Knicks frustrated by Pistons, fall in Detroit as skid hits four games
Knicks guard Jalen Brunson, left, drives against Detroit Pistons guard Ausar Thompson, right, on Monday. Credit: AP/Ryan Sun
DETROIT — On second thought, maybe they should have hung up the NBA Cup banner.
Hours after MSG chairman James Dolan talked confidently about winning an NBA championship this season, the Knicks put on a performance that appeared far from that goal as they fell to the Eastern Conference-leading Detroit Pistons, 121-90, at Little Caesars Arena.
It was the first meeting with the Pistons since the Knicks knocked them out in the opening round of the playoffs last season in a contentious six-game battle. The Pistons (27-9) came with the same fire for this test and the Knicks (23-13) showed little desire to match the physicality and intensity.
Maybe the response came after the game when the Knicks players discussed the recent issues among themselves.
“We’ve just got to respond,” Jalen Brunson said. “A lot more needs to be said, but we’re going to keep that internal . . . If we want to be the team we say we want to be, then we’ve got to be better. Simple as that.
“I think it’s a testament to where we are as a team and where we need to go. Not necessarily a wake-up call or anything about playoff basketball. I just think that they were ready to go tonight. They wanted to play, they truly wanted to win and we didn’t.”
Brunson did his part, fighting through the Pistons’ physical defense for 25 points. But most of the Knicks seemed frustrated and lost against the Pistons’ athletic defenders.
Brunson didn’t have an assist and the Knicks had only 15 as a team with 20 turnovers as they shattered their season-low offensive output.
Karl-Anthony Towns shot 1-for-4 and had only six points. OG Anunoby was 1-for-3 for five points and struggled to slow Cade Cunningham as the Detroit star recorded 29 points and 13 assists.
The loss was the Knicks’ fourth straight — their longest skid since the 2023-24 season — and, combined with a win by Boston, dropped them to third place in the Eastern Conference.
The Knicks could point to the absence of Josh Hart, who sat out his sixth straight game. But the Pistons were without two starters — Jalen Duran and Tobias Harris — and still dominated this game almost from the start.
“It’s pretty simple,” Mike Brown said. “They just physically kicked our [butts]. There’s no ifs, ands or buts about it.”
“It’s cool to be in a funk. That [stuff] happens,” Towns said. “Ups and down, ebbs and flows of a season. But it’s a bad, bad time. We can’t have it be this bad.
“We’ve just got to get back to the drawing board, figure out what we do, how we play Knicks basketball, who we are, how we want to get it done.”
Steve Popper covers the Knicks for Newsday. He has spent nearly three decades covering the Knicks and the NBA, along with just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.
