The playoffs have arrived and thanks to the scriptwriters’ magic, we’ll get to witness a sure-to-be-entertaining series between the Knicks and the upstart Detroit Pistons. Cade Cunningham and his young, physical team will look to build off their 3-1 drubbing of the Knicks during the regular season, while Jalen Brunson attempts to lead New York to another first-round victory.
Let’s dive into the many angles in what’s expected to be a tough and close series.
First and foremost, the Pistons will want to continue punishing a Knicks defense that’s had no answers for them the past three games. Detroit’s recorded an offensive rating of over 120 in each of their wins over New York, despite finishing the season at 114.5, just above average in the league.
That offense starts with Cunningham, who’s averaging 30.8 points, five rebounds and 8.3 assists on 56.3 percent shooting from the field and 52 percent from three against New York this season. He displayed a mastery of the pick-and-roll against the Knicks, demolishing every coverage they threw at him.
Head coach Tom Thibodeau’s preferred coverage is for the big to drop, requiring Cunningham’s defender to stay attached over screens less the 6-foot-8 guard get into his mid-range zone with options. The problem is the Knicks largely didn’t guard him with the requisite physicality and intensity, letting him walk into whatever shot he wanted.
Cunningham was comfortable pulling up from three if the screen was strong enough to pin his defender -- which happened often between the big bodies of Jalen Duren and Isaiah Stewart. If his defender was chasing, Cunningham put him in jail navigating into the arc, where he easily found the best available option between pulling up, hitting the roll man or taking it to the cup himself.
Now most of this happened against Karl-Anthony Towns, Precious Achiuwa and Ariel Hukporti, so having Mitchell Robinson back will be crucial. Expect him to play a big role in this series, and maybe even get inserted into the starting lineup if things get desperate.
New York tried switching up coverages in small spurts, but lacked the execution behind the adjustments, and Cunningham feasted anyway. The Knicks tried hedging hard on his screens but were often late or lacking the requisite backline help and Cunningham easily picked them apart.
Switching everything and letting him isolate against his favored matchup makes sense to get him out of pick-and-roll, where 40 percent of his offense comes from, and into isolations, where he’s less efficient and makes up only 11 percent of his offense. However when the Knicks tried it, he just picked on Brunson with ease, getting to the rim and scoring.
None of the smaller Knick guards fared well against Cunningham’s size. Mikal Bridges spent the most matchup time on Cunningham by far, holding him to a surprising 8-for-21 shooting and two turnovers in 21 minutes, despite looking outmatched physically at times.
Next was Miles McBride who gave up 11-for-15 shooting in just nine minutes, while Brunson spent four minutes on him, giving up 9-for-14 shooting. OG Anunoby only got six minutes on Cunningham, allowing 7-for-11 shooting.
