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PHILADELPHIA — Early cheers of “Let’s go Knicks” echoed through the arena as the Knicks unleashed a barrage of 3-pointers.
Fans erupted with “Deuce” after each of Miles McBride’s impressive seven 3-pointers.
The crowd chanted “Knicks in four,” celebrating as the team continued to dominate.
Though technically the Knicks were playing away for Game 4 of the Eastern Conference semifinals,
the atmosphere at Xfinity Mobile Arena felt distinctly like a home game for the Knicks. On Mother’s Day, they delivered a crushing 144-114 victory, sweeping the 76ers in four games as their supporters took over the venue.
“I used to think Philly was a sports town,” Josh Hart said with a wry smile. “I don’t know if it is anymore.”
It was a Knicks town this weekend.
There was a strong contingent of Knicks fans for Friday night’s Game 3, but they were mostly drowned out by the 76ers supporters until the game was out of reach.
Sunday was different.
Sunday, they owned the building.
Sunday, they made it their home.
The only resistance came from the ear-splitting 76ers public address announcer.
His effort was futile.
It started in warmups, with Knicks fans booing Joel Embiid.
“I thought we were back in the Garden for a second,” Hart said.
To add salt in the wound, a group of Knicks fans brought mini-posters of Mitchell Robinson’s alley-oop dunk Friday over Embiid and tried to hand them out to 76ers fans.
“Man, Mitch did his thing right here, so shout-out to the fans,” McBride said.
Before the series began, Embiid called on 76ers fans to hold on to their tickets and not let it be a repeat of two years ago, when Knicks fans invaded Xfinity Mobile Arena.
The team limited tickets to residents of the Philadelphia area, mirroring the Pistons plan from a year ago in the first round against the Knicks.
They also donated 500 tickets for each game to local community groups.
It didn’t work, as available tickets flooded the secondary market once the Knicks won the first two games of the series at home.
The takeover seemed to anger Tyrese Maxey.
“It absolutely sucks, if I’m being honest. It just sucks,” the star guard said. “That’s really all I can say about it, man. It’s hard. It’s definitely difficult. It’s only one way to put a stop to it and it’s we have to go out there and win these games.
“Just being completely honest, we were better when we played them in the Garden this entire season. I know we lost Game 2 and 1, but Game 2 was better. The regular season was better. I was telling them, it felt louder here for them than it did in the Garden.”