Miles McBride Is The Real Deal: Knicks Sweep Sixers Behind His Insane 81-Second Scoring Run

Miles McBride ripped Philadelphia apart on Sunday afternoon, drilling four three-pointers in 81 seconds as the New York Knicks beat the 76ers 144 to 114 at Xfinity Mobile Arena to complete a 4 to 0 Eastern Conference semi-final sweep and move within one series of the NBA Finals.

The Knicks had already been on a roll. They arrived in Philadelphia on the back of six straight playoff wins and a bruising first‑round series against the Atlanta Hawks that had quietly changed the course of their season.

Back on 23 April in Atlanta, McBride said New York were 'punched in the mouth' in Game 3. Rather than folding, the group treated it as a line in the sand, tweaking their offence and, more importantly in McBride's view, resetting their mindset.

'I feel like our mindset shifted,' McBride told SNY. 'We know we're the better team (but) we can't just come out there and expect to win, because they're talented too. So I feel like our mindset just shifted totally to "take the game" instead of (waiting for) them to give us the game.'

Miles McBride Shows Why He Is The Real Deal

With OG Anunoby again sidelined by a right hamstring strain, coach Mike Brown kept faith with Miles McBride in the starting line‑up after a quiet Game 3 in which he managed just three points and missed four of five shots from deep.

Brown's explanation was simple enough. 'He's just tough‑minded,' the coach said. 'In order to have success in anything you do in life you need to have a short memory, and he definitely has a short memory.'

From the opening tip, the Miles McBride who had misfired 48 hours earlier was nowhere to be seen. He found his rhythm immediately, sparking a personal 9–0 run that blew open a double‑digit lead and had 'DEEUUCCEE' chants rolling around an arena that felt, at times, more Manhattan than Philadelphia.

The Knicks as a whole rode that wave. They hit an extraordinary 11 of 13 three‑point attempts in the first quarter, tying an NBA record for any playoff period.

Karl‑Anthony Towns, who has been reinvented in this run as a passing hub, summed it up neatly. 'The start of the game was the Deuce McBride show,' he said. 'He went out and hit some big shots and gave us momentum – we talked about how we wanted to start fast and Deuce allowed us to do that.'

McBride did not let up. He buried his fifth three early in the second quarter before finally missing, then added two free throws and a sixth triple to reach 20 points by half‑time, leading all scorers. With the contest long since over as a spectacle, he added another three and trips to the line in the third before Brown emptied the bench.

Miles McBride walked off with a career playoff‑high 25 points in just three quarters, shooting 7‑of‑9 from beyond the arc and looking every inch like a guard who expects to be on this stage. 'This is what I expect to do,' he said. 'I feel like that's why the coaching staff trusts me in the line‑up, my teammates trust me out there, and just I trust my work.'

Miles McBride, Knicks Fans And A Franchise Reborn

Even when the New York Knicks were mediocre, the fan base never really abandoned them. They still sold tickets, still filled television shots with anguished faces at Madison Square Garden. What they did not have, for most of this century, was a team that looked capable of securing a first title since 1973. Right now, with Miles McBride and Jalen Brunson sharing the backcourt, they finally do.

The numbers from Sunday are frankly gaudy. New York's 144 points were the most in their playoff history. They tied the NBA postseason record with 25 made threes, joining the 2016 Cleveland Cavaliers and 2023 Milwaukee Bucks, and did so at a higher three‑point percentage than either of those sides. They shot 53.8 per cent from the field, 56.8 per cent from deep, and racked up 33 assists on 49 baskets.

Brunson was typically steady, adding 22 points, six assists and six of 10 shooting from long range. Towns finished with 17 points and 10 assists, the third time this post‑season he has hit double figures in dimes after never previously managing more than five in a playoff game. Brown has tilted Towns' role towards facilitation and so far the centre has responded, averaging 17.4 points, 10 rebounds and 6.6 assists in 10 playoff outings.

All of that unfolded in front of a crowd that barely felt like a road environment. Knicks supporters travelled in force, just as they did two years ago against the Sixers and again in Atlanta.

Brown admitted that when he watched from afar before taking the job last July, those scenes of fans climbing light poles outside the Garden made an impression. 'I was like, "Wow",' he said.

'You love it. You love seeing stuff like that... I've got a lot of respect for (Knicks fans). The more you're around, the more you appreciate and understand why they are like that. But more than anything else, they're knowledgeable,' he added.

This was only the third time in franchise history that New York have swept a best‑of‑seven series, joining the 1969 team that beat the Washington Bullets and the 1999 side that brushed aside the Hawks. Some fans on Sunday carried brooms into the arena in a knowing nod to that history and to the 1989 sweep of Philadelphia, when Knicks players themselves used the same prop.

Miles McBride Helps Knicks Shift From Doubts To Favourites

The idea that the Knicks would swagger into the Eastern Conference Finals as clear favourites would have sounded fanciful for much of the regular season. They were patchy, regularly questioned on sports radio and talk shows.

Brunson insists that noise did not seep inside. 'It was a rollercoaster for sure,' he said. 'I think outside the Knicks organisation, things looked worse than what they were. From the outside looking in. But inside the building, we were working every single day to be the best team we can be. That's all we were focusing on.'

Seven straight playoff wins later, each by an average margin of 26.4 points, it is harder to question them. They dismantled Atlanta in six games, including a 140–89 close‑out in Game 6 that produced the largest half‑time lead in playoff history. They then made light work of a Sixers team that had just come back from 3–1 down to knock out the Boston Celtics in seven.

The sweep means New York are back in the conference finals for the second year running for the first time since 1999 and 2000. Twelve months ago they fell in six to the Indiana Pacers. This time, they are playing with more freedom and more depth, in part because Brown has trusted players such as Miles McBride to grow into real roles rather than shrinking from the moment.

There is, for once, the luxury of time. As the third seed, the Knicks are guaranteed at least a week off before the next round starts, depending on how quickly the other semi‑final between top‑seeded Detroit Pistons and fourth‑seeded Cleveland Cavaliers wraps up.

Asked whether he secretly wished the Knicks could roll straight into the conference finals, Brown smiled. 'Definitely not tomorrow,' he said, before checking what day it even was. On being told it was Sunday, he offered a compromise. 'Maybe Wednesday. You like the rhythm that you're in, but if we expect to be where we think we're capable of being, we'll find a way to stay consistent with what we're doing.'

The Knicks did not arrive here by gliding through spring untouched. McBride said the real shift came after New York got 'punched in the mouth' by Atlanta in Game 3 of the first round on 23 April, a loss that forced a rethink not only of the offence but of the team's mentality.

From that point, he said, the group stopped waiting for opponents to hand them games and started taking them.