East Notes: Knicks, Jalen Brunson, Sixers, Celtics

Knicks

Point guard Jalen Brunson said he had a great time accumulating 21 points and 12 rebounds in the Knicks’ big win in his hometown of Philadelphia on Thursday.

“Playing here in college, growing up in south Jersey for a little bit, it definitely is fun playing here,” Brunson stood reporters. “I really enjoy it.”

Along with the victory, the Knicks increased their cushion over the 76ers for fourth in the Eastern Conference. That’s despite the fact they are still without injured forwards Julius Randle and OG Anunoby and center Mitchell Robinson. 

“We’ve got to get people back,” coach Tom Thibodeau said. “It’s not going to happen overnight. There’s an urgency to this. We can keep talking about kicking it down the road. We can’t keep kicking it down the road. We’ve got to be ready now.”

76ers

The Sixers fell to 6-15 without center Joel Embiid entering Friday’s home game vs. the Cavaliers.

In Thursday’s loss to the Knicks, All-Star guard Tyrese Maxey (35 points) had little help — a regular occurrence with Embiid out.

“Early, we didn’t communicate in certain spots, we didn’t follow the game plan,” Maxey said. “We didn’t follow what coach was telling us what to do.”

• Point guard Kyle Lowry checked in late in the first quarter, his first time since being signed last week. Her received a standing ovation from his hometown crowd.
• The AP reports: “Lowry’s homecoming was short-lived — he took an inadvertent elbow to the face on a driving layup from Knicks forward Jericho Sims. Lowry, who finished with 11 points in 25 minutes. buried his face in a towel and went straight to the locker room. He received stitches and returned with an adhesive bandage on his forehead in the third quarter.”

Celtics

The Celtics have won seven straight, downing the Bulls in Chicago on Thursday.

“I thought the (All-Star) break was nice,” guard Derrick White told reporters. “I think we were all just ready to get back to it. Just a big opportunity for us to be playing our best basketball going down the stretch. The break was nice. We just got to pick up where we were and try to keep getting better each day.”

• Guard/forward Jayson Tatum has plenty to say about his chances at NBA MVP. You can check out that full post here, as well as everything out of Boston on our Celtics page.