With OG Anunoby out, Landry Shamet came off the bench and “brought it” — combining with Mikal Bridges and Jalen Brunson to pull NY out of an early 12-pt deficit and take control of the game in the 2nd quarter en route to a 108-94 win on a Friday night in Philly. The Knicks take a 3-0 lead over the 76’ers in the best-of-7 series.
Shamet has been the odd-man-out of the rotation due to the great late-season and playoff play of Jordan Clarkson. But with OG out, the 6’5 Shamet was ready, and rocking — playing tenacious D, hitting 3’s and slam dunk drives off breaks. Mikal Bridges played a tremendous D all night on Tyrese Maxey and continues to be on his game offensively, slashing to the rim for quick buckets or hitting 3’s or midrange’s.
And Brunson made all the big buckets early to keep NY in the game and then thrust them back in control — he led all scorers with 33 pts on 11-22 shooting (3-8 from 3).
Mitchell Robinson came up big, battling Joel Embiid inside and Poster-izing him with the Alley-Oop Dunk of the playoffs. Robinson played 19 minutes, while Karl-Anthony Towns played only 26 minutes due to constant foul trouble from Embiid flopping.
Philly jumped out to a 12 pt lead in the 1st; NY led by 60-52 at the half; Philly pulled within 4 pts in the 3rd, but NY pushed back to go up by 9 pts after 3; Philly pushed back within 4 pts early in the 4th, but NY dominated the the last 7 minutes, and ended up outscoring the 76’ers 23-18 in the final quarter.
And Knick fans provided the support — making up for seemingly 40 percent of the fans — about 70 percent in the upper region “blue seat” area — as tickets for the game on StubHub were going for $185 before the game, vs over $500 a ticket for MSG games. There were many empty seats in Philly’s Xfinity Mobile Arena.
“Everyone picked it up,” said Josh Hart afterwards. “It’s one of those things — next man up. Kal (Mikal Bridges) did an amazing job, Deuce in the minutes he had. Landry, like I said, is the ultimate professional — giving big minutes offensively and defensively. We responded well to that adversity (OG being out).”
“He’s giving multiple efforts – on the ball, off the ball, back-door cuts,” said Mitchell Robinson about Mikal Bridges, who did a great job Defensively on Tyrese Maxey.
1. Knicks Fans Make Up Approximately 40 Percent of Fans in Arena
After NY won the first 2 games of the series, ticket prices for this game dropped. You could buy a ticket to the ‘blue seats’ area in Xfinity Mobile Arena for $185 — which was super cheap compared to over $500 for the cheapest ticket to Game 5 at MSG if the series goes that long.
And although the 76’ers proclaimed they would only be selling tickets to people who lived in certain zip codes near Philadelphia — tickets were freely available for Knick fans to buy on StubHub and other secondary tickets sites. Joel Embiid had made a public plea to Philly fans to not sell their tickets, and if they needed money “I got you.”
Didn’t work — based on crowd roar, it seemed about 40 percent of the fans in the arena were Knick fans and that number was about 70 percent in the $185 ‘blue seats’. On top of that, there were many empty seats. Philly put a giveaway white t-shirt on every seat — which broadcast how many empty seats there were. Midway thru the 1st quarter you could see about 10 to 20 percent of seats still had the white shirt on them — meaning they probably hadn’t been sold.
2. PG 3’s Lead Philly to 12-Pt Lead in 1st Quarter
Philly jumped out to a 9-0 and 20-8 lead as Paul George was ON FIRE from 3. The 36-year-old George looked like he was in his prime, scoring 15 pts in the quarter on 6-9 shooting (3-3 from 3). He would go 0-9 the rest of the game.
PG IS ON FIRE IN Q1 🔥
15 PTS
3 3PM pic.twitter.com/swNnbPqFk2
— NBA (@NBA) May 8, 2026
3. Embiid Flopping; KAT in Foul Trouble
Joel Embiid was flopping all over the place all night — drawing fouls on KAT and Mitch. KAT picked up 2 quick fouls in the 1st quarter, and then a 3rd foul soon after he came in for the 2nd quarter.
Nick Nurse successful challenge, foul is now on KAT instead of Embiid. KAT 3rd foul, on bench, halfway thru 2nd quarter. More replays: pic.twitter.com/Qa55HDTAUH
— New York Basketball (@NBA_NewYork) May 8, 2026
NY went to Mitchell Robinson, who did a great job defending Embiid all evening.
All the 7 fouls that were drawn by Joel Embiid vs. New York Knicks last night (94-108 L) – Game 3 – Eastern Semifinals – 2026 NBA Playoffs.
Including the 3 fouls committed by Embiid, and the non-call that Embiid protested about, and some flops.
He went 4/6 from the line and… pic.twitter.com/pq9yRcWhrp
— MrBuckBuck (@MrBuckBuckNBA) May 9, 2026
4. Shamet, Bridges, & Brunson Lead NY Charge in 2nd
NY was down by 9 pts after another Paul George 3 with 2:32 left in the 1st quarter when Landry Shamet came in. He immediately hit a fadeaway jump shot, then a 3 late in the period to pull NY within 4. And he brought an intensity on both ends of the court.
Landry Shamet with the reverse! pic.twitter.com/jTqPa9KGtp
— Knicks Videos (@sny_knicks) May 8, 2026
“Great early minutes and energy on both ends from Landry Shamet,” noted NBA Analyst Ross Kreines. “Hit his first couple of shots and here he puts the ball on the floor and gets to the rim. After catching ,use of jab step , no wasted dribbles then great use of the rim to protect his shot from getting blocked.”
Mikal Bridges — in top form on both ends of the court — joined in with 3’s and slick drives and mid-range jumpers and the Knicks were off to the races. Mitchell Robinson defended inside; Josh Hart was everywhere on D.
Jordan Clarkson got a big bucket and Jose Alvarado hit a 3 to give NY their first lead at 38-35.
And then came the Dunk of the Playoffs — Mitchell Robinson with an Alley Oop Posterizer over Joel Embiid off a Brunson inbounds pass for a 40-35 Knick lead.
ROBINSON’S POSTER SLAM, FROM ALL ANGLES 🔥 https://t.co/T4OF5EFdLR pic.twitter.com/b6vBOns5Ci
— NBA (@NBA) May 9, 2026
Brunson and Bridges kept getting bucket after bucket and NY ran their lead to 12 pts at 54-42.
Joel Embiid has NO SHAME man
300 pounds, feels the slightest amount of contact and just falls down 😭💀 pic.twitter.com/cfJ08aZmuu
— Hater Report (@HaterReport) May 9, 2026
A Kelly Oubre Jr. 3 at the buzzer pulled Philly with 8 at the half — 60-52.
5. Brunson Carries Knicks in 3rd
NY doubled Tyrese Maxey all night — with Mikal Bridges as the primary defender. But early in the 3rd Maxey broke free for a couple of drives and Philly pulled within 4.
Again Brunson pushed back with consecutive drives to put NY back up 11.
Jalen Brunson‘s got 22 PTS 👏
A crafty bucket to extend the lead!
Knicks up 6 in Q3 of Game 3 🍿 pic.twitter.com/7OA0RSn8lI
— NBA (@NBA) May 9, 2026
“Jalen Brunson dictates where he wants to go and flat-out beats you,” pointed out NBA Analyst Ross Kreines. “Whether attacking his defenders top foot, keeping his defender on hip to hit floater, finishing in lane, creating contact, hitting his jumper, backing his man down all while finding the open man and using fundamentals.”
6. Philly Goes to Hack-a-Mitch in 3rd; Pulls within 2 But Ultimately Gets Burned
But Philly wasn’t done — VJ Edgecombe and Embiid got buckets — and then Philly went to hack-a-Mitch strategy, fouling Robinson purposely to send him to the line with 3:33 left in the 3rd.
Robinson hit his first free throw to overwhelming cheers from the Knick fans in the stadium, but missed his second to huge cheers from the Philly fans.
Free throws off a drive by Embiid on the other end pulled Philly within 3 at 77-74 NY.
Philly fouled Robinson again on next possession, and again Robinson made the 1st free throw, and missed the 2nd.
A bucket by Embiid down the other end pulled Philly within 2 pts at 78-76.
Philly fouled Robinson again on next possession (with 2:23 left) and this time Robinson made both free throws. NY 80-76.
On next possession, Brunson missed a 3, Robinson got the offensive rebound and was immediately fouled by Kelly Oubre Jr. This time Robinson missed both free throws.
But Robinson stayed in the game and forced an Embiid miss on a 3, then grabbed the defensive rebound and on the ensuing possession, Brunson drew an off-ball foul on Oubre and got 2 free throws, making both to put NY up 82-76.
Shamet finished the quarter with a 3 to put NY up 85-76 after 3.
7. Philly Pulls within 4 in 4th
Quentin Grimes hit a 3 early in the 4th, followed by a Tyrese Maxey drive, and another QGrimes 3 to pull Philly within 88-84 with 9 minutes left.
8. Knick DEFENSE & Brunson Control Last 9 Minutes
But after that it was all NY as the Knick Defense intensified and Jalen Brunson and Mikal Bridges and Josh Hart and Landry Shamet went to work on the offensive end.
Brunson from DEEP… 💰
He’s got 29 PTS as the Knicks lead by 13 in Q4 of Game 3! pic.twitter.com/Ivh6IVYb3q
— NBA (@NBA) May 9, 2026
NY took a 106-91 lead with 2 minutes left when both teams emptied their benches.
Etcetera
Embiid’s flopping and Robinson’s posterizing dunk over him brought back memories of when an out-of-control Embiid injured Robinson and caused surgery to his ankle in the playoffs 2 years ago.
Not sure how it’s possible to defend this type of behavior from Joel Embiid. pic.twitter.com/wns18rgvhY
— KnicksMuse (@KnicksMuse) April 26, 2024
Embiid’s pull down of Robinson’s leg was not the event that caused the injury that forced Robinson from the playoffs and required surgery — it came later in the same game:
This is what Joel Embid really did to hurt Mitchell Robinson besides the play everyone is showing when he twisted his ankle and leg. He falls on his legs to finish the job smh….Oh and don’t forget he also hit him in the face during the game smh #Knicks #76ers #Espn #Wfan pic.twitter.com/RThljQME2N
— Milton (@DACOWBELLMAN) April 26, 2024
The Boxscore
https://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore/_/gameId/401871161