Sixers 108 , Knicks 92: Scenes from the tanking capital of the world

Next time you travel to Philadelphia, be sure to hit all of the Philly landmarks; The Philadelphia Museum of Art, LOVE Park, and Ft. Tank — buried somewhere on Broad Street beneath excess ping pong balls — but beware, the landmark is known to be haunted by the ghosts of Michael Carter-Williams and JaKarr Sampson.

The Knicks were clearly inspired by their visit. In a game where Allen Iverson took part in the pre-game ceremonies, Trey Burke (AKA dollar store Iverson) tallied only four minutes of game action.

It looked ugly to start. The Knicks trailed 31-21 at end of first quarter and the player they would need the most looked to be timid out of the gate.

With a mixture of strong bench play and some welcomed paint buckets from Hardaway, the Knicks cut the lead to two by halftime, even getting a look to tie the game before the intermission.

76er’s GM Bryan Colangelo made headlines last week by saying that Markelle Fultz’s current range is “inside the paint.” Unfortunately, the same may be true for Tim Hardaway Jr. at the moment. Hardaway went 0-8 from deep and shot only 25% from the field. All the while, Damyean Dotson saw only two garbage time minutes — a team low.

Fear not my fellow Knickertroopers, for the savior and commander of our armored military vehicle hath arrived from Denver, and his name is Emmanuel Mudiay.

As the first PG off the bench, Mudiay posted a plus/minus of -18, second-worst only to Michael Beasley. Frank Ntilikina had the highest plus/minus with +4, but did not have a great offensive game (to say the least).

Ntilikina played nearly all of his minutes tonight at the 2, and although he posted zero points, zero assists, and three turnovers in what could be considered a poor game from the rookie, his lack of playing time at point guard manifested itself in the form of a T.J. McConnell triple double (the first of his career). Yuck.

Recap to come shortly. Forward march.