Tonight, the Detroit Pistons are finally breaking a week-long spell away from the court due to the All-Star Break, and the NBA’s top squad based on winning percentage has a big matchup on the docket with a former playoff opponent in the New York Knicks. 

This season, the Pistons have a 2-0 record against the Knicks on account of two massive 30-plus-point victories, and Detroit has the opportunity to sweep the season series with a win tonight. However, Detroit will be playing on the road and will have to deal with the Knicks’ frontcourt without either Jalen Duren or Isaiah Stewart for the Eastern Conference showdown, so the Pistons will face a bit of adversity in the matchup regardless. 

Before the All-Star Break, the Pistons faced similar circumstances on the road in Toronto without their All-Star center or their defensive anchor, but Detroit promptly thrust Paul Reed into the starting lineup for a performance that would’ve made either Duren or Stewart proud. Starting against the Raptors, Reed logged 22 points, five rebounds, four blocks, three assists and three steals in a monster stat-stuffing performance for the man they refer to as B-Ball Paul. 

The Knicks had a positive start to All-Star Break with a victory in the Shooting Stars contest on Saturday night, but Cade Cunningham and Duren both made sure that would be the only dub either Jalen Brunson or Karl-Anthony Towns walked away with given Sunday’s All-Star Game soon to follow. Towns suited up for Team World as Brunson donned the Team USA Stripes jersey, but both players walked away empty-handed as Cunningham, Duren and head coach J.B. Bickerstaff hoisted the All-Star Game trophy at the end of the Championship Game. 

Before the break, the Knicks split their last four games, which included a 38-point defeat to the Pistons, to enter the extended weekend with a 35-20 record in the regular season. The Knicks stand in second place of the Atlantic Division behind the Celtics, so every game down the stretch will be important to a New York squad that is still jockeying for playoff position. 

In their most recent contest, the Knicks secured a massive 138-89 victory over the Philadelphia 76ers thanks to a prolific 72-point first half effort, and one of their newest additions, Jose Alvarado, proved that he arrived in the Big Apple ready to go. With 26 points on an efficient 8-for-13 shooting night from the field, Alvarado was the leading scorer on a Knicks squad that boasted two other 20-point performers in the 49-point win. 

From a production standpoint, Brunson has served as the Knicks’ most dangerous scoring threat this season with a 27-point average, but the Pistons were able to shut the All-Star down the last time the two sides played, limiting Brunson to a mere 12 points. At the time, that was Brunson’s second-lowest scoring output of the season, but the 76ers held the Villanova product to just eight points before the All-Star Break. In between those rough outings, however, Brunson did sandwich together 31 and 40 points against the Boston Celtics and Indiana Pacers respectively, so his scoring has varied wildly over the past four games. 

From a Pistons perspective, Detroit is entering the contest in healthy condition, which means second-year forward Ron Holland is scheduled to be available for tonight’s game. The Pistons, however, will be without Duren and Stewart as referenced earlier, but that is on account of disciplinary action as opposed to a health concern. 

For the Knicks, OG Anunoby is questionable to play after revealing that he lost one of his toenails recently, so he’s dealing with a bit of a painful foot situation for the time being. Additionally, Knicks guard Miles McBridge is already listed as out due to an abdominal injury with a return timeline slated for April 1. 

During his recent interview on the Road Trippin Show, Bickerstaff touched on his arrival to Detroit over a year and a half ago and what his impression was regarding the Pistons squad that he’d just inherited. 

At the time, the Pistons were coming off a 14-68 season, which was the low-point in franchise history, so Bickerstaff and company had a lot of work to do. But even back then, Bickerstaff could see that the Pistons still had some fight to them even if it was all they had at the time. 

“There was a scrimmage that we had or a pickup game in early September when we first got there, and I was watching how the guys were playing and how physical they were and how they were banging and they were chirping with one another,” Bickerstaff said. “It reminded me of old school basketball when you used to have fights in practice and all that stuff, right? I was like this is it. This is the group. This is the identity, then we shaped it and formed it and it’s what you see now.”

Now, the Pistons stand in first place of the Eastern Conference with the league’s best winning percentage through 53 games, which is a testament to the remarkable turnaround that Bickerstaff has helped accomplish in the Motor City since his arrival. 

In the last installment of the Pistons-Knicks series, Ausar Thompson was able to stifle Brunson all game long and disrupted the All-Star point guard at the point of attack repeatedly during their battle. If Brunson is able to shake free and find success against the Pistons, the game that unfolds could look remarkably different than the first two times Detroit and New York squared off this season. Brunson has helped push the Knicks to the No. 2 offensive rating in the NBA, and New York recently defeated another playoff squad by nearly 50 points, although that was prior to the All-Star Break. 

Despite that reality, the Pistons have looked uniquely suited to handle the Knicks from a defensive perspective this season, and we’re about to find out if that trend will continue tonight at 7:30 pm at Madison Square Garden. 

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