All together on three: One, two, three – exhale!
And to respond to the question of valued poster Real Clydes Wear Plaid in the Postgame Threadwith the amazing wisdom of one OG Anunoby: Uh, it feels pretty cool. The first win for your New York Knicks as defending champions, that is. But even if Fat Joe didn’t have to keep sweatin’ through the latter stages of this particular game, it sure took a while to really feel comfortable.
When Mikal Bridges’ halfcourt prayer to end the first quarter didn’t draw
any iron, nothing felt cool. Paul Reed had just finished his shooting motion from hell on the other end and scored Detroit’s 38th point with a triple, putting the Pistons up by 13 on their orange and blue counterparts. An eternal optimist might have seen the Knicks returning to their winning ways at that point since they had actually given up 40 in the final frame to Orlando on Sunday. Baby steps and all in the right direction, I guess.
Seriously though, the Knicks were hanging on by a thread to start the second quarter, especially since they couldn’t buy a basket for the first two minutes of the period. Fortunately, Detroit didn’t manage to capitalize even though they had numerous open threes during that stretch. If they made a shot or two here, blow the lead up close to 20? Let’s not think about it, especially since the actual reality that followed was so much nicer.
Karl-Anthony Towns leads the way for Knicks
For the first time this season, it felt like the Knicks really found a consistent rhythm on both ends of the court. It started with the defense that completely shut down any idea the Pistons had of scoring points, limiting the bad shooting boys from the Motor City to a 3-for-21 clip in the quarter. The offense took a little longer, but opportunism reigned supreme here. Karl-Anthony Towns and Andre Drummond had some nice putbacks, the Knicks finally hit some threes, and Jalen Brunson drew a bunch of fouls after almost looking like Jordan Clarkson in a Utah blowout early on.
The real fun started after halftime. Supposedly Mike Brown challenged Karl-Anthony Towns in the locker room, reminding him that a scrappy, hard-working soul named “Bball Paul” shouldn’t be a match for him. Got it, coach, said the newlywed, and then went to work on the entire Pistons team. 27 and 20 is serious business; we can even give him a pass for the 7 (turnovers) and 5 (fouls) this time around. It speaks to the growth of Towns that he responded to extremely physical play with some haymakers of his own. I’ll let you decide if he or the hero called Bballman looked more composed in the end. Just kidding, Paulie!
Apparently it wasn’t only KAT, though, who took the coach’s words to heart. The entire team came out firing after the intermission. The pace was good, the Bockers got out running, and they really defended the high pick-and-roll better – shoutout to Mikal Bridges here. In the first, Pistons star Cade Cunningham spent more time in the Knicks’ paint than anywhere else on the court, but New York put an end to that. They themselves moved the ball inside, swung it back out, and all of a sudden everything looked easy.
Knicks find themselves again versus Detroit
Open shots lead to open minds; play looked free, inspired. Brunson woke up; KAT was downright dominant on both ends of the court, and OG, Mikal, and Hart were flying around. The reserves also did their part after looking very reserved against the Magic. Landry Shamet couldn’t buy a basket at the rim yet cashed in on 3 of 5 from downtown. More importantly, though, he brought relentless energy fighting over screens and throwing his body around like he doesn’t need it anymore. Andre Drummond was good Andre Drummond again, didn’t try to channel his inner Hakeem Olajuwon and made his gigantic presence felt inside on both ends. Even “Pee Wee” Kolek got in on the act a few times.
Let’s ignore the sloppy finish to the fourth that made a laugher a little less funny or JB Bickerstaff bickering about physicality for the sake of the good vibes. The New York Knicks are back, baby, and it feels tremendous even if they were never really gone. Deep in our hearts, we all knew they had this very type of performance in them and that if they are playing at their best, not many teams in the NBA can hang with them. That doesn’t mean that they can or should punt the entire regular season, far from it. They can’t sleepwalk through the year and just show up for the final act. There’d be a good chance they would’ve forgotten their lines by then. In the end, you still have to win some games and quite a few of them. Tuesday night was a good start.
A really cool start, actually.
