The Detroit Pistons were ready to take on the Knicks last night in primetime
For eight months, tension has built up between the Detroit Pistons and New York Knicks after their contentious six-game playoff series last year. The Knicks ultimately moved on, knocking the Pistons out of the playoffs and a heated rivalry between two historic squads was instantly born.
The Pistons approached this season eager to make up for how last year ended, especially when it comes to the Knicks. So, when the Pistons entered yesterday’s matchup in first place in the East facing the conference’s No. 2 squad in New York, the result was bound to be an important, telling contest between two potentially title-contending teams.
But the Pistons took their opportunity to make a statement against the Knicks and collected a massive 31-point win in the process thanks to a smothering defensive performance in the second half.
“Great win for us,” Pistons guard Cade Cunningham said after the game. “Definitely means a lot. Obviously, playoff series last year, them being second, us being first, them being on our heels, trying to get where we're at. We're not trying to allow that. So, big game. We all came locked in for it.”
Cunningham, who recorded 29 points and 13 assists in a peerless example of point guard play, ran the Pistons’ offense fluidly even without one of his top options in Jalen Duren, who was sidelined along with Tobias Harris and Caris LeVert due to injury. Given the history between these two teams, Cunningham was turned up from the start after circling last night’s game on his calendar well in advance.
“That’s something we knew was coming up on the calendar,” Cunningham said. “So you want to come in, obviously we had a great win last night and just wanted to keep building on that for this season.”
If there is any victory that would make sense to build off of, it would be the Pistons’ 31-point domination of the Knicks last night. After halftime, Detroit really turned up their defensive intensity and limited the Knicks to just 36 points combined in the third and fourth quarters as a clear representation for why the Pistons have been so successful this season.
The Knicks entered last night’s game with Jalen Brunson averaging over 29 points per game as the team’s primary scoring option, but the Pistons put the clamps on New York’s All-Star. Even though Brunson was close to hitting his usual production with 25 points, he fell far short of his typical playmaking, finishing the game without a single assist.
To help frustrate Brunson, the Pistons cycled a collection of defenders into the mix to give the NY point guard a variety of looks. From Ausar Thompson to Ron Holland to Javonte Green, Detroit set out a goal to disrupt Brunson’s process, and the Pistons achieved that goal with flying colors.
“It's a blessing to have so many high level defenders on our team that we can give guys like that a lot of different looks,” Cunningham said. “It's part of it, you know what I'm saying? He knows what it is. When you're a number one threat on the scouting report, team's are gonna throw everything they can at you. We just happen to have a lot of guys to be able to throw at you that are really good at it.”
The Pistons have shown that they can compete with any team in the NBA so far this season, and they have a boatload of momentum after picking up big wins against Eastern Conference contenders on back-to-back nights. Next, the Pistons will turn their attention to the Chicago Bulls for a 7 pm contest on Wednesday, Jan. 7.
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