PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Knicks fans raised their brooms outside the arena and pumped up the volume once inside. They poured in by the thousands and serenaded the may-as-well-be home team in the waning moments of another lopsided playoff victory with chants of “Knicks in four! Knicks in four!”
Here's a more substantial number than four for the Knicks: Try winning in the playoffs by almost 20 points a game.
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New York Knicks head coach Mike Brown screams during the first half of Game 2 in a second-round NBA basketball playoffs series against the Philadelphia 76ers, Wednesday, May 6, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
Philadelphia 76ers' Vj Edgecombe, bottom, goes up for a shot against New York Knicks' Josh Hart during the first half of Game 4 in a second-round NBA basketball playoffs series Sunday, May 10, 2026, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)
New York Knicks' fans hold up a photo as Philadelphia 76ers' Joel Embiid takes a free-throw shot during the first half of Game 4 against the New York Knicks in a second-round NBA basketball playoffs series Sunday, May 10, 2026, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)
New York Knicks' Miles McBride reacts after scoring during the second half of Game 4 against the Philadelphia 76ers in a second-round NBA basketball playoffs series Sunday, May 10, 2026, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)
New York Knicks' Jalen Brunson reacts after scoring during the second half of Game 4 against the Philadelphia 76ers in a second-round NBA basketball playoffs series Sunday, May 10, 2026, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)
Jalen Brunson, Karl-Anthony Towns — you too, Deuce McBride and Landry Shamet — have stretched New York's steamroll through the postseason into the Eastern Conference finals for the second straight year.
The 76ers were but a pesky speed bump for the Knicks as they rolled to a series sweep and their seventh straight postseason win overall under coach Mike Brown.
Perhaps the only drawback from the Knicks soundly thumping the 76ers 144-114 on Sunday is the expected lengthy layoff before New York gets a crack at either Cleveland or Detroit in the conference finals. Detroit leads Cleveland 2-1 in the series with Game 4 set for Monday.
“Yeah, you like the rhythm that you're in,” Brown said. “But if we expect to be who we're capable of being, we'll find a way to stay consistent with what we're doing, whether it's the energy level, the effort level, or embracing-slash-focusing on the details that we have to be able to understand in order to get a win.”
The Knicks, as the kids say, understood the assignment and refused to let Joel Embiid, Tyrese Maxey and the rest of a Sixers team brimming with confidence after rallying from a 3-1 series deficit in the first round to beat Boston ever pose a serious threat at pulling off a second straight upset.
As for the time off, the Knicks could use a few extra days of rest, especially for injured forward OG Anunoby. Anunoby missed Games 3 and 4 with a strained right hamstring and remained day to day. The 6-foot-7 Anunoby, who is considered the Knicks’ top defender, is averaging 21.4 points in the postseason.
That type of monster production is tricky to replace and in the long haul — of which the Knicks expect to be part of this season — it just may be if Anunoby misses a serious amount of time. In a short sample size, the Knicks thrived, especially against a emotionally flattened Sixers team on the brink of a sweep.
McBride, once known for his defense but who has since blossomed into a reliable outside threat, started for Anunoby and essentially won the clincher in the first quarter. McBride hit seven 3-pointers, going 4 for 4 in the first quarter when the Knicks sank 11 of 13, and scored 25 points overall. With Knicks fans on their feet and exclaiming “Deuuuce,” McBride hit one, two, three, four — four! — 3-pointers in succession for a 20-6 lead and the South Philadelphia arena rocking like it was Madison Square Garden.
“I definitely knew the Knicks had crazy fans,” McBride said.
The hype of the Knicks' fans takeover in Philadelphia was very much real and reached fever pitch levels in Game 4.
Spike Lee and Timothée Chalamet were among the A-list Knicks fans that had tickets to Friday night's game in Philly. In Game 4, fans found their way around the Sixers' supposed ticket-buying barriers about as easily as the Knicks hit 3-pointers and passed the eye test of taking up the overwhelming bulk of the 19,746 fans inside Xfinity Mobile Arena.
Embiid's pleas ahead of the series for Sixers fans not to sell their tickets to Knicks fans fell on deaf ears and led to deafening roars for New York. Knicks fans amusingly printed off photos of Embiid getting posterized by Mitch Robinson on a Game 3 dunk. Knicks fans waved the photos at the oft-injured Embiid while he shot free throws, and they yelled at him “Mr. Glass,” a fictionalized movie character with brittle bone disease.
“I used to think Philly was a sports town, I don’t know if it is anymore,” Knicks forward Josh Hart said.
Home-court edge, even on the road, only means so much in the playoffs.
What really matters can often be found in the box score.
The Knicks had 33 assists on 49 baskets in Game 4 and added to their streak of turning close-out games into blowout games. After beating Atlanta by 51 points to clinch their first-round series win, they led by as many as 44 points in Game 4 against the Sixers and won by 30.
The Knicks’ 19.4 point-per-game margin of victory is the largest through two rounds since the playoffs went to 16 teams in 1984.
The Knicks haven’t reached the NBA Finals since 1999 and haven’t won the championship since 1973. Yet, they've turned the postseason into their playground and are listed as the favorite to emerge from the East and are behind only defending champion Oklahoma City and San Antonio to win the title.
“We're still writing out story,” Brunson said.
AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/nba
New York Knicks head coach Mike Brown screams during the first half of Game 2 in a second-round NBA basketball playoffs series against the Philadelphia 76ers, Wednesday, May 6, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
Philadelphia 76ers' Vj Edgecombe, bottom, goes up for a shot against New York Knicks' Josh Hart during the first half of Game 4 in a second-round NBA basketball playoffs series Sunday, May 10, 2026, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)
New York Knicks' fans hold up a photo as Philadelphia 76ers' Joel Embiid takes a free-throw shot during the first half of Game 4 against the New York Knicks in a second-round NBA basketball playoffs series Sunday, May 10, 2026, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)
New York Knicks' Miles McBride reacts after scoring during the second half of Game 4 against the Philadelphia 76ers in a second-round NBA basketball playoffs series Sunday, May 10, 2026, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)
New York Knicks' Jalen Brunson reacts after scoring during the second half of Game 4 against the Philadelphia 76ers in a second-round NBA basketball playoffs series Sunday, May 10, 2026, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran sent its response to the latest U.S. proposal to end the Iran war via Pakistani mediators on Sunday, but U.S. President Donald Trump quickly rejected it in a social media post as “TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE!” — the latest setback to efforts to resolve the standoff in the Persian Gulf that has throttled shipping and sent energy prices soaring.
Iranian state television reported that Tehran rejected the U.S. proposal as amounting to surrender, insisting instead on “war reparations by the U.S., full Iranian sovereignty over the Strait of Hormuz, an end to sanctions, and the release of seized Iranian assets.”
Washington’s latest proposal addressed a deal to end the war, reopen the strait and roll back Iran’s nuclear program.
Trump's rejection of the Iranian response included no details. In an earlier post, he accused Tehran of “playing games” with the United States for nearly 50 years, adding: "They will be laughing no longer!"
Trump is giving diplomacy “every chance we possibly can before going back to hostilities,” the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Mike Waltz, told ABC earlier.
Iran's new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, who has not been seen or heard publicly since the war began, “issued new and decisive directives for the continuation of operations and the powerful confrontation with the enemies” while meeting with the head of the joint military command, the state broadcaster reported, with no details.
The fragile ceasefire was tested when a drone ignited a small fire on a ship off Qatar and the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait reported drones entering their airspace. The UAE said it shot down two drones and blamed Iran. No casualties were reported, and no one immediately claimed responsibility.
Qatar's Foreign Ministry called the ship attack a “dangerous and unacceptable escalation that threatens the security and safety of maritime trade routes and vital supplies in the region." The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations Center gave no details about the ship's owner or origin.
Kuwait Defense Ministry spokesperson Brig. Gen. Saud Abdulaziz Al Otaibi said forces responded to drones but did not say where they came from.
Iran and armed allied groups such as the Lebanese militant Hezbollah group have used drones to carry out hundreds of strikes since the war began with U.S. and Israeli attacks on Feb. 28.
Trump has reiterated threats to resume full-scale bombing if Iran does not accept an agreement to reopen the strait and roll back its nuclear program. Iran has largely blocked the strategic waterway that's key to the global flow of oil, natural gas and fertilizer since the war began, rattling world markets.
The U.S. military in turn has blockaded Iranian ports since April 13, saying it has turned back 61 commercial vessels and disabled four. On Friday, it struck two Iranian oil tankers it said were trying to breach the blockade. Iran’s Revolutionary Guard navy says any attack on Iranian oil tankers or commercial vessels would be met with a “heavy assault” on U.S. bases in the region and enemy ships.
Another sticking point in negotiations is Iran’s highly enriched uranium. The U.N. nuclear agency says Iran has more than 440 kilograms (970 pounds) enriched up to 60% purity, a short, technical step from weapons grade.
In an interview posted late Saturday, an Iranian military spokesperson said forces were on “full readiness” to protect sites where uranium is stored.
“We considered it possible that they might intend to steal it through infiltration operations or heli-borne operations,” Brig. Gen. Akrami Nia told the IRNA news agency.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in an interview with CBS that aired Sunday said the war isn't over because the enriched uranium needs to be taken out of Iran. “Trump has said to me, ‘I want to go in there,’ and I think it can be done physically,” he said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said Saturday that Moscow’s proposal to take enriched uranium from Iran to help negotiate a settlement remains on the table.
The majority of Iran’s highly enriched uranium is likely at its Isfahan nuclear complex, the International Atomic Energy Agency director-general told The Associated Press last month. The facility was hit by U.S.-Israeli airstrikes in the 12-day war last year and faced less intense attacks this year.
Iran's deputy foreign minister warned against a planned French-British effort that aims to support maritime security in the Strait of Hormuz after hostilities are over.
“The presence of French and British vessels, or those of any other country, for any possible cooperation with illegal U.S. actions in the Strait of Hormuz that violate international law will be met with a decisive and immediate response from the armed forces,” Kazem Gharibabadi said on social media.
French President Emmanuel Macron responded by saying it won't be a military deployment but an international mission to secure shipping once conditions allow.
Several attacks against ships in the Persian Gulf have occurred over the past week, and a U.S. effort to “guide” ships through the strait was quickly paused.
South Korea announced initial findings from an investigation that said two unidentified objects struck the South Korean-operated vessel HMM NAMU about one minute apart while it was anchored in the strait last week, causing an explosion and fire. Officials have yet to determine who was responsible.
In the interview with CBS’ “60 Minutes,” the Israeli prime minister denied New York Times reporting that he made a hard sell for Trump to start the Iran war by saying it would bring about regime change.
“We both agreed, you know, that there was both uncertainty and risk involved,” Netanyahu said. “And I remember that we — I said and he said — that the danger, there’s danger in action, in taking action, but there’s greater danger in not taking action.”
Asked whether he said in that February meeting that Iran would be so weakened it could not choke off the Strait of Hormuz, he said “the problem” of the vital oil shipping corridor “was understood as the fighting went on.”
“I don’t claim the perfect foresight," he said.
Netanyahu also said he wants to “draw down to zero” the military aid provided by the U.S., which he said now stands at $3.8 billion per year.
Israel has been a leading recipient of U.S. military aid for decades, but the war in Gaza, with its high number of civilian casualties, has caused that aid to come under greater scrutiny as American public support for Israel declines.
Netanyahu, however, offered an extended timeline, saying he wants to see the aid cut off over the next decade.
Magdy reported from Cairo. Associated Press writers Munir Ahmed in Islamabad; Melanie Lidman in Tel Aviv, Israel; Tong-hyung Kim in Seoul, South Korea; Julia Frankel in Jerusalem and Josh Boak in Washington contributed to this report.
Women walk in northern Tehran, Iran, Sunday, May 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
A Revolutionary Guard soldier stands at the counter of a fast food restaurant in northern Tehran, Iran, Sunday, May 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
The front page of the Sunday May 10, 2026, edition of Iranian newspaper, Jamejam, is seen with a cartoon satirizing the U.S. President Donald Trump that asks: "Open the the Strait of Hormuz" on a news stand in northern Tehran, Iran, Sunday, May 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
Vehicles drive past banners showing portraits of the school children who were killed during a strike on a school in southern town of Minab on Feb. 28, at Tajrish square in northern Tehran, Iran, Sunday, May 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
The South Korean-operated vessel HMM NAMU is docked after being damaged from a fire following an explosion in the Strait of Hormuz, at a port in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Friday, May 8, 2026. (Kim Sang-hun/Yonhap via AP)
Container ships sit at anchor in the Strait of Hormuz off Bandar Abbas, Iran, Saturday, May 2, 2026.(Amirhosein Khorgooi/ISNA via AP)
