Malik Beasley heard the hecklers.
Walking out of Madison Square Garden after his Detroit Pistons’ Game 1 loss on Saturday night, Beasley egged on a crowd of jeering Knicks fans, raising his right arm as if to ask for more.
And he did it with a big smile on his face.
“I love that,” Beasley said the next day after a film session. “That’s New York. It’s basketball. It’s competitive. It’s the fans. Wait ’til we get to Detroit.”
The taunts followed a Game 1 in which Beasley repeatedly initiated contact with Jalen Brunson, even during stoppages, and punctuated 3-pointers with a celebratory shimmy.
He finished with 20 points on 7-of-16 shooting, including 6-of-12 on 3-point attempts, in the Pistons’ 123-112 loss.
“I’m from the South, so I grew up in the standing-room-only gyms,” said Beasley, who hails from Atlanta. “I love the crowd, especially New York fans. I love big moments. I worked hard for those. I put in a lot of work, so it just comes natural when I get in those moments.”
Beasley is playing in his fifth postseason, having previously been with the Denver Nuggets, Minnesota Timberwolves, Los Angeles Lakers and Milwaukee Bucks.
The nine-year pro was one of several offseason veteran additions who helped take a young Pistons team from the NBA’s worst record last season to the No. 6 seed in the East Conference this year.
Beasley averaged 16.3 points per game in 82 appearances, including 18 starts. On Sunday, he was named a finalist for the NBA’s Sixth Man of the Year, along with Payton Pitchard of the Boston Celtics and Ty Jerome of the Cleveland Cavaliers.
“That was a great addition to their team,” Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau said of Beasley before Monday night’s Game 2 at the Garden.
“He’s an elite shooter, so you have to have great awareness. He doesn’t need much space to get it off, so you have to understand you’ve got to be there on the catch and you’ve got to challenge.”
Beasley, 28, was a thorn in the Knicks’ side during the regular season, too.
He made 15 of his 27 attempts from 3-point range in their four head-to-head meetings, including going 13-of-18 in Detroit’s two wins at the Garden.
After he drained a dagger 3-pointer toward the end of a Jan. 7 win, Beasley waved and blew a kiss to the MSG crowd.
“He’s fearless and he loves these moments,” Pistons head coach J.B. Bickerstaff said. “He shies away from nothing. The crowd noise. The adversity. The trash talking. When all that stuff happens, that just fuels Beas.”
Beasley is part of the Pistons’ defensive game plan against Brunson, who finished with 34 points in Game 1 after shaking off a 2-for-13 start from the field.
At one point, Beasley slapped the ball away from Brunson during a stoppage. In the game’s waning seconds, Beasley gave Brunson a shove as he intentionally fouled him.
“He’s a heavy-minute guy, heavy-usage guy, so the best we can [do] to slow him down, we’ll do that,” Beasley said of Brunson. “If I’ve got to lean on his body a little bit or mess with him a little bit, I will.”
Beasley said he wants Brunson to be “tired” by a potential Game 7.
Asked about the ability of Brunson — who led all players with 10 free throw attempts in Game 1 — to use his body to draw fouls, Beasley replied, “That’s fine, but I know how to re-use it against him.”
“Chess,” Beasley added, “not checkers.”
