Tom Thibodeau understood the stakes, which were little in the grand scheme — it was one game — but meaningful in appearance. 

“Our players have appreciation for playing on this day,” the Knicks coach said Christmas morning. “You know everyone’s watching.” 

Everyone watched the Knicks start hot and end as chilly as this December weather. The Knicks, who had run off eight straight wins, have followed the streak by dropping three in a row after a fourth-quarter collapse Sunday in a 119-112 loss to the 76ers in front of 19,812 at the Garden in a holiday matinee. 

The Knicks (18-16) could not cool the red-hot 76ers (20-12), who have won eight straight. The Knicks looked like the better team for much of the game, but Joel Embiid awoke late in the first half and kept several Knicks defenders on the bench in foul trouble. 

The Knicks ran out of defenders to bother Embiid, who was limited early (three of his first nine from the field) but excelled once he got Mitchell Robinson into foul trouble late in the second quarter. Embiid scored 19 of his 35 points in the second half, in which he shot 8 of 12. 

The 76ers never led until Georges Niang followed a James Harden 3-pointer with a 3 of his own at 10:37 of the fourth, gifting the 76ers a 101-98 edge that they would not gift back. Philadelphia opened the fourth period with a 13-4 run, when the 76ers simply hit their open looks and the Knicks missed theirs against a 2-3 zone. 

“They had a couple of 3s. They went on a little bit of a run,” said RJ Barrett, who finished with 17 points but on 6 of 21 shooting. “We didn’t do a good enough job getting back to the shooters or just switching on that. … We adjusted too late.” 

Once the 76ers had the lead, they had control. They outscored the Knicks 24-16 in the fourth, when the Knicks shot 7 of 23 from the floor. Philadelphia received four 3s from Niang, who scored 12 of his 16 points in the period to put the Knicks away. 

The Knicks, who had led by 14 points in the first quarter, were down 14 after Embiid tipped in a miss at 4:48 in the fourth, which prompted a Thibodeau timeout. 

“I thought there were a couple really good shots that we missed,” Thiobdeau said of the fourth quarter, when the Knicks went 1 of 8 from beyond the arc. 

Jalen Brunson played just 3 ¹/₂ minutes of the fourth before he exited holding his hip. The Knicks declined to make the point guard available after the game and declined to reveal what exactly ailed him. 

The Knicks out-rebounded the 76ers (54-40), had more assists (30-22) and 13 more second-chance points. But Philadelphia had Embiid and the touch from deep, shooting 18 of 39 from beyond the arc. The Knicks shot 12 of 32 from deep. 

They wasted an excellent offensive performance from Julius Randle (35 points on 24 shots), who could be a force in the paint or rack points up from long range. Before he left the game, Brunson routinely could find the right shot en route to scoring 23 points and adding 11 assists. 

The Knicks built a quick 14-point lead in the first quarter, when Robinson was a defensive enforcer against Embiid, who made two of his first six shots and was a minus-14 in the period. 

Leading 50-40 with 4:04 left in the second quarter, Robinson picked up his third foul on Embiid. Jericho Sims entered and had to be subbed out three minutes later with three fouls himself, unable to stop Embiid without fouling. 

“Our fouls, they hurt us,” Thibodeau said after Embiid and Harden combined for 64 points, 20 of them coming at the free-throw line. “Hey look, Embiid’s a great player. Harden’s a great player. But if you’re not disciplined, that’s going to hurt you, and it did.” 

The sixth-place Knicks, who fell three games back of the fifth-place 76ers, begin a three-game road trip Tuesday in Dallas knowing they can hang with some of the NBA’s best. 

But they want to do more than that and will have to play cleaner to do so. 

“Some of [the fouls, we] just kind of got to be a little smarter, knowing tendencies, but then some of them, I mean, they’re really good,” Barrett said. “James Harden, one of the best at getting fouled, Joel Embiid goes there like 12 times a game, so they’re going to get them. We need to do a better job of trying to limit that.”