A 76ers-Knicks rematch returns Monday, with Embiid pleading to fans: 'Don’t sell your tickets'

GREENBURGH, N.Y. (AP) — Finally finished with Boston, a trip to New York came quickly for the Philadelphia 76ers. So did the memories.

The Eastern Conference semifinals are a rematch of a tight series between Atlantic Division rivals from nearby Northeast cities, a Knicks victory in six games in 2024.

Jalen Brunson and Tyrese Maxey delivered unbelievable performances. Both teams made unimaginable rallies.

Knicks fans were deafening inside Madison Square Garden — and in Philadelphia. (And no, Joel Embiid hasn't forgotten).

When it was over, the Knicks had outscored the 76ers 650-649. They start up again Monday night, believing this series can be even better.

“I expect nothing less. Actually more,” Maxey said. “That was a first-round matchup. This is a second-round matchup. So I think both teams are going to come out there and be extremely competitive. It’s going to be a dogfight, it’s going to be a chess match and I’m just ready to get started.”

The Knicks had a few days to rest after finishing off Atlanta with a 140-89 victory on Thursday in Game 6, setting an NBA postseason record by building a 47-point halftime lead. The 76ers have only one full day to recover after completing the NBA's 14th comeback from a 3-1 deficit by beating the Celtics 109-100 on Saturday.

Philadelphia became the first No. 7 seed to beat a No. 2 since the first round became a best-of-seven format. That was the matchup when the 76ers and Knicks met two years ago.

The 76ers were on the verge of tying that series in Game 2 before the Knicks came from five points down with under 30 seconds remaining. Brunson scored a Knicks playoff-record 47 points in Game 4 and New York was poised to wrap it up at home in Game 5 before Maxey scored seven points in the final 25 seconds of regulation and the 76ers won in overtime.

“Man, that was a fun series. We were going punch for punch," Josh Hart said after the Knicks practiced Sunday. "When you think about that, you always think of the good games, so you guys can guess what games those are. But you know that you've got to turn the page. Those are memories. They don't affect tomorrow but they're fun memories.”

Embiid returned midway through the Boston series after an appendectomy and was limping late in Game 7 after a player fell into his knee. He appeared in worse shape in the series two years ago, dealing with lingering problems from a surgically repaired left knee and having been diagnosed recently with Bell’s palsy, a form of facial paralysis.

“I had a lot going on at that time, so hopefully everything is good this time,” Embiid said. “We've got a much better team than we had at that time, so it's going to be a fun series.”

The Knicks also appear better, having since acquired All-Star Karl-Anthony Towns and Mikal Bridges. They are in the second round for the fourth straight season and the No. 3 seed surprisingly ended up with home-court advantage in it thanks to Philadelphia's first-round rally.

Now the Knicks have to deal with the Embiid-Maxey duo that's clicking.

“If we expect to be who we are,” coach Mike Brown said, “we’ll figure it out.”

Brunson received booming “MVP! MVP!” chants in the Game 4 victory in 2024 after Knicks fans poured into Philadelphia, and Embiid expressed his disappointment with 76ers fans after the game. He implored them not to let the noisy New Yorkers take over again.

“Last time we played the Knicks it felt like this was Madison Square Garden East. So we’re going to need the support,” Embiid said. "Don’t sell your tickets. This is bigger than you. We need you guys. The atmosphere we’ve had the last couple games in Philly, especially the last one pushing it to Game 7, I mean, we need all of it.

“Knicks fans, they travel. There’s going to be some people that need the money and probably going to sell tickets, but don’t do it. We need you guys. We’ve got a pretty good chance. We’re going to need our support. We’re going to need them to be extremely loud and if you need money, I got you.”

Home-court advantage didn't exist, with the road team winning all four games. The first two were at Madison Square Garden before the Knicks took two in Philadelphia, capped by a 139-89 romp on Feb. 11.

The two star guards seem ready to pick up where they left off in 2024. Maxey averaged 26.9 points in the first round, third in the league, and Brunson was right behind him at 26.3.

New York's All-Star center is the biggest addition to the rivalry since the last meeting and showed his entire offensive arsenal in the first round, getting the first two postseason triple-doubles of his career against Atlanta.

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Philadelphia 76ers' Tyrese Maxey (left) and teammate VJ Edgecombe (right) during the second half of Game 7 in a first-round NBA basketball playoffs series, Saturday, May 2, 2026 in Boston. (AP Photo/Jim Davis)

New York Knicks center Mitchell Robinson (23) celebrates after scoring in the first half during Game 6 in a first-round NBA basketball playoffs series against the Atlanta Hawks Thursday, April 30, 2026, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)

Philadelphia 76ers' Joel Embiid reacts during the second half of Game 6 in a first-round NBA basketball playoff series against the Boston Celtics Thursday, April 30, 2026, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

New York Knicks guard Jalen Brunson (11) high fives fans as he leaves the court in the second half during Game 6 in a first-round NBA basketball playoffs series Thursday, April 30, 2026, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)

Philadelphia 76ers' Tyrese Maxey (0), Vj Edgecombe (77) and Paul George (8) celebrate during the second half of Game 6 in a first-round NBA basketball playoff series against the Boston Celtics Thursday, April 30, 2026, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Leo XIV on Saturday told the basketball teams from his alma mater, Villanova, and fellow Catholic university Notre Dame — in Rome for their season opener — that in matters of sport, the pontiff is neutral.

Then the pope, who was born Robert Prevost, said his former self might disagree.

“Prevost has another opinion, but we won’t do that now,” he said to laughs during a whooping, cheering audience of 7,000 people from both schools — players, coaches, fans and their families — in the Vatican audience hall.

The teams were in town for the U.S. college basketball season opener in Rome. The Villanova and Notre Dame men’s and women’s teams will play a doubleheader on Sunday at the 11,000-seat Palazzo dello Sport, about a half-hour drive from the Vatican.

The event has been dubbed the Eternal City Tip-Off and was created to honor the first American pope.

The audience had been up in the air after the 71-year-old pope underwent lung cancer surgery on Oct. 13 and is still recovering. But Leo kept the appointment ahead of Sunday’s opener.

Leo graduated in 1977 with a Bachelor of Science in mathematics from Villanova, the Augustinian school near Philadelphia. He was born in Chicago — not all that far from Notre Dame, which is located in South Bend, Indiana.

Leo, an avid sports fan and tennis player, dribbled a golden basketball presented to him by the Villanova women’s team. And when the towering players from Notre Dame presented him with a jersey and another golden ball, Leo stepped up to the podium where his chair sits to try to gain a few inches (centimeters) on them.

He gamely posed for a photo with the Fighting Irish, holding the banner they gave him “Pope Leo, Play like a champion today” — a riff on the famous Notre Dame sign at the university stairwell between the locker room and the stadium.

But he gave the Wildcats equal time, making the Villanova "V'" gesture with his hand as chants of “Let’s Go 'Nova” erupted in the audience hall.

After mistakenly starting out in Italian, Leo switched to his mother-tongue English and spoke off the cuff recalling that in his native Chicago, he grew up hearing “Go Irish,” the Notre Dame chant.

“But as you all know, Prevost graduated from Villanova,” Leo said referring to his past self in the third person.

“So the pope doesn’t take sides,” he said to laughs, before revealing that “Prevost has another opinion."

In his prepared remarks to the crowd, Leo urged the teams and their families to embrace sports as a way to grow in saintliness.

“No one is born a champion, just as no one is born a saint,” Leo said.

He warned against letting sporting rivalries get out of hand and he said he hoped the fans in Rome this weekend would actually get to know one another as they cheer, “even passionately.”

“In any competition, the members of two teams, even when they have a competitive rivalry, are certainly not enemies,” he said. “I hope, therefore, that despite the competitive nature of college basketball, there will be opportunities for the players and the fans of both teams to get to know each other in your days here in Rome.”

He noted that the game will take place on All Saint’s Day, and that the church teaches Christians to pursue saintliness in every aspect of their lives, including in sports.

“Our true goal, beyond emerging victorious in any one event, is to win the prize of everlasting life,” he said.

Like popes before him, Leo has praised the value of sport for both physical and spiritual development, calling sport a “school of fraternity” that nurtures friendship, respect and teamwork. But he also warned about how the win-at-all-cost mentality of sport has contributed to episodes of doping, match-fixing and other forms of corruption.

The Rev. Robert Dowd, president of Notre Dame, acknowledged Villanova had something of an edge in Sunday’s game, considering it counts the pope as an alumnus. But in an interview Saturday, he said the occasion to bring both teams together with all their fans in Rome for a papal audience and season opener was “amazing.”

“I know that the pope is a pope for all of us, and so I’m grateful,” he said. “I know in a particular way the pope talks about the importance of bridge building, and I’m sure he’ll be a bridge builder when we play each other.”

Villanova’s president, the Rev. Peter M. Donohue, said there was “a little extra pride” being with Leo, given his allegiance. But he said what happens on Sunday was not the point.

“No matter what happens on the court, this is the true highlight of the trip,” he said in his introductory remarks to the the audience. “Tomorrow we will cheer, we will compete, but today we are simply grateful.”

Philadelphia Archbishop Nelson Perez celebrated a private Mass for traveling fans in St. Peter’s Basilica on Saturday morning, and asked the thousands of people in the pews to give a round of applause to the players. The English-language liturgy was unusual in that it had all the trappings of a papal Mass celebrated at the main altar and televised live by Vatican Media.

Leo is an avid Chicago White Sox fan, and has been known to follow basketball, too.

Asked about the upcoming games on the papal plane during a recent trip to France, Leo said, “They tell me that the people coming to the match, 90% are Villanova and 10% Notre Dame, so the voice of the people of God will be very strong on the Villanova side.”

Pope Leo XIV arrives in the Paul VI Hall at the Vatican, Saturday, Oct. 31, 2026, for an audience with some 7,000 university representatives and supporters from Villanova University and the University of Notre Dame, including members of their men's and women's basketball teams, ahead of the Eternal City Tip-Off, a men's and women's college basketball doubleheader in Rome on Nov. 1. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

From left, Notre Dame's guards Braeden Smith and Logan Imes present Pope Leo XIV with a personalized Notre Dame's jersey and basketball as they meet in the Paul VI Hall at the Vatican, Saturday, Oct. 31, 2026, during an audience with some 7,000 university representatives ahead of the Eternal City Tip-Off, a men’s and women’s college basketball doubleheader in Rome on Nov. 1. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia) CORRECTION: Corrects player at left to Braeden Smith and Logan Imes instead of Elijah Crawford, and Brady Muller

Pope Leo XIV examines a basketball he received as a gift in the Paul VI Hall at the Vatican, Saturday, Oct. 31, 2026, during an audience with some 7,000 university representatives and supporters from Villanova University and the University of Notre Dame, including members of their men's and women's basketball teams, ahead of the Eternal City Tip-Off, a men's and women's college basketball doubleheader in Rome on Nov. 1. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

From left, Villanova's guards Elijah Crawford, and Brady Muller present Pope Leo XIV with a personalized Villanova's jersey as they meet in the Paul VI Hall at the Vatican, Saturday, Oct. 31, 2026, during an audience with some 7,000 university representatives and supporters from Villanova University and the University of Notre Dame, including members of their men's and women's basketball teams, ahead of the Eternal City Tip-Off, a men's and women's college basketball doubleheader in Rome on Nov. 1. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

From right Villanova basketball player Jasmine Bascoe along with Villanova University President Peter M. Donohue, present Pope Leo XIV with a basketball in the Paul VI Hall at the Vatican, Saturday, Oct. 31, 2026, during an audience with some 7,000 university representatives ahead of the Eternal City Tip-Off, a men's and women's college basketball doubleheader in Rome on Nov. 1. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

A boy wearing a makeshift papal costume waits for Pope Leo XIV to arrive in the Paul VI Hall at the Vatican, Saturday, Oct. 31, 2026, for an audience with some 7,000 university representatives and supporters from Villanova University and the University of Notre Dame, including members of their men's and women's basketball teams, ahead of the Eternal City Tip-Off, a men's and women's college basketball doubleheader in Rome on Nov. 1. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

St. Thomas of Villanova Church is seen through autumn leaves at Villanova University in Villanova, Pa., Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Villanova basketball team's Luigi Suigo talks to journalists prior to the start of the men's basketball team training session in Rome, Thursday, Oct. 29, 2026. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

Students walk past an image of Pope Leo XIV at Villanova University in Villanova, Pa., Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

The Villanova men's basketball team takes part in a training session in Rome, Thursday, Oct. 29, 2026. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

Villanova University is seen in Villanova, Pa., Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)