there are approximately 10 moments where your brain will not be able to process how the Knicks just got the ball or had a shot go in:
Mike Breen even had to give that second Donte three the rarely used double bang:
In a finish like this, there will always be controversy, and in this case it will be not just the physicality of that last sequence under the glass, but that Philadelphia head coach Nick Nurse claims he called timeout and the referees ignored him as the Knicks unleashed their specific brand of Madison Square Mayhem:
But ramifications of those complaints, if any, aside: what’s even crazier is that Brunson boinking that three in on a night he mostly couldn’t hit anything — he finished with 24 points on 29 attempts — is probably still not the most unlucky bounce Philadelphia has faced in the playoffs in the last decade.
That honor goes to Kawhi Leonard’s series-deciding four-bouncer in the 2019 Eastern Conference semifinals:
There are two lessons here, one for Sixers fans, and one for everyone else.
For the Philly faithful: I am sorry, but it really does appear that if God has not forsaken you, the Basketball Gods at least have.
And for everyone else: You’re never out of a game against the Sixers. History tells us that you just need to hope your franchise star can get the ball on the rim late, and it’ll have the chance to rip out the hearts of everyone in The City of Brotherly Love.
