VJ Edgecombe, Sixers not lacking confidence despite 0-2 hole to Knicks

NEW YORK -- The Philadelphia 76ers are trailing the New York Knicks 0-2 in Round 2 following a 108-102 loss in Game 2 on Wednesday night. In the entire history of the franchise, the Sixers have never won a series after initially going down 0-2 in the series--they are 0-15 in such instances.

With that being said, this is the same team that just rallied from a 3-1 deficit against the heavily favored Boston Celtics in Round 1 for the first time in franchise history. They were 0-18 in such instances before Philadelphia pulled it off. Granted, the health of Joel Embiid is a big factor at the moment, but the Sixers are still feeling confident as this series now shifts to the Xfinity Mobile Arena.

"We definitely feel like we can pull ourselves out of this one," said Tyrese Maxey after the loss in New York. "Gotta go home and get two."

The Sixers shot themselves in the foot with a poor fourth quarter as they shot just 4-for-19 in the final frame. That hurt any chance they had at winning the game and it led to them going into a hole. The Sixers led by one entering the fourth and they fell that if they would've made some shots, they would've won the game.

"We felt like we should have won it," added VJ Edgecombe. "I say it came down the shot making at the end of the game. They were making shots. We wasn't. I feel like (Jalen) Brunson made a lot of tough shots towards the end of the game. We missed wide-open ones. Even in the timeouts, we were confident the whole time."

Give the Sixers credit. They fought hard in Game 2 and showed a ton of resilience in this one despite not having Embiid to lean on, and they had their chances if shots had just fallen for them.

"It’s gonna be a dog fight," added Edgecombe. "It's gonna be a real dog fight. I think that's what it's gonna be. A dog fight. They're a really good team, and it's gonna come down to the wire almost every game."

The Sixers have fought and battled through a ton of adversity. The challenge now is to take care of home court in Games 3 and 4 the way the Knicks were able to at the start of this series. Nobody in Philadelphia's locker room is hanging their heads heading into Game 3 on Friday.