76ers' Depth Behind Joel Embiid Called Out by Fans in Loss to Julius Randle, Knicks
The Philadelphia 76ers came into Madison Square Garden playing some of their best basketball of the season and left with one of their most baffling losses.
The New York Knicks overcame a 21-point deficit and handed Philadelphia a 108-97 loss Sunday. The visitors had won nine of their previous 10 but dropped to 34-18 despite four of their five starters having a plus-minus of plus-11 or higher, including Joel Embiid's plus-18 mark.
Philadelphia's bench was putrid, as the five players outside of Tyrese Maxey combined for four entire points and were unable to prevent the Knicks from going on extended runs that swung the game when Embiid and James Harden were on the sidelines.
With Thursday's trade deadline approaching, it was only natural for reactions on social media to focus on the team's poor depth and bench performance:
It seemed like the 76ers were going to cruise to a straightforward victory when they built that 21-point lead. The Knicks had no answer for Embiid down low, who finished with a double-double of 31 points and 14 rebounds.
Harden also facilitated with 12 assists to make up for a quiet scoring night, and a Knicks team playing without RJ Barrett and in the second game of a back-to-back after an overtime loss to the Los Angeles Clippers on Saturday could have been forgiven if it folded up and started looking ahead to the next contest.
Instead, Julius Randle, Jalen Brunson and Evan Fournier spearheaded a comeback as the members of the 76ers bench did very little but get their cardio in as the seemingly insurmountable lead shrunk.
New York took the lead in the fourth quarter when Embiid was on the bench and kept Philadelphia at bay from there, handing the Eastern Conference contender a shocking loss even though it had no trouble for the vast majority of the time the starters were in the game.
The 76ers will look to bounce back in another high-profile road game against the Boston Celtics on Wednesday.
