Survival of the Sixers: Philly proves itself with gritty, unexpected Game 5 road win over Knicks

NEW YORK — Here they go again. The 76ers stepped up when you least expected it.

The 76ers were expected to conclude their 14th straight playoff appearance without advancing to the Eastern Conference semifinals.

But Tuesday’s 112-106 Game 5 overtime victory over the New York Knicks extended their first-round series for at least another game. The Sixers head into Thursday’s 9 p.m. Game 6 trailing three games to two.

What’s next? Can they hold off elimination for another game?

Yes, if Tyrese Maxey can duplicate what he did here in Madison Square Garden. The All-Star point guard scored a playoff-high 46 points.

» READ MORE: Tyrese Maxey, new Sixers alpha, would not let them lose Game 5 in New York despite Joel Embiid’s struggles

But this game was starting to look like it would be the last for this current roster.

That the Sixers plan to give Maxey a lucrative contract is the worst-kept secret in the league. But they could create close to $65 million in cap space this summer to go after an A-list free agent to group with Joel Embiid and Maxey in a roster overhaul.

If the Sixers have their wish, Paul George will opt out of the final year of deal with the Los Angeles Clippers to complete their three-headed monster.

But that talk is being put on hold for at least two more days of a roller-coaster season.

After Embiid returned on April 2 from a meniscus tear in his left knee, the Sixers were expected to make a deep postseason run. Yes, even as a seventh seed. The Sixers were expected to beat the second-seeded Knicks. From there, the prevailing thought was that they could get past the winner of the Milwaukee Bucks-Indiana Pacers series in the Eastern Conference semifinals. That would land the Sixers in their first conference finals appearance since 2001.

But then came the first four games of this series.

The Sixers lost three of those four games as they struggled to compete with the Knicks on the offensive glass or produce consistent scoring outside of Embiid and Maxey. On this night, they got solid scoring from Tobias Harris. The power forward finished with 19 points on 7-for-11 shooting to go with eight rebounds and a block.

Embiid didn’t shoot the ball well but produced a triple-double. He scored 19 points on 7-for-19 shooting but had game-highs of 16 rebounds, 10 assists, and four blocks.

What almost doomed the Sixers’ Tuesday was turnovers and poor foul shooting. They committed 16 turnovers that led to 21 points for New York. The Sixers also only made 13 of 19 free throws.

But they went to overtime thanks to Maxey’s 34-foot three-pointer to knot the score at 97 with 8.5 seconds left in regulation. (With the Sixers down six, Maxey scored the Sixers’ final seven points in the last 25.4 seconds of the fourth.)

Then Embiid’s three-point play gave them a 106-102 cushion with 1 minute, 40 seconds left in overtime. But he was called for a flagrant foul 18 seconds later while defending Jalen Brunson. Brunson hit the first free throw and after he missed the second, the Knicks got the rebound and he drained a three to knot the score. Kelly Oubre Jr.’s layup with 1:02 left gave the Sixers the lead again, and with 15.8 seconds remaining, Harris hit a pair of foul shots to put the Sixers up, 110-106, forcing Game 6.

“It was do-or-die for us,” Nico Batum said. “If we lose, we go home. So we gave ourselves a chance to at least one more game at home So we know it won’t be easy. I won’t be easy to play and win. And we knew what we pretty much did last game. So we knew we could do it.

“We came out tonight, and Tobias got a great first half, a great start of the game. Number zero [Maxey] has arrived. Maxey has arrived. Clutch at the end. Joel, everybody stepped [up] on the court. Kelly did a good job. That was a great defensive game on both sides.”

The Sixers survived. A loss Tuesday would have made this season a major disappointment, right?

“Yes and no,” Batum said. “I would say yes if the team we had in January was in that position today.

“The team we had against Denver [on Jan. 16] lost tonight, maybe. A lot of stuff happened in between, and we stayed in position. So, yes, anyway, because you got two big-time players, ambition in a sports town like Philly that wants to be great, wants to move on.”

Back on Jan. 16, the Sixers started Oubre, Harris, Batum, Embiid and Maxey in a 126-121 victory over the Nuggets at the Wells Fargo Center. Patrick Beverley and Marcus Morris Sr. were the first two players off the bench. Paul Reed and Furkan Korkmaz were the other two rotation players.

That victory improved the Sixers to 26-13. They were also in third place behind the Boston Celtics and Milwaukee Bucks in the conference. Embiid ended that night with 41 points, 10 assists, and seven rebounds to extend his franchise-best streak of consecutive 30-point games to 18.

But all the hype surrounding the Sixers began to fade once Embiid tore his meniscus against the Golden State Warriors on Jan. 30.

» READ MORE: Tyrese Maxey saves Sixers’ season with miracle performance in 112-106 Game 5 overtime win

Nine days later, the team traded Beverley, Morris and Furkan Korkmaz along with gritty defenders Danuel House Jr. and Jaden Springer. On top of that, the team was also dealing with injuries to Robert Covington (left knee) and De’Anthony Melton (back).

Suddenly, the Sixers roster that had finally appeared capable of getting out of the second round resembled a lottery team.

“The last two months were like an adjustment, pretty much,” said Batum, whose squad also had to incorporate newcomers Buddy Hield, Cam Payne and Kyle Lowry. “We had a full team like [only] the week before we played Miami [on April 17] and one other time.”

And at an unexpected time, they produced a gritty road win.