Nick Nurse Praises Sixers’ ‘On Point’ Defense vs. Knicks

Nick Nurse was happy with the Sixers' work on the defensive end on Sunday night.

Sunday night's affair between the Philadelphia 76ers and the New York Knicks proved to be a match unlike neither side has played all season, as both were held to below 80 points.

The Sixers managed to pull off the win shooting with 38 percent accuracy from the field, with Kelly Oubre Jr proving to be the team's leading scorer with 18 points on 31 percent shooting.

Both teams left the first quarter tied at 15, while Philadelphia started to pull away a bit in the second quarter as they converted 40 percent of their shots, which would help them outscore New York 22-16, something that pleased Nick Nurse.

"I felt like we left it in the first half about at least 20 on the board," said Nurse, "We were generating a lot of really good shots... I was pretty happy there."

While the Sixers would start to slow down in the second half, their defense wouldn't as they would help hold the Knicks to only 42 points in the second half, blocking three shots and converting two steals.

Another reason for the Sixers' slim win over the Knicks would be their defensive work on Jalen Brunson, managing to hold the All-Star to only 19 points, far below what he has been averaging this season.

Apart from their job against the former Villanova guard, Philadelphia managed to limit New York's shot attempts in the second half as they grabbed 17 defensive rebounds down the stretch, compared to the Knicks' six offensive boards.

This physicality was something that caught the eye of Nurse, with the head coach going as far as citing it as one of the better parts of their game on Sunday night.

"Obviously, defensively we were on point, we were physical, we were doing everything we were supposed to do." explained Nurse, "we turned them over 20 plus times, we were fighting like hit for rebounds against a team that really rebounds, basically, we were just fighting and executing the schemes really well."

All eyes will be on the Sixers to see if they can repeat their defensive work on Tuesday night when the two sides are set to meet for the final time in the regular season.