Georges Niang questions Knicks’ defensive scheme after Sixers win
NEW YORK–The Philadelphia 76ers were trailing the entire day in a Christmas Day matchup with the New York Knicks. The Sixers were just unable to really get over the hump after the Knicks got off to such a hot start.
New York had built a 14-point lead and they led throughout the game, but in the fourth quarter, the Sixers turned to a Georges Niang-James Harden two-man game and they were able to rally and win it 119-112 on the road.
Niang drilled four triples in the fourth quarter due to that two-man game with Harden and his hot shooting was instrumental in Philadelphia pulling away for the win. He scored half of the 24 points the Sixers had in the fourth and afterward, he questioned why the Knicks were in a drop and let him shoot the ball.
“I don’t know why they were playing in a drop coverage,” said Niang. “I probably haven’t seen that since college maybe, but they were putting two on James and that’s kind of where me and James have that two-man game that really you know flourishes. James found me, James does an incredible job of hitting me on the hands and making those passes and my job is to shoot the ball and I wasn’t gonna stop doing that.”
Harden, being the basketball genius that he has shown to be, saw how the Knicks were playing and he wanted to make sure Niang kept shooting the ball.
“We found something,” said Harden. “We found something we liked and then we just tried to get the best available shot. I think Georges had a couple just easy looks. He just rushed him so I just told him just take your time, you know what I mean? Just take your time and he made one, he made two, and that opened up the game for us right there.”
The slow start for Niang caused coach Doc Rivers to playfully ask him if he was going to make a shot. He was struggling from deep before he got that one to drop in the fourth quarter and be able to win the game.
“We were laughing,” said Rivers. “I asked Georges, I said ‘Georges, are you gonna make a freaking shot tonight? Or are we just on vacation today?’ and he said ‘You just watch’ and that’s when he started pointing at me and he made his shots. It was thrilling for me, too to be honest, but that was a great response by Georges.”
The Sixers will now pay a visit to the Washington Wizards on Tuesday to continue their 4-game road trip.
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Player grades: Joel Embiid, Sixers get past Knicks on Christmas Day
