PHILADELPHIA — Of course it was him.
With the game on the line, of course it was LeBron James who made the difference.
He made the biggest plays down the stretch as his 76ers handed the Knicks a 98-93 loss Friday night.
“Obviously, when you add arguably the greatest player of all time,” Karl-Anthony Towns said, “obviously you’re gonna get a lot better.”
The Knicks, trailing by three with 30.8 seconds left, needed a stop to get the ball back with a chance to tie the game. Tyrese Maxey got around both Mikal Bridges and Jalen Brunson on the perimeter and into the lane. Josh Hart, who was guarding James, stepped up to help on Maxey.
Maxey missed his layup, but James was able to sky uncontested for a putback layup that extended the Knicks deficit to five points with 11.9 seconds left, all but sealing the Sixers’ win.
A few moments earlier, Brunson had given the Knicks their first lead since early in the first quarter, hitting a 3-pointer to put them up by one with 1:32 left. But James answered on the other end with a vintage turnaround jumper to reestablish a 76ers lead.
“The one was a tough turnaround fadeaway on OG [Anunoby],” Hart said. “And then the other one, I was guarding him, Tyrese turned the corner, got downhill, I stepped up on that. I’m not sure who was on the backside. There was a shooter on the backside, so there was a lot of space. He made a good play hitting the offensive glass.”
James scored a team-high six points in the fourth quarter, taking over as Maxey had gone quiet.
“I’m just trying to get more and more comfortable with what we’re running offensively,” James said. “I think every game and every week that I’m here, my body will continue to ramp up and ramp up and get better and better. That played a part.
“As far as the two shots, just trying to be aggressive. I had a one-on-one against OG. I was able to get to my fadeaway and knock that down. And then [Maxey] draws so much attention, he went for the layup and kind of missed it a little bit and I was able to get the tip-in being in the right place at the right time.”
