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2025-26 Game Thread: Knicks vs. Pistons – Statement Time!

The Knicks don’t NEED this game.

It sure would be great to have, though.

Let’s go, Knicks!

Still feeling great about 58!

187 replies on “2025-26 Game Thread: Knicks vs. Pistons – Statement Time!”

The Knicks have everybody available outside of McBride and should win this game at Home pretty easily.

Pistons are down two big men including an All Star.

This is a game Towns should dominate . Brunson going ISO on Ausar isn’t the answer . Just move the ball .

Pistons are playing with house money. If they lose at MSG missing their 2 big men, no big deal, they kicked our ass twice in Detroit.

Much more important game for the Knicks IMO.

Diawara looking good again

That cross court hook pass to Shamet for an open 3 (that he missed) was so nice.

Pistons are a bad 3pt shooting team that barely shoots any but against the Knicks this season they become the 2024 Celtics.

Pistons are a bad 3pt shooting team that barely shoots any but against the Knicks this season they become the 2024 Celtics.

They have shot 37-81 from deep against the Knicks this season, including today. 45%. They could miss the next 20 and still be above their season average.

Meanwhile, the Knicks have shot 22-70 against them (30%).

My favorite Knicks play will always be Mitch drives, even when they don’t work.

What’s the loudest you’ve ever heard MSG?

Mitch hitting 2 FTs in the 1Q in game 56 of the regular season.

Diawara gets blown by a little too often. He doesn’t have the best speed, so he’s going to need to really perfect his footwork.

Kind of feel like there may be another brawl. Although we are too soft for that.

Detroit is physical

Sometimes I picture Mitch channeling Pedro Serrano with a foul line mental rant, “Fuck you physics” as he fires the call at a 12% launch angle.

The only shots Towns gets in this offense are the ones where he gets mugged and pillaged, doesn’t get a call or rushes a 3. Someone needs to talk to Brown. He was brought here to maximize the offense. We have one of the best offensive Cs in the league and he’s useless in this offense.

KAT having no points when the other team has Paul Reed as center shows how this offense is really not working for him (or everyone really, today).

Is that the 3rd or 4th time they’ve found someone wide open on the dunker’s spot

Huge swing in this game with those two missed layups and that Harris three

How has Harris ended up a good contract? It’s amazing

Hopefully before this game is over the Knicks will finally realize Cade is going to take every shot for Detroit.

I can remember fondly when KAT would make three pointers. Good dunk though.

Pistons are a handful even without their bigs

OG gets a one-game pass after missing all that time.

On the other hand, getting KAT three shots in a half should result in someone getting fired.

The Pistons are long, man.

KAT is looking to give up the ball every time he gets it

Are the Pistons in his head or something?

Why is Brunson guarding Cade?

Why are they leaving Duncan Robinson all alone in the corner?

This sucks…I think this time if we play them in post season..it might be accurate to say they have the best player..

This sucks…I think this time if we play them in post season..it might be accurate to say they have the best player..

Easily

Also instead of worrying about his contract extension in 2028 would be nice if Brunson decides to wake up tonight.

Well that was un fun. KAT and Brunson are are like magnetically unaligned. The offense moves like two positive magnets kissing. Fugly.

Pistons push these Knicks around like ragdolls… they out tough and out play… they’ve figured out how to neutralize our boy. And as usual our defenders are overrated … Cade scores at will right now…

The Knicks have everybody available outside of McBride and should win this game at Home pretty easily.

Pistons are down two big men including an All Star.

This is a game Towns should dominate . Brunson going ISO on Ausar isn’t the answer . Just move the ball “

My earlier statement , 3 shots for 2 points?
Does he even want to play?

Started off fun except the Knicks couldn’t make any shots. They they started to have defensive lapses, then ended the half making repeated brain farts. While still not making any shots.

They can turn it around in the second half and win this, but a different Knicks team has to come out to play.

Maybe the Knicks are doing reverse psychology, get swept by Detroit in regular season giving them false sense of confidence then drop to the 4th seed to play Detroit in 2nd rd.

Detroit isn’t doing anything special. We’re missing wide, wide, wide open 3s and blowing our fastbreak opportunities.

The Knicks tried to match Detroit’s physicality in this first half with the only dividend being that they didn’t get blown out. Offensively, that physicality and intensity kept the Knicks off balance, “harrying and worrying.” Hence, the dreadful 3-pt shooting.

Defensively, just check how many points the Pistons had in the paint, including countless layups. This is unacceptable. Further, they shot well from distance because in most attempts nobody was near them. Finally, the Knicks allowed Cunningham to get pretty much whatever he wanted. I am not going to get into Xs and Os and scheming, but those few things the Knicks tried were very unsuccessful. In sum, we brought defensive intensity, but Bickerstaff was most of the time shredding our schemes and Brown was the nice guy who was most of the time sleeping on the wheel.

The fact that had to be reviewed for a flagrant tells you all you need to know about the state of refereeing. They are so bad

2

The best pistons D so far has been wide open layups and threes for OG. Why is Mo not in there!

Crazy part is if you look at the team stats the only thing Detroit is doing better than the Knicks tonight is shooting 3s.

I gave up on the Knicks last year during the final week of the regular season, I’m tempted to quit on them after tonight but its still only February so might be a bit premature…

OG is clearly less than 100%, but they have the best player and a massively better defense. Hopefully we make one more run, but this has been very discouraging. IMO we have way more offensive talent, but you would never know it by watching this mess.

So far, this is mostly about Cade punking Brunson. He’s getting his points and assists with ease, Jalen has to work for everything.

They definitely look like they have our number. I’m hoping we don’t meet them in the playoffs.

Anybody still think we shouldn’t take them seriously?

Who suggested that? I think most people just realize that these three games have not been representative of team quality.

Don’t think I’ve ever cared less for the final 2 months of the regular season than I do right now. I’d love to fast forward to the playoffs cause that’s the only thing that matters at this point.

Absolutely nothing that happens in the final 26 games of the regular season will matter at all except for a major injury. Knicks can finish 2nd or 5th and it’s honestly whatever at this point. The 2026 Knicks have sucked all the joy out of the regular season.

There is going to be a massive overreaction if we lose this but the bigger question I have is why Mike Brown has made no adjustments across 3 games against this team. Pistons run a very basic offense. And their defense is the same, get the ball out of Brunson’s hands.

Knicks have done nothing different to counter it. And when Josh Hart is this useless you need to bench him.

I’m not worried at all about the Pistons. They get rev’ed up every time they play us and hit every 3 they normally don’t hit. But Mike Brown needs to actually try new shit or the players have to stop doing the same shit because it’s clearly not working

I have no idea how to fix this team. We have more offensive talent but they use theirs more effectively and they have a way better defense and use it very effectively.

“Who suggested that?”

Lots of folks, both here and on other blogs, have suggested that we have nothing to fear from them in the playoffs, that Cade is overrated, that they can’t shoot, JB Bickerstaff can’t coach, etc.

Edit: and right on cue, SNWSIT just posted:

“I’m not worried at all about the Pistons.”

best point guards in the east:
1). maxey
2). cade
3). jalen

our captain is slipping fast…

You are still overrating Jalen. There are two sides to this game.

1

Yeah, there VERY much is a pervasive belief that no matter what happens in the regular season, the Knicks will take care of the Pistons in the playoffs.

It might be wrong, but it’s definitely there.

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This game is obviously NOT over. I don’t know why they’re acting like the game is over.

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Lots of folks, both here and on other blogs, have suggested that we have nothing to fear from them in the playoffs, that Cade is overrated, that they can’t shoot, etc.

It sure wasn’t me. I made the case they are simply better than us after the last game and was cursing that I don’t have them in my bets to win it all. But this was about as discouraging as it gets. They look WAY better than us on a night we had every reason to win.

our captain is slipping fast…

Well, maybe he’s saving for the playoffs, at least i hope so.

There is going to be a massive overreaction if we lose this but the bigger question I have is why Mike Brown has made no adjustments across 3 games against this team.

Probably because if he DID have a good counter to Cunningham he would be a moron to spring it with 2 months left before the playoffs start? Not sayin he DOES have a plan… but if they did, why spring it now?

Is it too late to bring back Thibs? 😂😂😂

Remember how many times Thibs was dancing circles around Bickerstaff? How much fun we had with this?

I am glad Brown is going to the chucking threes strategy. That’s what you have to do.

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If Cade can hit that step back consistently, nobody will be able to defend him

When he’s also laying it in over big men, it’s also really hard to stop him.

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You don’t stop players like Cade playing one on one. You slow him down by employing different looks, not just different defenders, and a whole lot of team strategies. There is blizzing, doubling, showing and recovering, pushing to the side, and so on and so forth. Detroit knows all Brunson’s moves and gives him hell! We play like we haven’t met Cade before.

1

Denver fired Mike Malone last season with I believe 3 games left in regular season…

They had a guy they were very confident in in the wings. I don’t think the Knicks have a David Adelman on their coaching staff. Chris Jent ain’t David Adelman, ya know (and I don’t hate Jent, he just isn’t Adelman)?

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Shit at this point Knicks should hire a coaching staff of just Knickerblogger posters, it would still be a disaster but at least more entertaining to watch!

Playing away from home and without their two centers, Detroit won the possession battle, the rebounding battle, the paint battle, shot better than the Knicks, etc. We failed a critical test tonight. But we have a better roster than Detroit. I have my opinion of what is wrong but I will leave it at that.

We have the Rockets, Spurs, OKC, Denver, and so on coming up shortly. Then we will finally know who we are.

Oddly, only one game ahead of the Cavs in the loss column. How did THAT happen?

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It will be funny when the Knicks shoot 40% from deep across the series and beat them in the playoffs.

They had a guy they were very confident in in the wings.

Brian, the Knicks had literally nobody when they fired Thibs last summer. They became the ridicule of the league by knocking on doors and finding them shut, and then they hired a guy who was probably their sixth choice.

1

Oddly, only one game ahead of the Cavs in the loss column. How did THAT happen?

We are tied with the Cavs at 35-21

Cavs were already playing better and adding Harden was a huge plus given Garland wasn’t giving them much.

Alan Hahn on the post game show wondering why the Knicks didn’t employ “some other things” like trapping in order to slow down Cunningham. Point taken, Alan.

1

KAT will never be a good defender but his effort level has been much poorer than last year. I don’t know if it’s the scheme or his struggles on offense, but something is up. Maybe both. He offers absolutely zero rim protection. And despite the team hitting their 3s every time we play them this season, their success has always been paint-based.

I think against certain matchups, you have to ditch this starting lineup. I don’t think passive Josh Hart does anything and you need a rim protector next to KAT.

But you need to do SOMETHING. It would be a weird strategy if you hide your actual scheme against an opponent till the playoffs so I’m not counting on that but Brown has a lot to prove…

Good luck with that, Cyber. They just dropped 126 on your home floor. How much would you need to score? 130 per?

It will be funny when the Knicks shoot 40% from deep across the series and beat them in the playoffs.

We didn’t shoot well as a team and OG was clearly not 100%. But a lot of it was Detroit’s defense. Even on the rare occasions we moved the ball well they were so quick to recover that even what looked like a high quality 3 was actually often rushed. IMO the gap between the teams is not as large as it looks based on the 3 games we’ve played, but they have a good defensive plan and good defenders. They make it tough for our very good offense. We have no plan on defense and they exploit all our weaknesses. IMO Brown is being badly out coached….like very badly.

1

Brian, the Knicks had literally nobody when they fired Thibs last summer.

But that would support the idea of not firing Brown now when there isn’t some obvious choice to replace him, right?

They don’t have a hotshit assistant coach in the wings.

For instance, I don’t think Denver fires Malone if it didn’t have Adelman waiting to take over. The Nuggets players were all REALLY high on Adelman.

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It’s so weird that we are (were after tonight) 3rd in the league in 3-point percentage. Just a really streaky bunch of guys, I guess.

Would it be simplistic to say that the game came down to a normally poor 3 point shooting team that couldn’t miss and a normally good 3 point shooting team that couldn’t hit anything?

This next stretch of games will say a lot but this team is still 14 games above .500, multiple wins against Boston and Cleveland, and wins over Spurs, Denver, Lakers, Minnesota.

And yes until the Pistons win a playoff series, I still think they’re just a repeat of last year’s Cavs team. Great and often intimidating regular season team – still needs to prove it can win when it truly matters

But that would support the idea of not firing Brown now when there isn’t some obvious choice to replace him, right?

They don’t have a hotshit assistant coach in the wings.

I don’t think they will fire him. We are not a total disaster, after all! And definitely they should not dublicate the horrible mistake they made last summer and fire Brown without having someone better to take over.

d-mar, if my math is right and it’s late and I’m bad at math, if both teams shot 37% from three we would have won like 125-120, if everything else was equal. But everything else wasn’t equal as we also sucked at like rebounding and defense and coaching. So really we didn’t deserve to win this game.

d-mar, if my math is right and it’s late and I’m bad at math, if both teams shot 37% from three we would have won like 125-120, if everything else was equal

Forget the math because it’s not that relevant. They match up well against us defensively, have a solid strategy and play high level defense. We have no coherent strategy against them on either side. So even if we have the better shooters (and we do), the shot quality differential will tend to more than compensate. Something has to change or they are going to beat us in the playoffs too.

I’m not trying to sugar coat the loss, but on OG’s 7 misses there was no one even close to him. He makes a few and the game goes a different direction.

Don’t think that was Detroit’s defense that caused him to miss

1

Ironically, OG and Towns led the Knicks in +/- despite them receiving the most complaints.

Towns stepped it up in the 2nd half, so I can buy that.

OG… he still looked better on Cade then our other defenders, which doesn’t say much. He got destroyed by him in the 4th.

Sochan was good on Cade in iso but kept losing him when they’d re-screen.

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