NEW YORK – The the first-round series between the New York Knicks and Detroit Pistons is a one of those experience vs. youth matchups, and Game 1 followed the script, with the youthful team blowing a fourth-quarter lead.
The result was a 123-112 victory for the Knicks on Saturday, with Jalen Brunson (34 points, eight assists) and Karl-Anthony Towns (23 points, 11 rebounds and five assists) leading the way.
Here are five takeaways as New York improves to 10-3 at Madison Square Garden over the last three postseasons …
1. Pistons melt down in 4th quarter
GameTime goes in-depth on the nuances Detroit missed in Game 1, and how the Pistons’ young core can learn from it moving forward.
The Pistons scored 36 points on 22 possessions in the third quarter, their third-most efficient quarter of the season, to take an eight-point lead into the fourth. Though it has a young core, this has not been a team that blows late leads; The Pistons had won 40 of their last 41 games that they led by more than five points in the fourth quarter.
But the problems started right away. Detroit had the ball to start the final period … and couldn’t get it inbounds. Cameron Payne denied Cade Cunningham in backcourt, Cunningham didn’t come to the ball, and nobody else reacted in time. The Pistons were called for a five-second violation, the first of their eight fourth-quarter turnovers.
The next possession was a 24-second violation. Two possessions after that, Ausar Thompson missed an uncontested, fast-break dunk.
The Pistons were still up eight after Dennis Schröder blew by Towns for a layup with a little more than nine minutes left. But the Knicks then went on a 21-0 run to take complete control.
New York scored on 10 straight possessions. The Pistons had opportunities to match, with Jalen Duren hurting the Knicks on the glass. But the Pistons missed five shots over two possessions in the middle of the run, and then a pair of Cunningham turnovers led to easy baskets on the other end of the floor and put the Pistons in a hole they couldn’t climb out of.
The first of those two was a soft inbounds pass that Towns easily intercepted, leading to a Brunson layup …
An opportunity to take Game 1 on the road was there, and then it wasn’t, with the Pistons’ youth and recurring turnover issues hurting them at the worst time.
“It’s a great opportunity for us to learn,” said head coach J.B. Bickerstaff. “They did what they were supposed to do in Game 1. Now we’ve got tape, we’ve got some experience. We can go back, break it down and be better in Game 2.”
The Pistons saw the league’s fifth-biggest drop in turnover rate from last season, but they still ranked in the bottom 10, committing 14.7 per 100 possessions. And their 21 on Saturday marked just the sixth time this season that a Knicks opponent committed more than 20 turnovers.
The Pistons are responsible for two of those six occasions, the two times (in five meetings) that they’ve lost to New York.
2. Towns, Knicks’ defense stands up in 4th quarter
The third quarter was not defensive showcase for Towns or the Knicks. The Pistons scored 25 points on their first 13 possessions of the period, a stretch capped by a play where Cunningham blew right by Towns for a dunk. The Pistons also closed the period with five straight scores to build that eight-point lead.
It was a reminder that in trading for Towns last September, the Knicks’ sacrificed defense for offense.
But Towns found a way to help his team get stops in the fourth, when the Pistons scored just 21 points on 27 possessions. The second of those two straight Cunningham turnovers was the second straight steal for Towns.
He blitzed Cunningham coming off a screen, kept his hands high, and stuffed Cunningham’s pass attempt to the rolling Duren …
Two possessions later, Towns was able to stay with Tobias Harris baseline drive and force a tough shot. He had some rough moments, but the Knicks’ defense was better with Towns on the floor on Saturday, and he finished with four steals and two blocks, just the 16th time in his career (681 total games, including playoffs) that he had at least six steals + blocks in a game.
3. Towns takes advantage of mismatch
The Pistons opened the game with center Duren guarding Josh Hart, the Knicks’ non-shooter. That left Harris to guard Karl-Anthony Towns, who took the smaller Harris into the post early and often.
The Pistons didn’t send much help, perhaps preferring the Knicks’ offense to be more Towns-heavy than Brunson-heavy. The strategy didn’t work out, either way.
Harris actually outscored Towns, 22-10, in the first half. But they weren’t matched up on the other end of the floor and the final tally (25-23) was almost even, with Towns shooting 10-for-14 (with two free throws) to get those 23 points.
He used his size to his advantage, sometimes bullying Harris on his way to the basket …
And sometimes just hitting tough shots in the post. The Knicks scored 17 points on 11 occasions where a Towns post-up or isolation led directly to a shot, turnover or trip to the line on Saturday.
4. Thompson’s foul trouble puts other defenders in front of Brunson
As was the case in his two regular-season games against the Knicks, Ausar Thompson was the Pistons’ primary defender on Brunson. But Thompson picked up two fouls in the first three minutes of the game, one in the backcourt and the other an offensive foul drawn by Brunson himself.
The 22-year old finished with five fouls (three of them committed in the backcourt) in less than 23 minutes, compromising the Pistons’ defensive game plan and leaving the Brunson assignment to Schröder and Malik Beasley.
Of course, the initial defender isn’t always the ultimate defender. And in the second half, Brunson targeted Harris, beating him for a couple of huge buckets during the Knicks’ 21-0 run.
The Knicks’ star guard shot just 4-for-15 in the first half, flopping himself into a couple of misses. But he was 8-for-12 (and 6-for-8 at the line) in the second half, also dishing out five assists with no turnovers.
Both teams made some efforts to get the ball out of the hands of the opponents’ lead ball-handler, but the Pistons could certainly have done a better job of limiting Brunson, who’s now scored 30 points or more in 12 of his last 19 playoff games.
5. Payne gives Knicks a lift
Right after the Knicks took the lead for good in the fourth quarter, the Pistons did manage to get the ball out of Brunson’s hands. He had gotten a step on Harris in an isolation, but Duren came over to help.
Brunson’s outlet was Cam Payne, who was being defended by Cunningham. With the Pistons scrambling defensively, OG Anunoby was wide open under the basket. But Payne went into “I got this” mode, draining a tough, stepback 3-pointer with seven seconds still left on the shot clock.
Playoff success is sometimes about role players making big shots. And on Saturday, that guy was Payne, who scored 14 points in less than 15 minutes off the bench, shooting 5-for-7, including 3-for-5 from 3-point range.
The Knicks’ starting lineup played a league-high 940 minutes together this season, but it wasn’t a dominant lineup, outscoring opponents by just 3.3 points per 100 possessions, a mark which ranked just 18th among 32 lineups that played at least 200 minutes.
The bench was the least-used bench in the league, but it was critical to the Knicks’ success. New York was actually at its best (plus-9.1 points per 100 possessions) with Payne on the floor.
The flammable guard with the sideways shot will have another opportunity to shine in Game 2 on Monday (7:30 ET, TNT).
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John Schuhmann is a senior stats analyst for NBA.com. You can e-mail him here, find his archive here and follow him on X.
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