Late-game offense shouldn’t be a problem for the team employing the frontrunner for the NBA’s Clutch Player of the Year award. Yet the inability to generate quality offense — particularly under pressure — against potential playoff opponents has become a troubling pattern for a team hoping to play its best basketball at the end of the regular season as it ramps up for a playoff run.
The Knicks struggled to consistently take care of the ball and find good shots late in Tuesday’s 119-117 overtime loss to the Boston Celtics. Turnovers and issues finding quality shots against the Detroit Pistons — who the Knicks are set to see in the first round of the East’s No. 3 vs. No. 6 playoff series — were apparent in a 115-106 loss at the Little Caesar’s Arena on Thursday.
As a caveat, the Knicks sat three of their best players, either in precaution in the first leg of a back-to-back, or a potential show of gamesmanship against the team they’ll need to beat four times to advance to the second round of the playoffs. OG Anunoby (thumb), Josh Hart (knee) and Mitchell Robinson (ankle) all sat against the Pistons, with the East’s No. 1 seeded Cleveland Cavaliers looming back at Madison Square Garden on Friday.
Robinson’s absence, in particular, prevented the Pistons from getting a look at the Knicks with their defensive anchor back on the floor. Since he returned to the lineup after missing 10 months recovering from ankle surgery, the Knicks have become one of the NBA’s top-ten defenses.
And without Anunoby, the Knicks were left with just Mikal Bridges and help to guard Pistons All-Star Cade Cunningham, who — as expected — torched New York for 36 points and 7 assists on 16-of-24 shooting from the field.
Expect head coach Tom Thibodeau to use Anunoby in tandem with Bridges to slow Detroit’s franchise cornerstone down.
So the Pistons got the diet Knicks on Thursday, and after New York built an early double-digit lead, Detroit did what it did best: up the physicality.
With center Jalen Duren and Isaiah Stewart, plus three wings with great positional size (Cade Cunningham, Tobias Harris, and Tim Hardaway Jr.), the Pistons used their biggest advantage — size, strength and brute force — to turn the game in their favor.
Yet it was still a close game down the stretch, tied at 99 with just over six minutes left in the fourth quarter courtesy of back-to-back threes plus a charge drawn by Landry Shamet (9 points, 2-of-3 shooting from downtown).
That’s where late-game offense — and poise under pressure — comes into play.
The Knicks uncharacteristically turned ball over 14 times, including seven from All-Star center Karl-Anthony Towns. Town, who was dominant in a 34-point performance against the Celtics, struggled with the combined physicality shown from Duren and Stewart. Duren finished with 18 points and 13 rebounds and made all nine of his shots, including an alley-oop to cap the game.
“I think J.B. has done a terrific job; I thought he did a terrific job in Cleveland,” Thibodeau said ahead of tipoff of Cavaliers head coach J.B. Bickerstaff. “I think they have a lot of young players, and they’ve gotten better, and that usually happens with experience. And I think they added really good veterans that have complimented their young players really well. So, they’ve been consistent from the start of the season throughout, and they’re strong on both sides of the ball.”
Jalen Brunson also turned the ball over three times and shot just 5-of-15 from the field for 15 points. Towns finished with a team-high 25 points, 10 ...
