PHILADELPHIA — When the Philadelphia 76ers improbably defeated the Boston Celtics and advanced to the second round of the Eastern Conference playoffs, most knew it would be difficult for them to beat the New York Knicks.

Still, even if the oddsmakers and analysts didn’t think Philadelphia had a chance, the 76ers believed they could beat a very good New York team four times in seven games. After all, as Philadelphia star Joel Embiid pointed out, this was a more talented group than the one that lost to the Knicks in the first round two years ago. Most thought the Sixers could at least cause some problems.

What most didn’t expect was a 3-0 deficit after New York’s 108-94 win Friday night at Xfinity Mobile Arena. Now, it’s difficult to imagine anything other than a New York sweep. This series, electric in its ambiance, has been a laugher in reality. The Sixers were blown out in Game 1. They were competitive, but inferior in the clutch, in Game 2. They threw what looked to be their best shot in Game 3, and the Knicks just keep trucking.

A series in which Philadelphia thought it had a puncher’s chance has come down to an attempt to delay what looks inevitable. Sunday afternoon, the 76ers will try to extend an up-and-down season. They’ll try to avoid the embarrassment of a sweep. And speaking of embarrassing, Knicks fans once again took over Xfinity Mobile Arena and made it a difficult environment for the home team.

“We’re in a situation where we have to go out there and get the next one and see what happens,” Sixers coach Nick Nurse said. “If you get one, it gets to 3-1, and then a series can turn pretty quickly. But we’re going to have to dig in and do some things better. We started out tonight playing great. But we had a bad stretch of defensive rebounding, and we gave up direct line drives. We just didn’t score enough. We didn’t keep the scoreboard moving.”

There have been some eye-openers in this series.

The Knicks have been able to thwart Tyrese Maxey by doubling any ball screen set for him, and Philadelphia hasn’t been able to make enough open shots to deter New York from that strategy.

And though Embiid played Friday night and, as Nurse said, gave everything he could, he is not healthy and cannot move well defensively. New York made him guard in space and took advantage of his immobility defensively, consistently finding easy shots with him on the floor.

Embiid’s presence put the 76ers in a conundrum. They weren’t able to defend effectively with him on the floor. But they weren’t able to score effectively without him. When Embiid had a run of health in the last series against Boston, he was dominant on both ends. But the wear and tear of the every-other-day series format has caught up to him, and it has gone a long way toward torpedoing the 76ers.

For much of this season, the 76ers have embodied the grit and toughness of their city. There have been injuries. There have been bumps in the road. But the Sixers have saved their season multiple times. Just two Sundays ago, the end looked near. The Sixers were down 3-1 to the Celtics and heading to Boston for an apparent clincher. Instead, Philly won three straight and took the series.

Does this team have one more miracle left?

“I think we have to stay swaggy,” Philadelphia forward Kelly Oubre Jr. said. “This team has told a tale of resilience. Whenever we’ve had our backs against the wall, we’ve fought hard. We are the ones who dug ourselves this hole. We’re the only ones who can dig ourselves out of this hole. But we have to clean up a lot of mistakes. We have to go and look at the film and see where they are burning us. But at the end of the day, we have to try and just get one. That’s all that matters at this point.”

Friday night, the bad habits that limited the 76ers for most of the season showed up again. Philadelphia is a bad defensive rebounding team, and it allowed bushels of offensive rebounds in Game 3. The Sixers aren’t a great shooting team. After a hot start and a 9-2 lead, they went cold for long stretches. Defensively, the 76ers couldn’t keep Jalen Brunson from getting to the spots he wanted to on the floor. And the Sixers’ role players couldn’t match those of the Knicks, who made shots around Brunson when it mattered.

The Knicks’ potency has put pressure on the Sixers to play as cleanly as possible, and they haven’t done that. In Game 2, Philadelphia was done in by turnovers, thwarting its best chance for a win in this series. Defensive rebounding, missed shots and a lack of depth were the issues in Game 3.

“We have to add a game to it,” Maxey said. “We have to just come out and try and get a game. We have to take it one possession at a time and one play at a time. But most importantly, we have to play with some pride and not get swept on our home floor.”

If the Sixers don’t want Sunday to be their last game of the season, a lot will fall on Maxey, especially with the uncertainty over whether Embiid can play. Brunson, in his brilliance, has proven resistant to any schemes the Sixers have cooked up, beating every defender and every coverage Philadelphia has thrown at him. Maxey has to find a way to do the same, even though he shot 8-for-12 from the field Friday night and generally played well.

His teammates will have to help by making some open shots to punish New York for double-teaming Maxey.

“We just have to make some shots,” Maxey said. “We have to limit rebounds. We have to keep playing together and playing the right way. Hopefully, that will benefit us.”

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Good morning. Win life’s lottery today. Inside:

Pucks: A shocking GM hire and a twist of fate

The Maple Leafs didn’t make the ongoing Stanley Cup Playoffs. But for two vastly different reasons, they were hockey’s biggest story this week.

John Chayka was once the youngest general manager in major professional sports, a 26-year-old hired to run the Arizona Coyotes in 2016. It did not go well: Chayka was a rocky manager who reportedly treated the franchise’s all-time best player poorly. He resigned from the Coyotes (who have since moved to Utah) in 2020, and the NHL later suspended him for holding unsanctioned workouts for prospects while he was in Phoenix.

Chayka appeared to be persona non grata. Now 36, he hasn’t worked for an NHL team in six years. Until this week, anyway, when the biggest brand in hockey made him GM. The Leafs hired Chayka to the utter shock of most of the hockey world, including reporters who covered him in Arizona. “I thought he might be blackballed,” one of them told The Athletic’s James Mirtle. A painful Monday news conference yielded mostly boilerplate answers from the team’s ownership group.

“That this was the best (ownership) could do for a jewel of an NHL franchise, with a loyal and passionate fan base desperate to see a Stanley Cup victory for the first time in six decades, really is hard to believe,” writes Leafs beat reporter Jonas Siegel.

Now, the chaser: The day after introducing Chayka, the Leafs won the draft lottery, giving them the right to (probably) take prized Penn State winger Gavin McKenna in June. Remember when the Mavericks traded Luka Dončić, drew the scorn of the entire sports world and then won the lottery to land Cooper Flagg? This stroke of luck has echoes of that one.

The Leafs haven’t won a Stanley Cup title since 1967. They’re nonetheless a $4 billion property with fans who will never stop showing up for them. Coming off a terrible season, they have two years to convince captain Auston Matthews not to leave in free agency. They’ll be responsible for developing one of the sport’s best prospects in years. And the guy running the show (with team legend Mats Sundin as a senior adviser) has questionable qualifications.

Is there a better way to spin the Chayka hire? I asked Mirtle, who knows more about the machinations of the Maple Leafs than just about any person alive:

💬 I think skepticism makes the most sense here, simply because of how poorly Chayka’s first tenure as a GM went and the fact he’s been out of the league for six years. There just aren’t many execs in NHL history who have been suspended for a calendar year for “conduct detrimental to the league and game.”

For fans who want a glass-half-full take, it’s that (a) he’s not an older retread hire who lacks creativity, (b) he did do some interesting things in Arizona, trade and contract-wise, and (c) it’s possible he’s learned from his mistakes. But he’s got a ton to prove — and he has to do it in the market with the biggest spotlight with a lot of people around the league rooting against him.

Thanks to James. It might work. It’ll definitely be dramatic. 🍿

News to Know

Peak playoff Wemby

Victor Wembanyama is so talented that it’s easy to get ahead of yourself about what he could be someday. But last night … wasn’t like that. Wembanyama was everything — calm, fluid and devastating, finishing with 39 points, 15 rebounds and five blocks in carrying the Spurs to a 2-1 series lead. Anthony Edwards put in a heroic shift for the Wolves on a balky knee, but you wonder how anyone can stop this version of Wemby. The Athletic’s Jared Weiss called it “the defining performance of his career.”

Hot, hot heat

Per MLB, starting pitchers had thrown three pitches over 103 mph since Statcast began tracking in 2008 — until yesterday, when second-year Brewers starter Jacob Misiorowski threw 10 of them against the Yankees. Among those were the seven fastest pitches by a starter in the tracking era, topping out with a 103.6 mph heater to Aaron Judge. That’s a far cry from Aroldis Chapman’s relievers-inclusive record of 105.8 mph, but Misiorowski threw 41 pitches over 100 mph before leaving after six innings with a 5-0 lead. Let’s hope he ices liberally.

More News

• The WNBA’s first Canadian team lost its inaugural season opener, but the Toronto Tempo atmosphere was a win.
• Rory McIlroy said it “says something” about potential LIV refugees if they choose not to play on the PGA Tour. (No, he didn’t mention Bryson DeChambeau by name.)
• Thankfully the NFL won’t need replacement refs this season. Read about the deal here.
• Breece Hall will become the league’s third-highest-paid running back under a 3-year extension with the Jets.
• In a surprise, Dodgers starter Blake Snell will skip his final scheduled rehab start and go today against the Braves.
• Projected lottery pick Darryn Peterson says his weird cramping issues at Kansas were caused by high doses of creatine. He’s No. 4 on John Hollinger’s top 15.
• The Blackhawks could get an intriguing addition next season in KHL top goal scorer Roman Kantserov, who terminated his overseas contract.
• Former Ohio University football coach Brian Smith is suing over his December for-cause firing that included allegations he had a romantic relationship with an undergrad. Full story here.

📰 Find more news here 24/7.

Watch Guide

📺 EPL: Manchester City vs. Brentford
12:30 p.m. ET on NBC
City are five points back of Arsenal but with a match in hand (four to go, compared to Arsenal’s three). A surprising draw at Everton was a significant but not necessarily fatal setback.

📺 WNBA: Wings at Fever
1 p.m. ET on ABC
Each of the W’s last four No. 1 picks will play in this season opener: Azzi Fudd and Paige Bueckers for Dallas, and Caitlin Clark and Aliyah Boston for Indiana. Stacked with stars. Both teams are in the top five of our season-opening power rankings.

📺 NBA: Thunder at Lakers, Game 3
8:30 p.m. ET on ABC
The Lakers, down 0-2, were mad about the refs after the last game. They have substantially bigger problems as they come home with their backs against the wall.

Get tickets to games like this here.

Pulse Picks

Illustration: Dan Goldfarb / The Athletic; Leon Halip / Getty Images

Baseball is stacked with players who have quirky rituals, from Taco Bell to golden thongs. Science suggests they’re actually doing something smart.

This show has been out for a little while now, but I’m currently enjoying “Rooster” on HBO Max. It’s not the most brilliant show ever, but it’s got Steve Carell and Phil Dunster (Jamie Tartt from “Ted Lasso”) and is quite feel-good and funny. — Hannah Vanbiber

Test your knowledge of this week’s sports news with our quiz.

The New York subway system. As someone visiting here for a couple weeks, it’s been a delight to get around like this when I’m so used to always being in a car at home. Shoutout to tunnels! — Zach Harper

Keith Law’s first 2026 MLB mock draft is here. Remember these names.

It’s May and your kid needs a baseball net you can pitch to, hit into, and hold up. And cheap! This one is a winner so far. Even if it melts down by end of summer it’s doing the job. And super mobile. — Chris Sprow

I’m a lifelong runner with a cabinet full of miscellaneous recovery gear. So I was cautiously skeptical about testing this newfangled gizmo: a motorized cylinder that appears to combine a foam roller, a handheld rolling stick and a massage gun. I spent a month pulverizing my muscles with the thing to see if it’s any better than a regular old foam roller. — Alexander Aciman

As a follow-up to the WNBA preview here yesterday, our experts have a pressing question for all 15 teams.

This sheet-pan grilled cheese method yielded the most uniformly crispy sandwiches I’ve ever made (gift link!). — Torrey Hart

Most-clicked in the newsletter yesterday: Why Kentucky Derby winners keep skipping the Preakness.

📫 That’s all for now! Say hello at thepulse@theathletic.com, and check out our other newsletters.

PHILADELPHIA — Before he turned an arena into a library, Nikolaj Ehlers looked a few feet to his right and said a prayer.

With his Carolina Hurricanes holding a 3-1 lead on the Philadelphia Flyers and hunting for a third-period dagger, Ehlers had already started streaking up the left wing when a puck, flipped out of Carolina’s defensive zone by K’Andre Miller, dropped outside the blue line and slid toward center ice.

Hurricanes forward Jordan Martinook won the battle with Philadelphia defensemen Rasmus Ristolainen and Jamie Drysdale, chopping the puck into space. That Ehlers would be waiting wasn’t a guarantee — but after 346 regular-season five-on-five minutes spent together, Martinook wasn’t acting on unearned faith, either. “I know (Ehlers) likes to get lost,” Martinook said, “so I guessed right.”

Ehlers didn’t break stride. He barely slowed down at all.

“I was just — I was praying,” Ehlers said. “I tried to not get in there, because that would just create some chaos. So I tried to stay out and kind of wait to see where he would put that puck.”

On his stick, actually. With the bag secured, Ehlers went from fourth gear to fifth, racing for an all-alone breakaway attempt on Flyers goalie Dan Vladar. A simple wrist shot ended things. Carolina took a 4-1 lead in the game and soon secured a 3-0 lead in the series, thanks in part to a neat-and-tidy demonstration of what Ehlers has managed to add to the Hurricanes’ mix without forcing any in-turn sacrifices.

Long admired for their puck dominance and commitment to skating, forechecking and process, the Hurricanes have also fallen short when the playoff road narrows and results rule the day. Does their system allow for the sort of game breakers who can swing periods, games and best-of-seven series? Ehlers might be the affirmative answer.

“I think any good player would fit anywhere, right? But there’s a willingness to buy into exactly how we want to try to do things,” coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “And that maybe isn’t always the case, but certainly it is with him.”

In 10 years with the Winnipeg Jets, Ehlers received intermittently odd usage but showed himself to be a driver in all three zones, an effective creator of shots and chances, and a solid rush player. And he produced accordingly: In second-line minutes for his final three seasons, he was 17th in the league in five-on-five points per 60 minutes, and by his final season in Winnipeg, he became a power-play weapon, too.

“I often wondered when I was watching him with Winnipeg, why that coaching staff didn’t give him better looks — better top offensive looks, both on the power play and five-on-five, because he pushed (defensemen) back,” an NHL scout told The Athletic after Game 4. “He put teams on their heels with his speed and his transition game. And then he leaves, and they instantaneously become old and slow.”

That mix of skill, substance and production made Ehlers the best winger available in the 2025 offseason, and an easy fit for a Carolina franchise that had sought premium forward pieces for years. The Hurricanes thought they had found one in January 2025, when they acquired Mikko Rantanen in a blockbuster trade with the Colorado Avalanche. But out he went 42 days later, after he was unwilling to sign a contract extension with his new team. By the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs, the Hurricanes were out as well, thanks in part to a hole in the lineup left behind by Rantanen.

On July 3, Ehlers and the Hurricanes agreed on a six-year, $51 million contract — two years and $45 million less than the one Rantanen signed with the Dallas Stars a few days after the NHL trade deadline, when the Hurricanes decided to cut bait. For Ehlers, it wasn’t superstar money. It was certainly, though, top-six money. The thought at the time was that he’d play on a more rush-based line, probably with Sebastian Aho and Andrei Svechnikov, perhaps with newly minted second-line center Logan Stankoven. There was room, though, for flexibility.

“The No. 1 thing we were thinking when we added (Ehlers) was, ‘This is someone who has dynamic skill and creativity that is hard to find,’” Hurricanes general manager Eric Tulsky told The Athletic. “And anytime you get the opportunity to add a player like that, you wanna take it.”

Ehlers played to fine results with both Aho and Stankoven, but Brind’Amour ultimately decided to try him with Jordan Staal and Martinook — matchup players who lack a degree of dynamism but also control the puck more often than they don’t. The Hurricanes immediately liked what they saw; Ehlers had the defensive dedication necessary to hang on the third line and the instincts necessary to provide a jolt of down-the-lineup offense.

“He was adding a more dynamic element to their game, and they were providing some ability to recover pucks for him, and it just matched,” Tulsky said.

There, Ehlers has found himself on a parallel track with Taylor Hall — veteran wingers with puck skills to burn succeeding in unexpected spots, thanks in part to a willingness to make the additions and subtractions necessary at this particular time of year, on this particular team. “You’re not teaching those guys,” Brind’Amour said Friday. “But there’s always other areas to get better at, that get you the puck back.”

In the regular season, Carolina’s expected goals against per 60 were lower with Ehlers on the ice, and their actual goals for per 60 were higher — a sign that he was contributing to their standard level of puck dominance while adding finishing talent. Individually, he put up 26 goals and 45 assists. Staal had his first 20-goal season since 2015-16. Martinook, meanwhile, often found himself “mesmerized” by his linemate’s skating and puck skills.

“There’s so many times where we’re getting out of the D zone, but instead of maybe making a couple passes to get in there, (Ehlers) just carries it and can create so much space with the way that he skates,” Martinook said. “Me and (Staal), we want him to have the puck as much as possible, but when we can get in on the forecheck and try and get him to have his space, it’s something that’s a benefit for us.”

In six playoff games together — Ehlers missed Game 4 against the Ottawa Senators with a lower-body injury — the process has remained sound. The Staal-Ehlers-Martinook line controls an expected goal share of nearly 60 percent, and while Ehlers managed just one assist in Carolina’s sweep of the Senators, he led the Hurricanes in scoring-chance contributions. Against the Flyers, as Stankoven’s pace has slowed and the Svechnikov-Aho-Seth Jarvis line has searched for its footing, Ehlers has now scored in consecutive games and flashed all over the ice. He’s using his speed, converting linemate-created space and chaos into prime opportunities and serving as proof that “strength in numbers” is a viable course of action.

“(Staal and Martinook) work their asses off,” Ehlers said. “They create a lot of room, a lot of space for me to use my speed and get into the open areas. As for my role, I’m trying to go out there and do anything I can to help this team win every single game. Yes, we do have different roles. Everybody has a slightly different role — but at the same time, we all need to do the same things to help this team win, and we’re prepared to do that.”

That certainly sounds like a player who’s found the balance between Brind’Amour’s non-negotiables and what he, individually, is expected to bring to the lineup. It’s also a player who senses that he landed in the right spot.

“I believed that this team had the pieces to keep competing in the playoffs,” Ehlers said. “And I wanted to be a part of that. And now being here for my first full season, I know I was right.”