By Brandon Apter, Sports Talk Philly editor 
Link: Sixerdelphia Live Post-Game
After playing a sloppy game defensively pretty much all night, the Philadelphia 76ers (37-30) were able to stage a fourth quarter comeback to avoid what would have been an abysmal loss to the New York Knicks (24-45) at Madison Square Garden. The Sixers outscored the Knicks 35-19 in the fourth.
The victory gives Philadelphia a little breathing room in the sixth seed in the East, now sitting 1.5 games ahead of the seventh place Bucks. Robert Covington and J.J. Redick played a huge part in the comeback, hitting huge three's to put the Sixers ahead late.
As for the turnover bug, the Sixers were much better on that end. After coughing up the ball 21 times on Tuesday, they had 14 tonight with only five of them coming in the second half.
Joel Embiid led Sixers scorers with 29 points to go along with 10 rebounds and three turnovers, well below his eight from Tuesday. Meanwhile, Ben Simmons notched another triple-double, making it back-to-back games and eighth of the season.
J.J. Redick hit a big three in the fourth to put the Sixers up by four and finished with 18 while Dario Saric had 21 on the night. His triple extended their lead to seven late in the final minutes. Let's not forget about Robert Covington either. He went 5-for-7 from beyond for 15 points and one of his fourth quarter three's put the Sixers on top 106-104.
Embiid came out of the gates firing, scoring 13 points in the first quarter. The Knicks and Sixers drew even after one, 32-32. With the teams exchanging leads back and forth, Philadelphia went ahead by two following a Covington triple. The Knicks answered with a 9-0 run to go ahead 59-52 with just under four minutes left in the half. New York kept up their strong play and took advantage of the Sixers' shaky perimeter defense to take a 68-60 lead at half.
Embiid led Sixers scorers with 19 at the half while Michael Beasley had 15 to lead the Knicks. New York was shooting 58.3 percent at the half to the Sixers' 48.8 percent with both teams hitting just 33.3 percent of their three-pointers. Towards the end of the first half, Philadelphia began to cough the ball up a bit, finishing the first two quarters with nine turnovers.
New York came out of the half without skipping a beat, extending their lead to 13 after three minutes of play, forcing Brett Brown to take a timeout. Saric hit a triple out of the timeout, but the Knicks came right back with a basket of their own to lead 79-67. The Sixers cut the Knicks lead down to seven, 87-80, just past the midway point of the quarter, but they wouldn't make a whole lot more headway, trailing 91-83 heading into the final 12 minutes.
The Sixers opened the fourth with a three-point play. Covington found a cutting Embiid to the basket for the alley-oop and-1, cutting New York's lead to five, 91-86. Ersan Ilyasova cut the lead to four, 95-91, after hitting a three with just under nine minutes left in the game, but New York went back up by six, 99-93 with 7:30 to play.
A Covington three cut the lead to just three, 101-98 as RoCo hit four of his first five from beyond. The Sixers continued to chip away as a Saric three cut the lead to one with just under four minutes to play. Ben Simmons had the opportunity to put the Sixers ahead, but missed a pair of free throws. Luckily, Covington hit a triple on their next possession, giving them a 106-104 lead with 3:21 to play.
The Knicks quickly tied things up at 106, but Embiid hit a free throw and J.J. Redick followed with a three to put Philadelphia ahead by four. Dario Saric kept things going, hitting a three of his own, extending their lead to seven, 113-106. The Sixers were able to close out their comeback by a final of 118-110.
Michael Beasley led the Knicks with a double-double, 24 points (11-16 FG) and 13 boards. Trey Burke and Courtney Lee each finished with 16 points.
Up Next:
The Sixers play host to the Nets on Friday night at the Wells Fargo Center in the second half of their back-to-back.
