How Justin Edwards Helped the Sixers Without Playing

PHILADELPHIA — Heads across the press section nodded in confusion. Shoulders shrugged.

It was a curious decision as the Sixers pushed their way back into the game. Substituting Kelly Oubre Jr. out for a wing who had not played all game made no sense.

But it caused Mike Brown to call a timeout before Joel Embiid stepped to the stripe for a free throw.

When the game returned to action, Edwards stayed on the bench. Oubre stayed in the game. But on the New York Knicks' side of the floor, there was no sign of Mitchell Robinson.

Savvy move by the head coach.

"Well, we were going to — just once or twice — put Robinson on the line. I just felt more like one or two possessions of rest and then maybe see if he would miss them, as well. We kind of climbed back into the game and obviously took him out, called timeout and took him out," Nick Nurse explained after the game.

While many would've digested that information as the Sixers reducing the Knicks' late-game offense to whether or not Robinson could make free throws, Nurse saw an opportunity to refresh the defense for one last charge.

But Mike Brown had a tactic of his own.

"They went small and I thought we did a pretty good job against their small lineup, especially offensively. We scored about every time," Nurse added.

Brown took Robinson, the Knicks' one-man offense in his own right, out of the game for fear that his reserve center — a 37.7-percent free throw shooter this season — would kill New York's offense.

He went small instead, taking Robinson out for sharp-shooting guard Miles McBride. OG Anunoby was suddenly the Knicks' acting big man. Joel Embiid was by far the biggest guy on the court.

The game flipped. The Sixers went on a run, cutting the Knicks' seven-point lead to two points two-and-a-half minutes later.

It almost worked. The Knicks missed three shots in five possessions. One of the other two possessions ended in one made free throw.

"We were rollig the dice a little bit down there on defense. We were trying to blitz [Jalen] Brunson and not let him be the one to beat us. Got a couple turnovers, got a couple missed shots. About four or five in a row. We even got to OG and made him reload the one in the corner and he hit it," Nurse said.

The Sixers had four possessions of their own during that stretch, scoring on three of the four opportunities. Beyond the Edgecombe three to get the deficit down to two, the Sixers got a put-back layup from Embiid and an Oubre shot just outside of the restricted area.

But a former Sixer put the fire out with 43 seconds remaining.

"Shamet hit the next one. So, again, you're kind of, 'What are we going to do? Are we going to sit there and watch Brunson beat you or are you going to try to make somebody else beat you?' On a lot of nights, I prefer the latter, and that's what happened tonight," Nurse said.

The Sixers' head coach threatened the Knicks with one move, causing them to counter with one that backfired. Nurse had the Knicks pinned, coaching the Sixers to the brink of an incredible comeback.

He didn't see it coming.

"I did not," Nurse said when asked if he expected the Knicks to counter by going small.

"There was still 4:15 to go in the game. They weren't even in the bonus, so we were going to have to foul twice to get there."

It almost made for the story of a great comeback.