Splints, scraps & slumps: Sixers feeling the pain beyond the box score

NEW YORK -- As Tyrese Maxey finished speaking with the media after Wednesday's loss to the New York Knicks, he reached down to grab a backpack that he had brought with him. He winced, reached with his left hand instead of his right before a Sixers public relations person grabbed the light bag for him. 

His right hand still has the splint wrapped around his pinky that he has been wearing since doing tendon damage two months ago, and Maxey admitted that his ball-handling suffered in the 108-102 loss to the Knicks after he jammed the pinky.

Tyrese Maxey on the Knicks' aggressive defense on him in Game 2:

"I kind of jammed my finger in the second quarter so I didn't feel confident dribbling around a lot of the traps like I normally do or splitting them."

(Via @MrUram) pic.twitter.com/J8PyC6StId

— SPORTSRADIO 94WIP (@SportsRadioWIP) May 7, 2026

Of course, that came hours after the Sixers learned at their morning shootaround that Joel Embiid would miss the game due to a right ankle sprain and right hip soreness. 

Injuries, intangibles and other seemingly small stories often turn into bigger ones during a grueling best-of-seven series, of which the Knicks lead this one at 2-0. Sometimes those factors go away. Sometimes they linger and play a huge part in the outcome.

The Knicks didn't come out of Wednesday's win unscathed, either. Josh Hart seemed to jam either his wrist or left hand or both with about a minute to go in the third quarter that left him in quite a bit of pain. He stayed in the game, gutted it out, and even hit a game-tying three-pointer with 6:25 to go that knotted the game at 99. We'll see how he responds to that in the next couple of days.

Then, with about three minutes to go, Knicks forward OG Anunoby had a dunk attempt blocked by Paul George. Anunoby came down gingerly, then asked out a couple seconds later while jogging back up the floor, grabbing at his right hamstring.

Add that to backup center Mitchell Robinson missing the game with illness, and it added to a lot of goings on in the series right now.

Those are the injuries, and we'll see to what degree they impact the series. But there's also the intangibles. Like Nurse having to use Maxey and Edgecombe for close to 47 and 40 minutes, respectively. Like his backup centers in Andre Drummond and Adem Bona getting called for nine fouls in 31 minutes of play, forcing the coach to use Dominick Barlow for 16 unexpected minutes. Barlow played really well. 

Does that now come into play as far as him entering the rotation? 

Sixers head coach Nick Nurse was asked how much the heavy minutes for Tyrese Maxey, Paul George and VJ Edgecombe affected everyone down the stretch of their 108-102 loss to the Knicks.

He said it may have, but Nurse also indicates they wanted to be out there and Tyrese’s +\- in… pic.twitter.com/QOY4b60otQ

— Dave Uram (@MrUram) May 7, 2026

The Sixers also did a great job of drawing fouls on Karl-Anthony Towns, who, while very effective scoring the ball in the first half, was limited to just eight first-half minutes due to three fouls. 

And the defense on Jalen Brunson, mostly by VJ Edgecombe, was very good on the night.

Can that be sustained? 

Then to finish the night, Knicks deep sub Jeremy Sochan decided it was a good time to talk some smack to Edgecombe as the teams were leaving the court.

Those are the quizzical things about playoffs. Coaches would love to just be able to dial up schemes and plays and principles for their teams to follow, but it's never that easy when it's the same opponent every other night.

"I mean, we knew we were going to make adjustments, play better, and get our defense involved, which I think we did," said Paul George, who finished with 19 points, six rebounds and four assists in 43 minutes of play. “We like where we're at, we played good defense, I thought all the way into the fourth quarter. We just didn't make shots, but a lot of positive coming out of the game tonight."  

The not "making of shots" of which George spoke was directed at the final 6:52 of the game. After Kelly Oubre, Jr. made a three to give the team a 99-96 lead, the Sixers didn't score another field goal until Maxey deposited a layup with one minute remaining. That's almost six minutes without a field goal in a crucial game. Their possessions up until Maxey's layup went - missed three, missed three, missed three, missed layup, missed three, missed three, turnover, turnover, one of two made free throws. 

Was it tired legs? Were they good possesions? Are the Sixers deep enough to be putting so many minutes on their regulars?

Again, the intangibles. 

"It's going to be a dog fight," said Edgecombe of the rest of the series. "I think it's going to be a real dog fight. I think that is what it's going to be, a dog fight. They're a really good team and it's going to come down to the wire almost every game."  

And it's going to come down to an injury here, a sickness there. Maybe a deep sub coming in and giving a spark to a team that may lead to something more. It could be playing for a coach who is still suffering from the loss of his brother, like Nick Nurse is.

Right now, the New York Knicks are just the better basketball team on the court. It's that simple. Outside of the Oklahoma City Thunder, they may be playing the best basketball of the remaining teams in the tournament. But it's often about more than that, especially come playoff time. And now, being down 0-2, the Sixers need the intangibles to lean in their direction.

"It's going to be like this for the rest of the series," said Maxey. "Last game was tough, for sure tough. That was the first time in my career in the playoffs of playing in a series (Boston) and leaving that place and coming here and playing. It was really weird, really different. All my years I've always had time to practice a couple times before we played a team. We didn't even practice or anything. But that's no excuse. However long this series is, I feel like every single game is going to be like it was tonight. It's going to be extremely physical, extremely aggressive. It's going to come down to who makes plays at the end of the game."

And, perhaps, who benefits most from the off-the-court intangibles.