LeBron too much for Knicks late in what Nurse calls 'his best game' as 76er — SkimNews
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- 76ers defeated the Knicks 98-93 in Friday night’s NBA Cup game, improving their season record to 5-1.
- Jalen Brunson hit a step-back 3-pointer that erased an 11-point fourth-quarter lead for Philadelphia and sent the Knicks-heavy Xfinity Mobile Arena crowd into a frenzy.
- LeBron James answered on the next possession by backing down OG Anunoby and making a fadeaway jumper, then added a putback layup for a five-point lead with 11.9 seconds remaining.
- Nick Nurse called the performance LeBron James’s best game as a Sixer, while Tyrese Maxey described James as a “calming presence” in late-game situations.
- LeBron James logged his first 20-point game as a Sixer, finishing with 20 points, nine rebounds and eight assists.
- LeBron James has scored 20 or more in 68 games since turning 40, exceeding the 67 games posted by every other NBA player age 40 or older combined; at 41 years, 304 days, he tied Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as the fifth-oldest player with a 20-point game.
- LeBron James fluctuated despite Jaylen Brown being out with a left patellar injury: 12 first-half points on nine shots, two points on one third-quarter attempt, then six fourth-quarter points, more than half of them on game-saving plays.
Why it matters: For Philadelphia, the victory moved the Sixers to 5-1, with James’s late execution keeping all five wins in clutch time—final five minutes with the score within five—and it snapped New York’s six-game series streak over the Sixers. The 98-93 result gives Philadelphia a win over the team that swept them in the playoffs.
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