5 Overreactions from New York Knicks Game 2 Failure vs. Detroit Pistons

Thanks to a 21-0 fourth quarter run, the New York Knicks were able to escape Game 1 of their first round matchup against the Detroit Pistons with a victory. 

In Game 2...no such luck. 

The Pistons, behind 33 points from Cade Cunningham and 20 points off the bench from late-season acquisition Dennis Schroder, evened the series Monday night with an impressive 100-94 win, silencing the Madison Square Garden crowd and snatching away home court advantage in the series.

The victory was Detroit’s first postseason win since May 26, 2008, snapping a 15-game playoff losing streak.

The series resumes Thursday night in Detroit. Here are five trends from Game 2 that should concern Knicks fans. Are they overreactions? Sure. But when it comes to playoff basketball the samples are always small

Karl-Anthony Towns failed to build off his strong Game 1 performance that included 23 points on 10-for-14 shooting, five assists and zero turnovers.

He finished Game 2 with just 10 points and didn’t record a single assist. Even worse: he didn’t score a single point in the game’s second half.

In fact, he only attempted three second-half shots, one of which was an open dunk after a Pistons turnover. His last field goal attempt came with 5:20 left in the third quarter. 

After the game, Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau told reporters that he had no issue with Towns’ approach.

“He’s getting touches, he’s making the right play,”he said. “He’s getting double-teamed, I don’t want him to shoot the ball over three people, that makes no sense.” 

But the Pistons weren’t sending aggressive traps at Towns. Most of their work was done by Tobias Harris, who, despite being about four inches shorter and about 20 pounds lighter than Towns, still managed to repeatedly push Towns out toward the perimeter before any entry passes were thrown and then stonewall Towns on post-ups.

Harris wasn’t alone on an island; the Pistons sent late help and made a point of rotating over to Towns from the weak side. The Knicks’ methodical, ‘90s-NBA style attack didn’t make anything easier for Towns, either. 

But Harris isn’t exactly Tim Duncan as a post defender. That’s a matchup Towns needs to win, especially if he’s going to get regular touches like he did in Game 2. If he can’t figure out answers going forward, the Knicks will be in trouble.

This year’s Knicks team is not like last year's band of bruisers.

With the offseason additions of Towns and Mikal Bridges, the blueprint changed. The Knicks finished the regular season fifth in offensive rating and 13th in defense. Entering the season, the goal was to win with scoring talent, not physicality. 

On the other side, the Pistons turned things around this season by emulating last season’s Knicks team. Their approach this season was simple: turn games into wrestling matches.

They were able to just that in Game 2, and the Knicks had no answer. 

The Pistons dragged the Knicks’ offense into the mud. Detroit pushed New York off their spots and made entry passes difficult.

The Knicks are at their best when the ball is touching the paint and then kicked around the perimeter, but the Pistons were able to turn them into an isolation-heavy, rhythm-less attack. The Knicks did miss a bunch of clean looks from deep—they finished 10-for-35 from 3—but so many of those looks came out of stagnant offense. 

The only reason the Knicks were able to hang in the game was because Jalen Brunson racked up 37 points, but almost all of those points came off difficult, one-on-one looks.

Brunson shot just 12-for-27, turned the ball over six times and spent chunks of the game complaining to the officials.

“It's on me to make sure I set the table,” Brunson said after the game. 

As if that wasn’t problematic enough, the Knicks also got hammered on the glass. The Pistons, despite missing Isaiah Stewart, who missed the game with a knee injury, out-rebounded them 48-34, and grabbed 12 offensive rebounds compared to the Knicks’ seven. 

“The Rebounding was problematic the whole night, so that's probably the difference in the game,” Thibodeau said. Later he added “missed shots are a part of the game, but the rebounding, you control that. That’s your effort.”

In Game 1, Cunningham had 21 points and 12 assists. In Game 2, he was even better, finishing with 33 points on an efficient 11-for-21 shooting. He only dished out three assists, mostly due to lackluster shooting from his teammates. 

“He was elite,” Pistons head coach JB Bickerstaff said after the game. “He is a superstar, and he played the game tonight as a superstar.”

The Knicks’ approach to slowing Cunningham thus far has been to hand the assignment to OG Anunoby. It’s worked, but Cunningham appears to be getting more comfortable working against him.

He and the Pistons did a better job of hunting more favorable matchups and finding new ways to attack Anunoby. It wouldn’t come as a surprise if Cunningham grows even more comfortable as the series inches along.

Hart attempted just two 3-pointers in Game 2, and took just six shots. He’s now launched just three deep balls all series—despite the Pistons leaving him open and daring him to shoot. 

The Pistons, recognizing Hart’s reluctance (he shot just 33 percent from deep during the regular season), slotted the 6-foot-10 Jalen Duren on him in Game 2.

The goal was to turn Duren into a free safety, and the tactic worked. Duren grabbed 13 rebounds and blocked three shots. But those numbers don’t quite capture the way he impacted the game. Whenever the Knicks approached the paint, Duren was there, lurking, ready for havoc. 

The best way to beat Detroit's defense would be for Hart to start letting it fly with confidence. Unfortunately for the Knicks, he’s been unwilling to do so all season. 

To be fair to the Knicks, the numbers were staggering. The Pistons attempted 34 free-throws in Game 2. The Knicks attempted just 19. “Huge discrepancy in free throws, huge. I've got to take a look at that,” Thibodeau said after the game, adding “I really don’t give a crap how they call the game, as long as it’s consistent.” 

He wasn’t the only person the Knicks’ side upset. “I'll let y'all examine that,” Hart told reporters after the game. “That was an interesting thing. Y’all can figure that one out.”

What, exactly, there is to be figured out is unclear. Yes, the Pistons were physical, but the fact that we’re just two games into a series in which they were heavily favored and the Knicks are already alleging some sort of conspiracy is not a good sign.