Knicks guard Jalen Brunson looked at the World Series baseball game from his locker and drew on it to describe his team’s approach.
“Just continue to hit singles,” Brunson said after the Knicks’ first win of the season, a 111-97 victory over the Detroit Pistons at Madison Square Garden. “Just get on base and hit singles and focus on little things until we get our rhythm.”
The win eased the semi-panic surrounding the defending NBA champions, if only for a moment. While it lacked style, it reversed some troubling trends.
Breaking the Pistons’ Hold
The victory ended the Pistons’ recent dominance over New York in the regular season. Detroit won all three meetings last season by an average of 30 points. The Knicks had also struggled after halftime, being outscored by 26 points in the second half across the first three games.
New York blitzed Detroit in the middle two quarters, outscoring them 63-25. For that stretch, they looked like the Knicks of the playoffs. In handing the conference-leading Pistons their first loss of the season, swingman Mikal Bridges woke up, hitting four three-pointers after failing to hit any in the first three games.
“We had more good moments in this game in totality than we did in the first three games, and that’s why we got the win,” Knicks head coach Mike Brown said. “Our awareness, our level of physicality on [Detroit’s shooters] was a lot better than the previous game.”
Brunson Pushes the Action
Brunson did not exactly break out, going 5-for-18 for 23 points. He stayed aggressive, however, and kept forcing the action. He also helped get Pistons defensive ace Ausar Thompson to foul out in the fourth quarter as Detroit attempted a late charge.
Towns Answers the Challenge
Karl-Anthony Towns again played to his personal standard. Brown reportedly challenged him at halftime to do a better job on Pistons centre Paul Reed. Reed had taken on more consistent duty following the injury to All-Star centre Jalen Duren, and he was an early source of activity as Detroit built a 15-point lead.
“I told him the truth, ‘KAT, the guy is killing us on the glass and if he’s getting a rebound, he’s putting it back up. If he catches it on the perimeter, guard him,'” Brown said. “And he did those things. I thought that shift in mindset was big for us in the second half.”
Towns finished with 27 points and 20 rebounds. It was the 14th time he had scored at least 25 points and grabbed 20 rebounds, and the fourth time he has done so in a Knicks uniform.
“I thought we did a good job of picking up our intensity and our physicality. I said before the game for us to win this, we have to be the best version of ourselves and not worry about everything else that’s going on,” Towns said.
Locking Down Cunningham
Containing Pistons All-NBA guard Cade Cunningham was the top priority, or close to it. Cunningham scored 40 points in his last visit to Madison Square Garden last season and appeared headed for another standout performance, but he shot 4-of-14 after the first quarter this time.
The Knicks locked in on Cunningham. With no other credible scoring option, they steadily chipped away and built their own sizeable lead.
“Our guys realised, no I can’t react to them. I got to dictate to them what’s going to happen,” Brown said. “And do it with a smart level of physicality.”
Brown was not carried away by one night, while acknowledging that more growth is needed.
“Is it fixed? No. It ain’t fixed. Nothing’s really fixed. What tonight shows us is we’re more than capable if we put our minds to it, and that’s what we got to continue to try to build off of.”