Knicks must show Pistons who really runs the East

The New York Knicks know full well that their Friday night tilt against the Pistons at Detroit’s Little Caesar’s Arena is a revenge game. The Pistons walloping New York 120-91 at Madison Square Garden a month ago is all the motivation the Knicks need.

What a bad, bad game. New York was fully unprepared for the Pistons’ smothering defense and committed 20 turnovers. Getting out-rebounded 43-30 didn’t help matters either. Nor did Karl-Anthony Towns, OG Anunoby, and Mitchell Robinson scoring a combined 13 points all evening. Towns had one rebound in 23 minutes. ONE.

Granted, Josh Hart and Landry Shamet both missed that game with injuries, but even so. The Knicks just didn’t show up, and that loss was just one over and awful 2-9 stretch.

Not to mention, that game was something of a revenge contest for the Pistons. The Knicks eliminated Detroit in the first round of the playoffs last season. Not only that, Detroit blew the lead in the final seconds of the decisive Game 6, and after mounting a rally to reclaim the lead earlier. Jalen Brunson’s three with five seconds remaining proved the dagger, so it’s no wonder Detroit entered MSG more than motivated against a shorthanded Knicks team.

The shoe is now on the other foot, and the Knicks must be ready to remind the Pistons: The Force is with you, Motor City, but you are not a Jedi yet.

That isn’t to say the Pistons are a complete and utter poverty franchise. They made back-to-back NBA Finals in 2004 and ’05, winning their first trip. Detroit also made the East Finals each of the next three years before the franchise fell into disarray. A couple of random playoff runs provided false hope, but let’s be clear. These J.B. Bickerstaff Detroit Pistons are the best team fielded in over two decades.

Except like any team, the Pistons have weaknesses. Their biggest this season has been three-point shooting. Detroit ranks 22nd in shooting 34.8% from three as a team, compared to the Knicks ranked 3rd at 38%. The Pistons also commit 14.5 turnovers per game, seventh worst in the league, but they also force the most turnovers on defense.

Also? Not to be that guy, but the Pistons’ 27-9 record is completely overblown. Their 13-game winning streak early in the season was a nice boost, but that’s it. More than half of the wins were against some of the worst teams in the league, including two against the Pacers. Indiana currently sits dead last in the Eastern Conference after losing to the Oklahoma City Thunder in Game 7 of last year’s NBA Finals.

Now add that the Knicks will have Hart and his nightly triple-double potential back on Friday. Shamet too with his three-point prowess. Karl-Anthony Towns will surely turn in a better performance this time around. The newly acquired Jose Alvarado, if he suits up, is instant bench defense.

And though it might just be another meaningless February game, the Knicks know why it matters. Any shot at the NBA Finals means beating the Pistons on the way there. Even a New York-Detroit Eastern Conference Finals would stir up memories of the Ewing-Oakley Knicks vs. the Bad Boy Pistons. Grit, toughness, and ironclad defense on full display.

But that’s only if the New York Knicks show up in Detroit on Friday. The team has been within fingertips of the NBA Finals two years in a row. Jalen Brunson & Co. aren’t letting a team that got lucky with an early lengthy winning streak get in their way. Not with coach Mike Brown utilizing an actual, multi-layered player rotation.

No better time to remind Detroit of two important lessons. First, their hold on the East’s top seed is tenuous, with the Knicks and Celtics only trailing by 4.5 games each.

More importantly, nobody embarrasses the Knicks at Madison Square Garden without consequences via basketball. More on Amazon Prime at 7:30 pm ET tonight.

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