Daryl Morey Faces 76ers Sweep After 144-114 Game 4 Loss
daryl morey watched the 76ers’ season end in a 144-114 loss to the Knicks on Sunday at Xfinity Mobile Arena. New York completed a four-game sweep, and Philadelphia’s postseason ended after the up-and-down run that followed a 45-win regular season.
Knicks Finish the Sweep
The Knicks finished the series by an average margin of 22.3 points per game, a blunt ending for a team that had already shown it could beat Boston in the first round. The 76ers had climbed out of a 24-58 season and looked revived at points, but that surge did not survive the second round.
Joel Embiid checked out of Game 4 long before a timeout midway through the fourth quarter, then lingered with teammates near the free-throw line. After the game, he said, "They were just better than us in everything." He added, "We’ve just got to look at each other, starting with me."
Embiid, Maxey, and Edgecombe
The backcourt offered the clearest reasons for optimism during the season. Tyrese Maxey finished fifth in the NBA in scoring at 28.3 points per game and earned his second All-Star appearance, while rookie VJ Edgecombe averaged 16 points, 5.6 rebounds, 4.2 assists, and 1.4 steals and finished third in Rookie of the Year voting.
That production helped Philadelphia improve from last season’s 24-58 mark, but the numbers also show the gap that still closed in the playoffs. The 76ers ranked 16th in offensive efficiency at 114.3 points per 100 possessions and 17th in defensive efficiency at 114.4 points allowed per 100 possessions, a middling profile for a team trying to last deep into May.
Philadelphia’s Offseason Turn
The season now turns to decisions after a run that included Embiid returning to the court 17 days after an emergency appendectomy, the club falling behind Boston three games to one, and then beating the Celtics in Game 7 in Boston. Nick Nurse had talked before the season about the challenge of trying to "dig themselves out of that 24-58 record," and the 76ers did that in the standings without turning it into a longer playoff climb.
Maxey described the season as "a step in the right direction," but Sunday’s finish leaves Philadelphia with a familiar problem: the front line of its talent did not stay together long enough to carry one series into the next. The next stretch belongs to Morey, Embiid, Maxey, Nurse, and a roster that has already shown enough to raise expectations and not enough to satisfy them.
