Knicks 118, Pistons 112: A win is a win (thanks to Jalen Brunson)
New York won the first and fourth quarters, and that was enough against the worst team in the NBA
If you needed to find a reason to celebrate the Knicks’ dour, frustrating 118-112 win over the hapless Detroit Pistons, look no further than some of the other NBA box scores from Thursday night. The Cavaliers lost at home to the Trail Blazers, the Nets lost to the Hornets, and the Hawks barely escaped with a W against the Spurs. Wins are hard to come by in this league, and the Knicks did just enough to get the job done.
That being said . . . this game sucked. But the show must go on. I’m reminded of this Anthony Mackey anecdote about the great Harrison Ford, who is apparently working on the latest Captain America film for whatever reason:
Let’s recap this piece of shit!
In theory, the Knicks had a chance to put the Pistons away early and rest their starters for Friday’s much more difficult matchup with the Raptors. Instead, they wasted an early 16-point advantage and had to scrape and claw their way to victory after Detroit took a late lead. Cade Cunningham, the much-maligned former number-one overall pick, paced Detroit with 31. Even more disturbing, Killian Hayes dropped 23 on 10-of-13 shooting. Killian Hayes! (I loved him in the draft, by the way).
Fortunately, New York has a point guard with slightly more pedigree than Hayes. Jalen Brunson capped off an incredible month of November – remember when he struggled for a few games in October? LOL – with 42 on 13-of-24 shooting, to go with eight assists and six rebounds. You wouldn’t expect a team like the Pistons to have a way of coping with a scorer of Brunson’s quality . . . and you would be right.
The fact that Brunson’s outburst didn’t lead to a Knicks rout is an indictment of his teammates – well, most of his teammates. Julius Randle put up a nice line (29 points, 10 rebounds, eight assists) and really stepped up in the second half. Donte DiVincenzo hit some clutch threes to keep Detroit at bay. Mitchell Robinson was solid (and hit both of his free throws!). The rest of the crew, particularly the young guns, were ass:
Immanuel Quickley had perhaps his worst offensive game of the season, though he did put in serious work defensively on Marcus Sasser in the second half — which was needed, after Sasser hit four threes in the first half.
It’s time to talk about RJ Barrett. The promise of his blazing hot start to the season is quickly evaporating. He can’t buy a bucket from three, and he’s missing bunnies at the rim. I was holding onto hope that he would at least continue his recent string of strong defensive performances, but he was roasted on that end by Detroit’s mostly mid guards and wings.
Quentin Grimes missed all five of his shots and his defense sucked. He looks totally lost.
I expect IQ to bounce back immediately, though his first-half shooting woes are starting to become a concern. RJ needs to get his offense back on track. And Grimes needs to come off the bench for at least a little while. A better team than Detroit (so pretty much every team in the NBA) would’ve handed the Knicks a loss on Thursday. Toronto will hand them a loss Friday if they play this poorly, Brunson or no Brunson. Our guys have but a few hours to regroup from this very pedestrian W.
