Game 5: Pistons 106, Knicks 103 — What a dumb L
Looooooong sigh . . .
Losing 106-103 last night at home to Detroit didn’t end the New York Knicks’ season. They still lead the series 3-2 and have another chance to close it out Thursday, in a building where they’ve already won four times this season. Vegas still favors the favorites. Logic dictates with the Pistons needing three wins to advance and the Knicks only one, the Knicks held the edge. Coming into the series, the consensus was four of the five best players in it were Knicks.
But like any love affair, the longer a playoff series lasts, the less anyone involved’s past matters. Last night four of the five best players were Pistons, if not more. Cade Cunningham gutted through a blue-collar star turn; he’s basically a third-year pro and we’re already at the point where 24/8/8 with 12 free throw attempts was kind of a mid game by his standards (he shot just 6-of-17). Jalen Duren stayed out of foul trouble long enough to grab 17 rebounds, dish out six assists and block two shots. Ausar Thompson had a highly-efficient 22 points while defending Jalen Brunson so tightly he was sandwiched between the player and his shadow. And Tobias Harris came up clutch as Detroit’s second center, battling the much bigger Karl-Anthony Towns and looking Willis Reed tangling with Wilt Chamberlain while doing it. The pride of Central Islip scored 17 and contributed six stocks – yes, that Tobias Harris!
Losing Game 5 doesn’t preclude the Knicks from winning the series in six. But you only get one chance to make a first round impression, and the way the Knicks lost this one late raises both eyebrows and concerns bigger than the Detroit series, or a Boston series should the Knicks advance. With a little over a minute left, Brunson and Josh Hart both got banged up badly enough to have to check out, Brunson tweaking his bad ankle again and Hart landing hard and weird after a fall. Cam Payne and Miles McBride checked in, and while Cam Payne is a career backup and Deuce continued with his recent dip in form, both sported fully functioning ankles and torsos blessedly blank of any contusions. Yet almost immediately after the two were subbed out of the game, they were at the scorer’s table, ready to check back in.
For some reason, the Knicks kept playing, without calling timeout so Brunson and Hart could return. With a playoff series victory on the line, they ran multiple failed possessions while their most valuable and most venerable players stood on the sideline and watched, reduced to two more faces on celebrity row: recognized, but powerless. With two seconds and change left and the Knicks down two, McBride was at the free throw line for his second attempt, one he’d have to miss on purpose with the Knicks down three. Needing the rebound, Tom Thibodeau sent Mitchell Robinson into the game. Makes sense. What didn’t was Mitch initially appearing to be checking in for Towns. The Knicks needed as much size as they could muster to try and grab Deuce’s miss; replacing one 7-footer for another – one who was second in the league in rebounds, mind you – was like something out of an O. Henry story. After a bit of confusion, KAT stayed in the game, with Mikal Bridges exiting.
That’s the same Bridges who scored 13 in the final quarter. The same Bridges who showed for much of March, as did OG Anunoby, his ability to be a secondary-level scorer when this team needs it. In their last four games, the Knicks have scored 98 twice and 103 last night. This would be the time the team needs more from Bridges. And OG. And yet as incredible and intoxicating a shotmaker as Brunson is, him going solo as often as he does isn’t how this team is ever going to reach another level. Michael Jordan learned to trust his teammates over time. Given Brunson is in some way, shape or form either related to or BFFs with half the Knick organization, it feels less a matter of if than when he trusts them enough to put less-is-more into practice. Until he does, the Knicks are a one-tempo pony: dribble the ball down to 10 seconds every possession, run one action, and if that doesn’t work pray JB or KAT bail you out. They nearly did again, but not quite.
Miraculously, Bridges hit a difficult curling corner three to keep the Knicks alive late. Then Anunoby hit a tough standstill three over Cunningham. When McBride lined up for his second free throw with a couple seconds left, the Knicks still had a shot (7:25 mark). He missed, and in Mitch and Towns fighting for the board KAT was able to tap it straight out to the top of the arc. It was the same sequence as when Robert Horry hit the game-winning three for the Lakers in Game 5 of their 2002 series against Sacramento. The stuff dreams are made of.
Except when Towns tapped it out, the ball didn’t end up in Robert Horry’s hands. Not literally – Horry retired many moons ago. And not figuratively, because the Knicks don’t have a Robert Horry. They’ll probably survive the Pistons without him, but if they do his absence will be one of the things that stands out the most next round. Horry was a regular-season average joe who morphed into Super Joe come playoff time. As a Rocket, a Laker and a Spur, the bigger the spotlight, the more he combined to be something greater than the sum of his parts. The Cavaliers and Celtics have reserves who fit the bill. Payton Pritchard. Al Horford. De’Andre Hunter. Ty Jerome. The Knicks don’t.
Their bench was outscored by seven last night, and that’s a good night for them of late; over the first four games Detroit’s bench bettered them on average by 21 points a game. Once you get past Brunson, Towns, OG and Bridges, the Knicks are like dating after 40: there are some perfectly nice and lovable candidates, each of whom has some glaringly obvious shortcoming. Every team the Knicks have played the past three seasons has dared Hart to beat them from outside. Deuce can’t create for himself, particularly inside the arc. Mitch not only isn’t a threat to score unless he’s dunking, he missed four of seven free throws on a night the Pistons went to Hack-A-Mitch to cool down a third quarter Knick rally. Don’t worry, I’m not picking on Robinson. The Knicks were lousy from the charity stripe as a whole (16-of-27).
We don’t know Brunson or Hart’s status for Game 6 Thursday. Dunno what if any adjustments the Knicks might make before then. Dunno how Detroit will manage the wait, what with no officiating to bitch about for 48 hours, although J.B. Bickerstaff did waste another challenge seemingly pointlessly for the third straight game. Cleveland, Boston and Indiana are all already onto the next round. We do know the next game isn’t a must-win, but kinda is. If the Knicks – pretty fully healthy, a year their injury-ravaged selves took out the Sixers and took the Pacers to seven games – show regression and find themselves in a Game 7 this weekend, what they end up doing then won’t really matter. If this series goes the distance it will feel like the Knicks already lost, in some critical, meaningful way. Last night’s didn’t end the Knicks’ season. But the ways it could end are starting to feel narrower, aren’t they?
