NEW YORK — For much of the fourth quarter between the Detroit Pistons and New York Knicks on Monday, it looked as if things might be headed for a slower-motion repeat of what happened in Saturday’s Game 1.
Like they did Saturday, the Pistons carried an eight-point advantage heading into the final period at Madison Square. And just like in Game 1, the young Pistons squad made miscues that allowed the Knicks to stage a late comeback (even tying the contest at 94 with a little over a minute left).
But the similarities ended there. Instead of letting the Knicks wrest the momentum — as they did with a 21-0 run in the fourth quarter Saturday — Detroit hung tough. Dennis Schroder hit a go-ahead triple with 55 seconds remaining, helping to lift the Pistons to a 100-94 victory in Game 2 and allowing them to snap their NBA-playoff record 15-game skid, one that dated back to May 2008.
“We found a way to maintain our poise and collect ourselves in a really similar situation,” said Pistons star Cade Cunningham, who finished with 33 points and 12 rebounds. “We responded really well. I thought it was a great opportunity for us to respond and have a better outcome.”
The series now heads to Detroit, which hasn’t hosted a Pistons playoff game since 2019, tied at one game apiece in the best-of-seven matchup.
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The Pistons led by as many 15 points Monday even as they shot poorly from the perimeter. Detroit looked like the harder-playing team early, featuring stout, physical defense and forcing the Knicks into uncomfortably stagnant offensive possessions.
New York struggled mightily on the glass and to get to the line early. The Pistons owned a 14-2 free throw advantage in the first half, prompting the Knicks and their rowdy fans at the Garden to vent after nearly every whistle.
Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau expressed clear frustration with Detroit’s 34-19 edge at the line following the game.
“Huge discrepancy in free throws. Huge. I don’t understand how, on one side, there are direct line drives with contact that just aren’t being called,” he said. “Look, I really don’t give a crap how they call the game as long as it’s consistent on both sides. But if Cunningham’s driving, and there’s marginal contact that gets him to the line, then Jalen [Brunson] should be getting to the line.”
By game’s end, Cunningham had made it to the line 12 times, while Brunson got 11 free throws.
Between Brunson’s 14-point fourth quarter, and the Pistons going an ice-cold 1-for-14 through the second half, the Knicks managed to tie the game on a Josh Hart dunk that had the Garden rocking with just over a minute to go.
But Brunson and Hart, who starred together as teammates at Villanova, had a costly miscommunication on a defensive switch that allowed Schroder to walk into a relatively easy triple — just Detroit’s second of the half — that gave the Pistons a lead they wouldn’t relinquish.
“It’s something that shouldn’t have happened,” said Brunson, who had 37 points and seven assists. “[Hart and I] have known each other too long to mess that up.”
Suddenly, the pressure is squarely on the Knicks, who found themselves behind in the fourth quarters of both Games 1 and 2 against a team they’d lost to three times during the regular season.
One indication of how out of rhythm they looked: All-Star Karl-Anthony Towns, who averaged 24 points and nearly 13 boards during the season, had just 10 and six in Game 2. Arguably the best shooter on the team, Towns didn’t score in the second half and didn’t attempt a shot in the fourth quarter despite playing all 12 minutes.
It all factored into the Pistons being able to win a game that was so much like the one they dropped two days earlier.
Before Game 2, Pistons coach J.B. Bickerstaff was asked how he relayed the difference between the regular season and the postseason to his young team.
“You know it’s different, but you kind of have to experience it,” he said, recalling his time as a ball boy while his father coached the Sonics. “We showed guys film, had a conversation and all those things. But I always make this analogy: I tell my kids stuff all the time, and they look at me like I’m crazy, and do the dumb stuff that I told them not to do, and then they realize, ‘Oh s—, that was dumb.’
“We have the conversation and talk about it, but it is one of those things that just have to experience.”
On Monday, the young, underdog Pistons showed a form of maturity.
