Now It's A Series

Ugh.

Good morning. That was no fun.

Game 2: Pistons 100, Knicks 94

• After a strong offensive start that featured ample ball-movement, New York’s offense began to slow down when KAT checked out midway through the first.

• Sloppiness ensued, as the Knicks committed 10 first half turnovers.

• The whistle was an early issue as Detroit took 12 free throws before New York attempted their first. It evened out later in the game, although Tom Thibodeau certainly didn’t think so.

• The ball movement really ground down in the third quarter and the Pistons went up by as many as 15.

• New York started to chip away in the fourth, eventually rallying to tie the game at 94 with a minute to go. Dennis Shroder nailed a pull up triple to give Detroit the lead and the Knicks missed multiple chances to tie in the final 20 seconds.

For one brief, fleeting moment, you thought maybe, just maybe, the Knicks would get away with it.

It’s hard to win any game in the NBA. It’s really hard to win a game you don’t deserve. It’s nearly impossible to secure a playoff victory you didn’t earn.

And yet that was the position the Knicks were in with under a minute to go. They were tied with the Pistons at 94-all after a 16-4 run over the previous five and a half minutes, when the defense finally turned the dial to 11 and their jalopy of an offense finally got in gear. It looked like we might get a repeat of Saturday night, when a furious rally flipped the game on its head.

That fate, of course, was not to be, which is probably for the best if you believe in sports karma.