Killjoy

New York's good times ended abruptly on Saturday night, and they have no one but themselves to blame.

Good morning. Tonight is New York’s final game before the NBA Cup quarterfinals, and they’ll head to Toronto to face old friend RJ Barrett. Sadly, Immanuel Quickley remains on the shelf and won’t be able to play. For the Knicks, Karl-Anthony Towns and Cameron Payne are both questionable after missing Saturday’s game. Beware the Raps, who are .500 in their last 10 games after a 2-12 start to the season. I’ll be on halftime for all who want to join.

Game 23: Pistons 120, Knicks 103

• Ugh.

• New York had as bad an opening quarter as we’ve seen all season.

• Karl-Anthony Towns missed the game with a knee issue, along with Cam Payne. Sims started in KAT’s place but played just six minutes.

• Cade Cunningham lit up the Knicks as both a playmaker and a 3-point shooter.

• New York’s defense picked up after halftime and they cut a 17-point lead down to two early in the fourth quarter.

• Cade and the Pistons answered that run emphatically, and the Knicks couldn’t get buckets or stops when it counted the most.

So much for a December to remember.

Riding high heading into the final leg of a four-game home stand, with seven decades of franchise history in the stands to see this year’s edition in the flesh, the Knicks came out with all the intensity of Randy’s Auto Shop in the beer softball league.

To put Saturday’s opening frame into perspective, over their previous nine games, the Detroit Pistons had a negative 22.7 net rating in first quarters. That figure ranked 29th in the NBA over that span - worse than the (then) winless Wizards, among others.

The Knicks, meanwhile, had been the best first quarter team by net rating over that same period of time:

That robust mark was in spite of grossly poor opening quarter performances against the Mavs (outscored 28-15) and Hornets (23-15) and underwhelming showings against Utah (28-28) and Charlotte again (32-30). If we add in the November 17th game against the Nets (30-29 in favor of New York), that’d five duds or relative duds in their last 10.

By process of elimination, you’d think that New York’s remaining recent opening salvos have been dominant, and you’d mostly be right. In the other five first quarters, the Knicks have scored 189 total points. But even with an average offensive output of 38 points per first quarter in those five games, the average lead after those quarters was 14.6 points. Take away the first quarter where the Pelicans at one point missed 17 consecutive shots, and the average lead was just 12.5.

Add it all up, and it’ fair to conclude that the Knicks have been living dangerously for a while now. Most nights, their offense will be so automatic out of the gate that nothing else matters, and a commitment to defense isn’t quite as necessary from the opening tip.

Saturday wasn’t most nights.

Graphic courtesy of Pivotfade.com

Over the first 12 minutes, New York was outplayed in just about every way a team can be outplayed, resulting in their largest opening night deficit since opening night. I’d point out that the Knicks actually outscored the Pistons by seven points over the remainder of the game, but David Fizdale has a lifetime copyright on any and all such rationalizations.

The opening possession of the game should have given us a solid hint as to what was in store:

You can see Mikal Bridges point back to the uncovered Tim Hardaway Jr. as he ambles his way to the corner, but no one gets the memo.

It wasn’t hard to think back to this moment when seeing what Mikal had to say in his postgame interview.

Bridges added that communication in transition, like the play above, was the biggest issue, and blamed the ineptitude on their struggles at the other end:

“When things don’t go well offensively we tend to not talk. It’s just something we always fail to do when we struggle on one end of offense. When we get back, we’re not communicating.”

He concluded that “we ain’t that good to be able to just pick when we want to play defense.” He’s not wrong, with Saturday night serving as the most sobering example but hardly the first.

Of course, part of why New York initially struggled so much when they had the ball is because they didn’t have the services of presumptive 2025 Eastern Conference All-Star Karl-Anthony Towns, but that’s both a reason for optimism and concern. On one hand, the Knicks are obviously a more dangerous offense when Towns plays, and his absence explains not only the slow start but their lack of good looks from deep throughout the evening. It’s not a coincidence that New York has made exactly a third of their 3-pointers in the two games KAT has missed and 40.4 percent in the other 21. In some ways, they had a built in excuse.

On the other hand, the knowledge of Towns’ absence should have spurred them to come out of the gate with their best defensive effort of the season, not one of their worst.

What’s undeniable is that the man who started in KAT’s place, Jericho Sims, has gone back to the bad place:

You can catch Tom Thibodeau’s soul leaving his body right about when Timmy picks up the carom.

To his credit, Thibs didn’t wait around to see if Sims would rebound from the poor start, subbing him out after six minutes and putting him in mothballs for the rest of the game. Whether this is something more than a temporary banishment remains to be seen, but another strong outing from Precious Achiuwa probably didn’t help Sims’ case.

Achiuwa’s play was perhaps the brightest spot of the evening, along with New York’s spirited comeback attempt which saw the Knicks hold Detroit without a field goal for a six-minute stretch lasting until the early fourth quarter. Even though Cade Cunningham (unstoppable all night, proving that teams with jumbo lead initiators are probably best suited to exploit Jalen Brunson’s defensive shortcomings) was out for most of that run, the results were impressive nonetheless.

Not coincidentally, Achiuwa played a big role in that defensive spurt. Precious showed just how dangerous a switch everything defense can be when it’s bolstered by the likes of OG Anunoby lurking off the ball:

Indeed the fact that New York, despite all its foibles and the second best outside shooting night of the season for Detroit, made this a two-point game early in the fourth is a testament to just how good this team can be.

That’s all well and good, but there’s a reason a 14-9 record and the greatest offense in the league has left so many fans unfulfilled. With great power comes great responsibility, and this weekend the Knicks didn’t hold up their end of the bargain.

Hopefully it’s a lesson learned and this game recedes away like a distant memory. For right now though, it was a prescient reminder that you’re never as stable as you think you are atop a lofty perch.

One false step is all you need to go right back to square one.

💫 Stars of the Game 💫

⭐️ OG Anunoby

⭐️ ⭐️ Ariel Hukporti

I wasn’t dying to give these stars to anybody.

Anunoby gets the nod somewhat by default thanks to his second consecutive four-steal, two-block game, but he was 6-of-15 from the field and 2-of-8 from deep with three turnovers. Jalen Brunson was efficient (31 on 21 shots) and had 10 dimes, but also had five bad turnovers and did little to wipe away the target Detroit placed on his back from the opening tip. Credit him for suiting up and playing every minute of the second half after being a game-time decision. Mikal was a big part of the third quarter turnaround on defense but they really could have used an additional offensive punch from him. Josh Hart did a lot of his usual good stuff but eased into the game on defense as much as anyone and got an unforgivable second tech with 1:10 remaining and the result still in the air.

As for Hukporti, he came in and exceeded expectations. Stuff like this is only one piece of the puzzle but is exciting and noteworthy regardless:

⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ Precious Achiuwa: Quite an accomplishment (and not a misnomer) for Precious to be plus-nine in 28 minutes in a game the Knicks lost by nine. That means they were a minus-20 in the 18 minutes he sat, which feels right. Jericho Sims was dreadful, and while Ariel Hukporti did some really nice things, he’s not yet someone Tom Thibodeau is going to rely on to switch, which allowed Cade to take advantage of New York’s alternative coverage options down the stretch:

(I’ve watched this several times and don’t know how you stop it without switching. Huk was probably too close to the level though.)

Anyway, Achiuwa…he was really good, and I’m not sure there’s much argument for Sims or Huk getting time over him when Towns isn’t on the floor. Lineups with him and Towns together should be heavily explored in advance of the trade deadline.

Final Thought

The last time the Knicks lost a game to the Pistons, I had been writing this newsletter for about a month and Pacome Dadiet was just entering kindergarten¹.

The part I’d forgotten: that loss, on November 6, 2019, was New York’s eighth consecutive defeat at the hands of Detroit, who weren’t exactly world-beaters at the time.

Hopefully Saturday isn’t the start of another streak.

🏀

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”

1. Someone fact check me on that.