The Knicks didn’t provide the fire-breathing response or the intense answer expected after their no-show loss to the Nets on Wednesday.
Yes, they got off the mat Friday night after that 27-point beatdown by their crosstown rivals. But it was more like surviving disaster than a confidence-boosting 48 minutes of complete basketball.
The Knicks knocked off the three-win Pistons, 121-112, on Friday night at the Garden, mostly because the schedule-makers had gifted them an inferior opponent that was without its best player. Detroit is rebuilding and didn’t have building block Cade Cunningham, the No. 1 pick in the 2021 draft.
“It was very important [to win this game]. You saw what happened on Wednesday, and we needed to bounce back,” Jalen Brunson said. “We just continued to fight, even though we could’ve closed the game out a little better.”
The Knicks had several opportunities to put the hammer down throughout a mediocre effort, but they couldn’t do it until the very end. There were too many defensive lapses, second-chance opportunities given to the Pistons and overall inconsistency, a concerning hallmark of the Knicks (6-6) so far this season.
There were positives. RJ Barrett scored a season-high 30 points in one of his better games of the young season and Brunson had 26 points, 11 in the fourth quarter, and seven assists. But the defense was shaky for most of the night, sending Detroit to the free-throw line a whopping 41 times. The Pistons, winless so far on the road, got as close as four points with 1:20 left before Barrett hit two free throws and Immanuel Quickley put it away with a left corner 3-pointer as the Knicks returned to .500.
“It’s tough to put a team away if you constantly put them at the line,” Barrett said.
It was a significant win, ugly as it may have been. The Knicks needed to build up momentum entering a daunting five-game western trip that will begin Tuesday at the surprising Jazz. The win Friday was at least a small step in the right direction, with the Thunder coming to the Garden on Sunday.
Six points from Barrett as part of a 9-0 run late in the first quarter helped to snap the Knicks out of a flat start. So did Derrick Rose, who was the first Knick off the bench and registered a plus-12 rating in a six-point, eight-minute opening half.
For a large stretch in the second quarter, coach Tom Thibodeau went to the Julius Randle-Obi Toppin duo up front (Jericho Sims and Isaiah Hartenstein were both in foul trouble, necessitating the move), with Quentin Grimes, Barrett and Brunson in the backcourt. The Knicks built their lead up to 16 with that quintet on the floor, although there was some slippage on defense and the Pistons only trailed by 10 at the break.
The offensive performance over the first 24 minutes was along the lines of several Knicks wins this season: 13 assists on 23 made field goals, points from eight different players and an uptempo attack leading to open looks. The ball moved, the extra passes were made and shots fell.
“It was fun basketball playing like that, having multiple guys involved, having everyone contributing,” Barrett said.
The Knicks started the second half well, pushing their lead out to 17, but just as at the end of the second quarter, they couldn’t sustain that advantage. When Jaden Ivey and Hamidou Diallo scored for Detroit on consecutive drives early in the fourth quarter, the Knicks’ lead was down to seven.
It got even closer in the final 90 seconds. But the Knicks made enough plays down the stretch to prevail, tense as it did get late. That’s what mattered most to them Friday night.
“[On Wednesday] we weren’t at our best, and this got us back on track,” Randle said.
Credit: Source link
