Two longstanding franchises with rabid, bellowing fanbases. A host of NBA All-Stars with narrative arcs to close. Home arenas separated by just 100 miles of interstate highway and a few Amtrak stops. It’s the New York Knicks and the Philadelphia 76ers. It’s always personal.

The Knicks haven’t won a championship since 1973, and they haven’t played in the NBA Finals since 1999. The 76ers last won it all in 1983, and their most recent finals berth came in 2001. One side will push ever closer to snapping the drought; the other will be plunged back into another long summer of discontent.

Bring on the electric showmanship of Jalen Brunson and Tyrese Maxey, and the inside-out battle between Karl-Anthony Towns and Joel Embiid. New York’s cadre of tough, strident wings line up with rookie VJ Edgecombe and veteran Paul George. It all projects for must-see playoff ball.

Here is the updated broadcast lineup for all seven potential Knicks-Sixers games in the Eastern Conference semifinals, with head-to-head histories mixed in at the bottom.

How to watch No. 2 New York Knicks vs. No. 7 Philadelphia 76ers

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GameDateTime (ET)TVStream

1: @ NY

Mon., May 4

8 p.m.

NBC

Peacock

2: @ NY

Wed., May 6

7 p.m.

ESPN

3: @ PHI

Fri., May 8

7 p.m.

Prime Video

Prime Video

4: @ PHI

Sun., May 10

3:30 p.m.

ABC

5*: @ NY

Tue., May 12

TBD

TBD

TBD

6*: @ PHI

Thu., May 14

TBD

TBD

TBD

7*: @ NY

Sun., May 17

TBD

TBD

TBD

* if necessary

ABC and NBC are free over the air. ESPN is also available with an ESPN Unlimited subscription.

How the Knicks got here

During the regular season, New York went an impressive 53-29, good for its third straight year with 50+ wins. But the blue and orange were on red alert midway through their first-round draw with the Atlanta Hawks.

After they handled the series opener, the Knicks endured consecutive losses at the hands of CJ McCollum — a shocking flurry down the stretch of Game 2, then a clutch fadeaway late in Game 3. Questions emerged on the heels of consecutive 1-point Ls.

Those questions were promptly answered across the next three outings. New York won Game 4 on the road by 16 points, thanks to Towns’ hyper-efficient triple-double. The Knicks returned to Madison Square Garden and owned Game 5 by 29 points, as Brunson scored 39 points on 15-of-23 from the field. And then, Game 6 was an all-time thrashing in Atlanta, a 140-89 double-take final score.

For the series, Brunson averaged 26.3 points and 6.2 assists. Towns topped 18 points, 11 boards and six dimes per game, plus 1.7 steals and 1.7 blocks. The exclamation mark came from OG Anunoby, who posted 21.5 points per game on searing 61.1/56.7 percent splits.

It wasn’t all smooth — Josh Hart slumped from behind the arc, and Mikal Bridges had a mere 15 points combined in Games 3-5 — but the closing surge gives New York ample momentum as it starts the series in its own gym.

Head coach Mike Brown took the Knicks job last summer on a clear finals-or-bust mandate. Pressure will mount and noise will funnel with each passing day, but he most certainly delivered in his postseason introduction.

How the 76ers got here

Philadelphia winced through an inconsistent 2025-26, marred by Embiid’s muddled health and George’s 25-game suspension. The Sixers ended up at 45-37 under Nick Nurse, good for seventh in the East.

Philly blitzed past the Orlando Magic in the Play-In Tournament, but big-picture expectations were shredded by Embiid’s emergency appendectomy. Not only were the 76ers without their MVP-caliber big man, but they drew a first-round trial versus the Boston Celtics — a perennial finals contender that eliminated Philly in 2018, 2020 and 2023.

The 76ers dropped three of the first four games. Edgecombe had a brilliant 30-point effort on the road in Game 2, but the Celtics recalibrated with convincing wins in Philadelphia’s Xfinity Mobile Arena. While Embiid made it back onto the floor for Game 4, it seemed to be too little too late at a 3-1 series deficit.

It seemed to be, until it wasn’t. Embiid’s 33 points and eight assists teed up a Game 5 upset in Boston. Maxey had a clean 30 points without a single turnover in the Game 6 home triumph. The two stars also shined throughout the Game 7 finisher — a 30/11/7 line for Maxey, a 34/12/6 one for Embiid. Yes, Boston was without Jayson Tatum (knee) for the finale, but it was without him for most of its 56-win campaign. Philly’s surprise victory in hostile territory deserves its props.

Embiid averaged exactly 28 points, nine rebounds and seven assists in the four games he played. Maxey went for 26.9 points per game, plus a commendable 6.6-to-1.3 assist-to-turnover ratio. Edgecombe showed resolve in his playoff debut, with his hope-saving Game 2 and his 5 made 3s in Game 7. And George found redemption, after both a tough individual season and his notable “Playoff P” career lulls.

It’s been a strange, serpentine season for the 76ers. But with a healthy lineup and a palpable buzz, they’ve become impossible to count out.

Head-to-head matchups this season

Philadelphia and New York split the regular-season series 2-2. The visitor won all four matchups, too.

Philadelphia emerged victorious at MSG on Dec. 19 and Jan. 3. The first win came in spite of Embiid’s absence and George’s 2-for-10 clunker, as Maxey had a 30-piece and Edgecombe added 23 points. Embiid played in the second and put up an impressive 26/10/5 line, while Maxey was the game’s leading scorer at 36 points.

New York got right on Broad Street. The Knicks escaped with a 3-point W on Jan. 24, captained by Brunson’s 31 points. Then they blew out their hosts on Feb. 11, though Embiid and George were both out for the 138-89 rout. That game was best remembered as the breakout performance from new Knick Jose Alvarado — he made eight 3s and had five steals in less than 19 minutes off the bench.

Knicks vs. 76ers playoff history

The 76ers franchise leads the all-time series 6-4. These two sides clashed five times between 1950-59, back when the Sixers franchise was known as the Syracuse Nationals. The Nationals claimed three of those showdowns. But the first Knicks-76ers series was in 1968, when Philly won the East Division semifinals in six games.

The Sixers also swept meetups in the 1978 and 1983 conference semis. Julius Erving and Doug Collins dominated the former; Moses Malone was an all-out force in 1983, en route to the “fo’, fo’, fo’” championship.

New York has taken the last two series, both in the first round. Patrick Ewing’s Knicks notched a 3-0 sweep in 1989, capped by a 1-point overtime win in Game 3. And the Knicks prevailed in a 2024 six-game classic — the cumulative score was 650-649. The Donte DiVincenzo “double bang” sequence is still hard to believe.

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