Pro and college basketball really start to heat up in November. On Tuesday, November 12th, I traveled 213 miles down the coast through NJ to the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia for the Knicks against the 76ers. It was the opening Knicks game in the NBA Cup. The NBA Cup is a regular season tournament in its second year. It was my first time back at the Wells Fargo Center since the Knicks clinched the quarterfinals last season with a 118-115 win on May 2nd.
The Knicks starting five has changed in the six months since last season. The new starting lineup was Jalen Brunson, Josh Hart, OG Anunoby and newcomers Mikal Bridges and Karl-Anthony Towns Jr. Twenty eight year old Bridges was born in Philly, played high school basketball at Great Valley in Malvern PA, went to Villanova University and was picked 10th overall by the Sixers in 2018. Towns Jr., also known as KAT, was born in Edison NJ, went to St Joseph’s High School in Metuchen NJ, and was the number one overall pick in the 2015 NBA draft by the Minnesota Timberwolves after playing one season for the University of Kentucky.
The big news in Philadelphia was that Joel Embid would be playing his first NBA game of the ‘24-‘25 season. There’s always drama swirling around Embid. Last season he called out Philly fans after hearing “Let’s Go Knicks” and “MVP…MVP…”cheers for Jalen Brunson in Game 4. This season he shoved local Philadelphia Inquirer reporter, Marcus Hayes in the locker room after the Sixers loss to Memphis on 11/2. He started the game against the Knicks but after four minutes he left the court and went to the locker room. He ended up playing 26:25, had two field goals, shot 18.2% making 2 of 11 shots and scored 13 points with 8 of them being free throws.
The first quarter was very competitive with the Knicks leading 27-25. KAT was the Knicks leader with 10 points and 3 rebounds. In the 2nd quarter Josh Hart had 7 points and 5 rebounds. The Knicks led 54-50 at halftime. In the third quarter Mikal Bridges led the Knicks in points with 6 while OG Anunoby and Hart had 3 rebounds each. The Knicks led 78-75 after three quarters. The fourth quarter was when the Knicks took over. They won it by 9. Jalen Brunson poured in 10 points. Anunoby had 8 and Towns had 7 points with 5 rebounds. Anunoby led the Knicks in scoring with 24 points. Towns had 21 points, 13 rebounds and 6 assists.
After the game most of the reporters huddled around KAT in the locker room. I joked with Josh Hart who ended up with a triple double with 14 points, 12 rebounds and 10 assists. Finally I asked Matt Ryan how he felt about getting big minutes for the Knicks. He played 8:48 in the 111-99 win. Matt’s 27, born in Valhalla NY and played basketball in New Rochelle NY for Iona Prep a small Catholic school founded in 1916 by the Congregation of Christian Brothers. He was one of only 8 players to get minutes in the game. He said, “it’s amazing…bouncing around team to team…having the opportunity to come home…feel like I’m just getting started…my first game of getting rotational minutes.” I commented on how important the minutes were with only eight guys playing. Jericho Sims (9:34mins) and Cameron Payne (9:01) were the only other non-starters to play.
After spending the night in South Jersey I was back at the Wells Fargo on Wednesday November 13th to cover the Sixers play the undefeated Cleveland Cavaliers. The Cavs came into the game 12-0 and were looking to become the 6th team in NBA history to start the season 13-0. Cleveland won the first quarter 31-27. Led by reserve Caris Levert who had 7 points and 2 assists. The Sixers won the second quarter 27-17 and led at halftime 54-48. Would this be the end of Cleveland’s undefeated season start?
At halftime Coach Kenny Atkinson who was born in Northport NY and went to St. Anthony’s in S. Huntington NY made some important defensive adjustments. In the postgame press conference he told me the Cavs were switching on everything defensively in the first half. He said they went back to what they call coverage. He said, “it really was about us, our intensity…we didn’t have the requisite energy…the requisite physicality in the first half.” The Cavs reversed the 10 points they lost in the second quarter winning the 3rd quarter 34-24.
I said to Coach Atkinson in the press conference, “Ty Jerome was unbelievable in the fourth quarter.” Ty played 6:44 in the quarter scoring eight points. All his points and assists (2) came in the fourth quarter. Ty Jerome also played High School basketball at Iona Prep in New Rochelle. Two days in a row that players from the small Christian Brothers School played big roles in NBA games in Philly! The Cavs got their 13th in a row. As we go to press, the Cavs are 19-3 and undefeated in December. The Knicks are 13-8, on a three game winning streak and most importantly, they’re in the quarterfinals of The NBA Cup. Prizes in the Cup range from each player on the losing quarterfinal team getting $51,497 to each player on the winning finals team getting $514,971.
Eight days later I covered the 2024 Legends Classic in Brooklyn at the Barclays Center. The first semifinal on Thursday November 21st was Syracuse University against the Texas Longhorns. The opening game was electrified especially when former Syracuse player Carmelo Anthony arrived court side with his son Kiyan, the 17 year old plays for Long Island Lutheran High School in Brookville NY. Kiyan is the 36th ranked player in ESPN’s top 100 recruits for 2025 and has announced he plans on playing for Syracuse. Texas led by 11 at half (41-30). The Longhorns were up 16 early in the second half (48-32) with 18:25 left. Syracuse came back with a 19-4 run over eight minutes cutting it to 52-51 with 10:33 to go.
After Texas extended their lead to 56-52 Syracuse had a 7-2 run and took the lead 59-58 with 4:07 left. The next 1:14 had 3 lead changes before Texas went up 62-61. They extended it to 68-63 with free throws and won 70-66. Arthur Kaluma and Tre Johnson led Texas with 16 points each. Kaluma also had 10 rebounds and 4 assists. Between the two of them they were 11-12 on free throws. In the post-game press conference I asked Texas Coach Rodney Terry, “I thought one of the most important deciding factors in this game was foul shooting…they couldn’t make their foul shots and your guys didn’t miss…what are your comments on that?” Coach Terry answered, “We got to the line 14 times…we would’ve liked to get there 20 times…but when we got there we definitely capitalized.” Texas was 12-14 from the line. Syracuse was 9 for 18 at the foul line. Syracuse Coach Adrian Autry said, “turnovers at the end…missed rebounds at the end…and free throws…this is frustrating and I’m tired of it.”
In the second semifinal St. Joseph’s University stunned no.24 Texas Tech 78-77. Eric Reynolds II led all St. Joe’s scorers with 26 points shooting 6-11 from beyond the 3pt line. Xzayvier Brown had 20 points going 13-13 from the free throw line. The game was tied at 17 with 12 minutes to go in the first half. St. Joe’s had a four minute 14-4 run to lead 31-21 the Hawks pushed their lead to 16 until Tech got it back to 45-35 at half. Tech cut the Hawks lead to 48-45 in less than 6 minutes into the second half. Tech took its first lead 64-62 with 6:44 to play. With 1:07 to play JT Toppin scored to tie it at 77. St. Joe’s Justice Ajoghor hit one of two free throws to make it 78-77. After the foul shot Christian Anderson took the ball up court driving hard down the right side of the lane until the Hawks stopped him. He passed the ball to Darrion Williams who missed a jumper just inside the foul line as time ran out. It was a great game.
The Next day saw Syracuse lose another heartbreaker. This time without Carmelo and Kiyan Anthony court side. The game was tied at 31 at halftime. This time Syracuse did hit its foul shots scoring 24 of 28 from the line. Darrion Williams led the way with 20 points, 6 rebounds and 3 assists for Tech. In the press conference Texas Tech Coach Grant McCasland was happy about getting a win in Brooklyn. In the nightcap Texas won the Legends Classic by 9 point 67-58. After leading 32-30 at halftime Texas won the second half 35-28. St. Joe’s put a scare in the Longhorns leading 50-46 with 8:25 to play but Texas scored five straight making it 51-50. Rasheer Fleming had a monster game for St. Joe’s with 16 points and 20 rebounds! His dunk with 5:29 to go gave the Hawks a 52-51 lead. Then Texas used an 8-0 run over three minutes to lead 59-52 and scoring six straight points to lead 65-55 with 43 seconds to go eventually taking the Classic Trophy 67-58. The four games in Brooklyn were like NCAA Tournament games. A little March Madness in November.
