Another Pistons-Knicks game, another tightly contested, somewhat ugly battle that came down to the final seconds. On Tuesday, Detroit managed to escape Madison Square Garden with a win and avoid elimination. It is down 3-2 in the series.
It was not Cade Cunningham’s most efficient outing, but he finished with 24 points (6-17 FG, 1-4 3PT, 10-11 FT), eight rebounds, eight assists, two steals and a block in 37 minutes.
The Pistons’ Ausar Thompson scored 22 points on 8-for-10 shooting, plus seven rebounds and two blocks. Huge game from the second-year guard.
Jalen Brunson had a difficult night, shooting 4 for 16 from the field mostly while defended by Thompson.
Late in the fourth, Brunson and Josh Hart (who made a zillion winning plays for New York) sat for a two-and-a-half-minute stretch that proved extremely costly. Brunson appeared to roll his ankle, and Hart appeared to hurt his wrist after taking a hard fall. That stretch concluded with this dish from Cunningham to Thompson for a layup in tight quarters:
The Knicks got clutch 3s from Mikal Bridges and OG Anunoby after that, but it wasn’t enough. Cunningham made a pair of clutch free throws to put the game away.
Before all that, Cunningham walked into an easy pull-up 3 out of a pick-and-roll with Tim Hardaway Jr:
And Towns made a deeeep trail 3 that seemed enormously important at the time:
Game 6 is Thursday in Detroit.
After a timeout with 2:57 left in the fourth quarter, Jalen Brunson and Josh Hart both had to check out of the game. Brunson appeared to roll his right ankle, and Hart took a hard fall on his wrist.
They remained on the bench for the net two-and-a-half minutes. During that time, Detroit went on an 8-2 run. There are now 27.4 seconds left, and both are checking back in. The Knicks are down 103-97.
With 7:35 left in the fourth quarter, Karl-Anthony Towns picked up a foul trying to contest Cade Cunningham’s fadeaway jumper. It was a bad foul, made worse because he already had four of them.
He immediately went to the bench. About a minute later, Ausar Thompson attacked the basket and Mitchell Robinson fouled him. This was Robinson’s fifth foul.
Robinson, by the way, has 13 points (5-8 FG, 3-7 FT) and 11 rebounds (eight offensive!) in 23 minutes. He’s +11 tonight, too.
With 5:01 left in regulation, the Pistons are up 91-90 and Towns is checking back in for Robinson.
It seemed like the Pistons took control for a bit there. They went on an 18-6 run in the third quarter and led by as many as 10 points.
But then the Knicks went on a 9-0 run in about a minute and a half, capped by a layup from Josh Hart in transition:
Hart also connected with Mitchell Robinson on an alley-oop late in the quarter:
Earlier in the third, Ausar Thompson threw down an alley-oop dunk of his own from Cade Cunningham. Thompson scored nine points in the quarter and has 19 (on 7-for-9 shooting) in the game.
The craziest play of the quarter, though, was definitely this late-clock 3 by Jalen Brunson:
For both of these teams, this game is right there for the taking. Feels like it’s going to come down to the final minute again.
New York is up at the half despite the fact that Jalen Brunson has just six points on 1-for-7 shooting and three turnovers. Detroit is down by only one at the half despite the fact that Cade Cunningham has just four points on 2-for-8 shooting and three turnovers.
This has been a weird one!
The positives for the Knicks: OG Anunoby has made a few crazy defensive plays, Mitchell Robinson has been gobbling up offensive rebounds and Karl-Anthony Towns is still causing the Pistons problems.
The positives for Detroit: Ausar Thompson is having easily his best game of the series — 10 points on 4-for-6 shooting, two blocks in 13 minutes — and Tobias Harris has made a bunch of big plays on both ends. Also Jalen Duren’s playmaking in the short roll has been nice.
The Knicks are shooting 20 for 49 (40.8%) from the field and 3 for 12 (25%) from deep. The Pistons are shooting 18 for 46 (39.1%) from the field and 5 for 18 (27.8%) from deep.
Let’s see if either of these teams can put together an efficient second half.
I feel like I’ve said this before during this series: It hasn’t been pretty!
After 12 minutes, New York is shooting 9 for 24 (37.5%) from the field and 1 for 6 (16.7%) from deep in Game 5 at MSG. Detroit is shooting 7 for 24 (29.2%) from the field and 3 for 10 (30%) from deep.
Josh Hart and OG Anunoby have been everywhere for the Knicks. Hart has nine points on 4-for-7 shooting, and on two separate occasions he pushed the ball coast to coast after a made basket and scored at the rim. Anunoby has three blocks, including this ridiculous chasedown:
This is Karl-Anthony Towns’ only shot attempt:
And this is Cade Cunningham’s only bucket:
These teams have combined for 11 turnovers, by the way.
The end of Game 4 brought significant controversy. With the Knicks leading by a point in the waning seconds of regulation, the ball found its way to the Pistons’ Tim Hardaway Jr. in the corner. Hardaway got a shot off, but was bumped by New York’s Josh Hart in the process. No foul was called, Hardaway’s shot fell short and the Knicks emerged with a victory and a 3-1 series lead.
However, after the game, the crew chief of the officiating crew admitted to a pool reporter that a foul should have been called on Hart.
What a crazy game. The Knicks’ Jalen Brunson finished with a game-high 32 points (13-26 FG, 4-7 3PT, 2-2 FT). He had to go to the locker room late in the third quarter after Dennis Schröder appeared to fall on his right leg as they battled for a loose ball. Brunson returned early in the fourth quarter, though, and came up big for New York. He had 15 points in the final frame.
Karl-Anthony Towns also came up big. He made back-to-back clutch shots to put the Knicks in front late.
The Knicks led by as many as 16 points in the first half. Detroit went on a run late in the second quarter, though, and then dominated the third quarter (28-14). New York went on a run of its own in the fourth and the game came down to the last possession — Detroit was down by one point with 11.1 seconds left, and Cade Cunningham missed a pull-up jumper over OG Anunoby. After a scramble for the loose ball, Tim Hardaway Jr. missed a 3-pointer and the Knicks escaped with a win — and a 3-1 series lead.
Pistons coach J.B. Bickerstaff was irate at the final buzzer — he wanted a foul on Josh Hart on that Hardaway miss. He had a point, too. There was contact, but no call.
Karl-Anthony Towns just absolutely bailed out the Knicks on two consecutive offensive possessions that seemed to be going nowhere. First, he hit a leaning midrange jumper off the dribble over Jalen Duren.
Then, he hit a deeeeeep 3 to give New York a 94-93 lead with 46.6 seconds left.
This is a crazy finish. The Knicks have outscored the Pistons 30-22 in the fourth quarter.
Remember when Jalen Brunson seemed to be hurt? Me neither! He’s now up to 13 points in the fourth quarter, 30 in the game, with 3:06 remaining. Look at the Clutch Player of the Year:
So everything’s great for the Knicks, right? Well, not exactly! The Pistons are up 88-84, thanks to Dennis Schroder and Cade Cunningham making clutch buckets of their own.
Jalen Brunson went to the locker room after appearing to hurt his right leg/ankle late in the third quarter, but he’s scored eight points on 4-for-6 shooting in the fourth. The Pistons have a 81-79 lead with 5:23 remaining.
If Brunson is in pain, he’s not really showing it. He has continually gotten downhill and made things happen.
Here’s a huge 3 from Malik Beasley, who has come alive after being as cold as you can get for two-plus games:
Mikal Bridges has his two huge corner 3s in the fourth, too. Here’s one of them:
With 10:14 left in the fourth quarter, Jalen Brunson checked back into the game. This is awesome news for the Knicks, but let’s see how he moves out there.
Cade Cunningham just split a pair of free throws — his first attempts of the game — and the Pistons are up 74-64.
After missing his first five 3-point attempts on Sunday (and shooting a combined 3 for 18 from deep in Games 2 and 3), Malik Beasley made two 3s in the final minute and a half of the third quarter. Detroit will enter the fourth with a seven-point lead, having outscored New York 28-14 after halftime.
This game has totally turned. The big story, though, is that Jalen Brunson had to go to the locker room late in the third after suffering an apparent injury. Brunson’s status for the rest of this game is unclear.
Brunson has 17 points (6-15 FG, 3-6 3PT, 2-2 FT) and nine assists in 29 minutes today. If he can’t return, New York is going to have a tough time offensively. He’s not on the court to start the fourth, but he is on the bench.
With about three minutes left in the third quarter, Jalen Brunson lost the ball in the backcourt with Dennis Schröder pressuring him. Brunson hit the floor to try to retrieve the ball, and got tangled up with Schröder.
Schröder appeared to fall on Brunson’s right leg. Brunson stayed down, wincing in pain, as Cade Cunningham dunked the ball on the break. The Knicks then called a timeout and Brunson limped to the locker room.
Brunson recently missed about a month because of a sprained right ankle.
UPDATE: Brunson checked back in around the 10-minute mark in the fourth quarter with the Knicks trailing by 10.
Yeah, you’re going to want to see Cade Cunningham’s left-handed dunk over Karl-Anthony Towns:
Such a strong take by Cunningham. You can tell Towns didn’t want to risk picking up his fifth foul.
On a related note: Tobais Harris, who has been huge for the Pistons during the 23-4 run that spanned the end of the first half and the first few minutes of the second half, has picked up his fifth foul. He’s on the bench now. (Harris has a team-high 18 points.)
With 3:04 left in the third, the Pistons are up 63-61 after two free throws from Dennis Schröder.
Bad news for the Knicks: By charging into Cade Cunningham, Karl-Anthony Towns picked up his fourth foul with 10:31 left in the third quarter. Tom Thibodeau elected to keep him in the game.
More bad news for the Knicks: With 7:36 left in the third quarter, the Pistons are on a 19-4 run. New York is up 52-51, but Detroit has all the momentum.
The Pistons are shooting terribly (2 for 19) from deep, but they’re making a push anyway. Cunningham blocked both OG Anunoby and Jalen Brunson at the rim in the span of one minute. He has four blocks in the game!
Not the prettiest half. New York leads by seven, but is shooting 17 for 49 (34.7%) from the field and 6 for 21 (28.6%) from deep.
Detroit, meanwhile, is shooting 16 for 43 (37.2%) from the field and 2 for 16 (12.5%) from deep. The big difference is that the Pistons have turned the ball over 12 times to the Knicks’ five.
It’s not like these teams aren’t playing hard. Game 4 has been physical, just like the rest of the series, and there have been some impressive effort plays. Here’s Mikal Bridges preventing an easy Ausar Thompson bucket:
And here’s Cade Cunningham blocking Bridges in transition (after a nice finish by KAT):
The Knicks have been in control for most of the day, but the Pistons went on a 9-0 run near the end of the half. Detroit is definitely within striking distance now, but it needs to fix its halfcourt offense in the second half if it’s going to even the series.
I can’t believe this happened again: Detroit started the second quarter with a turnover because Ron Holland II couldn’t inbound the ball — the Knicks’ Cam Payne deflected the pass off of Holland.
You might remember that the Pistons started the fourth quarter of the series opener with a five-second violation. Shortly after that, they were on the wrong end of a 21-0 run.
Holland’s turnover on Sunday was the first of four Detroit turnovers in the first three minutes of the quarter. It has 10 turnovers in the game, and it has only eight made field goals (and two assists).
More ugly numbers for the Pistons: Tobias Harris and Malik Beasley are shooting a combined 2 for 14 (and 0 for 7 from deep).
New York is up 33-21 with 8:36 left in the second quarter.
After 12 minutes, New York has to be pleased with how the game is going. Jalen Brunson been in control — seven points, three rebounds, six assists, no turnovers — and Detroit has gotten nothing going on the offensive end.
The Knicks are 5 for 10 from deep. The Pistons are 0 for 6.
Detroit has committed six turnovers. New York has committed three.
Mitchell Robinson played the final four minutes of the quarter and pulled down three offensive rebounds. It has felt like the Knicks have been first to every 50-50 ball.
With 3:32 left in the first quarter, the Knicks are up 24-12. New York has made 4 of its 5 3-point attempts — and Josh Hart specifically is 2 for 2 — but this definitely isn’t just a case of hot shooting. Detroit has committed five turnovers already, and New York is finding easy baskets in transition.
Here’s Karl-Anthony Towns blocking Tobias Harris and OG Anunoby dunking on Ausar Thompson on the break early on:
One positive for Detroit: Jalen Duren pulled down nine rebounds in the game’s first seven minutes.
New York has taken a 2-1 lead in the first-round series, thanks to a bounceback game from Karl-Anthony Towns and several clutch plays by Jalen Brunson, the newly named Clutch Player of the Year.
At MSG on Monday, Towns finished with 10 points (and zero in the second half) in the Knicks’ 100-94 loss. Three days later, on the road, he scored a game-high 31 points (10-18 FG, 4-8 3PT, 7-7 FT) in 41 minutes.
Brunson finished with 30 points (9-20 FG, 1-7 3PT, 12-14 FT) in 41 minutes, and he scored 12 of his points in the fourth quarter.
Cade Cunningham and Tim Hardaway Jr. finished with 24 points apiece for Detroit. Cunningham added eight rebounds, 11 assists, four steals and two blocks.
The big story: New York’s offense, which looked so slow and stagnant in Game 2, came to life in Detroit. Towns got going with some transition 3s early, and the Knicks played with much more pace overall. Can they sustain that in Game 4 on Sunday?
After an easy Karl-Anthony Towns bucket (against a Dennis Schröder switch), Detroit has gone on an 8-0 run: A Cade Cunningham pull-up 3, a Schröder 3 from Cunningham in transition, then a Tobias Harris jumper over Jalen Brunson from the free throw line. With 4:41 left, the Knicks are up 104-101.
Buckle up!
The good news for Detroit: Malik Beasley threw down a massive dunk over OG Anunoby:
The bad news: It’s still down by eight points with 7:56 left in the fourth quarter.
Beasley was shooting 1 for 9 from the field before that dunk. He made a floater a couple of minutes later, prompting announcer Reggie Miller to suggest the dunk might have gotten him going, but he proceeded to miss a 3-pointer shortly after that.
Jalen Duren picked up his fifth foul early in the final frame, so Paul Reed is getting fourth-quarter minutes, everybody.
After taking Tobias Harris off the dribble and making a floater, Jalen Brunson is up to 20 points on the night.
One quarter to go. The Pistons started the third strong, but didn’t make up much ground.
After a quiet Game 2, Karl-Anthony Towns has 25 points (8-15 FG, 4-8 3PT, 5-5 FT) in 30 minutes tonight. All of his made 3s have been in transition — look how deep this one was:
Detroit’s in striking distance. Let’s see if it can put some stops together.
Unlike Game 1, the Pistons’ absolutely terrible stretch took place early enough that they had time to make a comeback. They went on a 14-2 run early in the third quarter, and they trail 75-73 with 5:15 left in the third.
Not the best defense from Jalen Brunson here:
Not the best sequence for Josh Hart here:
Also: Dennis Schröder pressured Brunson and caused an eight-second violation.
It’s not all good news for Detroit, though: Tobias Harris, who still hasn’t scored tonight, is back on the bench after picking up his fourth foul. Interestingly, the Pistons elected to start the second half with Jalen Duren, not Harris, guarding Karl-Anthony Towns.
This is the sort of thing Towns can do to opposing bigs:
Towns has a game-high 22 points on 7-for-14 shooting.
Before a Malik Beasley 3 late in the second quarter, the Knicks were on a 21-3 run. Definitely not the way Detroit wanted to end the half!
OG Anunoby has done a little bit of everything on both ends, and heading into the second quarter he has 18 points (6-10 FG, 3-6 3PT, 3-4 FT). Karl-Anthony Towns has 17 points (5-10 FG, 3-6 3PT, 4-4 FT) and Jalen Brunson has 13 points (3-8 FG, 1-3 3PT, 6-6 FT).
Tim Hardaway Jr. leads Detroit in scoring with 18 points (5-6 FG, 5-5 3PT). Cade Cunningham has 13 points (6-15 FG, 1-2 3PT, 0-1 FT) and Dennis Schroder has 13 points (4-6 FG, 3-4 3PT, 2-2 FT).
The Pistons have committed seven live-ball turnovers. New York has committed only two.
Detroit’s Tobias Harris hasn’t scored a point, but the Knicks went on their big run when he was on the bench with three fouls. New York has looked a lot more comfortable when the Pistons have had a big guarding Towns instead of Harris guarding him.
Look at how the Pistons took their first lead of the game:
That is an amazing pass by Cade Cunningham. And on their next possession, Cunningham found Tim Hardaway Jr. in transition for another 3:
Hardaway has 18 points and has made all five 3s he has attempted. Dennis Schröder is 3 for 4 from deep, too.
Detroit is up 43-41 with 5:51 left in the first half.
Heading into the second quarter, the Knicks have a six-point lead thanks to a couple of plays by OG Anunoby late in the first. After driving at Cade Cunningham and drawing a foul, Anunoby split a pair of free throws. Mitchell Robinson rebounded the miss, then missed a layup, but Anunoby was there for a two-handed putback. Anunoby has 10 points (3-6 FG, 1-3 3PT, 3-4 FT) in 12 minutes.
Robinson, Karl-Anthony Towns and Paul Reed all earned technical fouls for an “altercation” with less than a minute left in the quarter. There was some unnecessary pushing and shouting.
The big takeaway so far: New York should feel good about its offense, especially compared to the first two games of the series. Let’s see if it can keep this going with Jalen Brunson on the bench.
About 10 minutes into Game 3, a lot has happened! The Pistons missed their first seven field goal attempts and quickly fell behind 8-1, but they came back to tie it at 20. After that, New York went on an 8-0 run. It’s now 28-22 for the Knicks with 2:23 left in the first quarter and Dennis Schroder going to the free throw line for two shots after this timeout.
Coming into this game, there was a lot of talk about how to get Karl-Anthony Towns going. One way: Look for him in transition. In the first seven-and-a-half minutes, Towns attempted four trail 3s and made three of them. He has 11 points early.
Once again, it’s been physical. Ausar Thompson got a bloody nose from a nasty Towns screen, and Jalen Brunson earned a flagrant foul for hitting Tim Hardaway Jr. in the eye.
Hardaway, by the way, has 12 points — three 3s, plus three free throws, as Brunson fouled him in the act of shooting a 3.
Cade Cunningham has nine points on 4-for-8 shooting, but, so far, he hasn’t looked quite as comfortable as he did in Game 2. He dominated that game.
