The last time the Sixers faced the Knicks in the playoffs before this season was in a best-of-five first-round series 35 years ago, in 1989. The Philadelphia coach was Jim Lynam, and when he was asked about that Tuesday, Lynam, now NBCSports Philadelphia’s studio analyst, immediately lapsed into the rat-a-tat delivery all coaches seem to adopt when conjuring up such memories.
Which is to say that he sounded like a man describing something happening right in front of him, as opposed to harkening back over three decades. Specifically, he recalled Game 2 of what became a three-game New York sweep.