The Philadelphia 76ers did all they could to keep their home arena filled with their own crowd, but that did not stop New York Knicks fans from taking the New Jersey Turnpike south.
Knicks fans invaded Xfinity Mobile Arena as they took a commanding 3-0 lead over the Sixers in the second round of the Eastern Conference semifinals, but Joel Embiid seemed to believe that some Knicks bias was on the floor as well.
Embiid pointed out that the Knicks had twice as many free-throw attempts (32) as the 76ers did (16).
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“I guess it’s good when New York wins,” Embiid said in an apparent shot at the officials.
“Maybe (some potential fouls) was let go or not. They shot 32 free throws, we had 16. We’re not a team that shoots a lot of 3s. We attack, put the ball on the ground. I don’t know,” he added.
“We’ve just got to have that mentality of just not fouling, I guess, and being smart enough to not put ourselves in a position where they’re going to take advantage of it.”
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Josh Hart and Mikal Bridges made consecutive baskets that pushed the Knicks’ fourth-quarter lead to 92-84. Jalen Brunson, the stone-cold shooter built for these moments, buried a 3 from the top of the arc that made it 95-86 during a 9-0 Knicks run, to the delight of the visiting fans.
Embiid openly pleaded with fans ahead of the series not to sell their tickets to New Yorkers. The Sixers limited sales to those in the Philly area while also donating hundreds of tickets to local first responders.
But thousands of Knicks fans, including Timothée Chalamet, Ben Stiller and Spike Lee still got inside.
The Knicks will go for the sweep on Sunday in Philly.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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