NEW YORK — The Philadelphia 76ers were outscored by the Knicks 39-16 in the second quarter of Tuesday night’s game in New York, a hole they were never able to crawl out of, leading to a 112-99 loss to drop to 2-2 on the young season.
The growing importance of the 3-point shot means that more and more game analysis starts off by looking at the 3-point discrepancy, and then veers off from there. That was certainly the case on Tuesday night, when the Knicks shot 43.2 percent from beyond the arc, compared to 29.3 percent for the Sixers.
Some of that discrepancy certainly comes down to luck and shooting variance. The Sixers absolutely could not buy a bucket above the break, as they shot just 4-for-25 on non-corner 3-point attempts, compared to 8-for-16 from the corners. Typically, if a team is able to launch 41 3s in a game, with over a third of them coming from the heavily-guarded short corners, they’re going to score points. Tobias Harris, Tyrese Maxey, Seth Curry and Furkan Korkmaz seemingly shooting cross-eyed from the perimeter was tough to overcome, especially when you mix in a subpar game from star big man Joel Embiid.
