The Piston Strait kept the section this time at Madison Square Garden.
And, finally, the sequence of brutal seasonal losses of the franchise is over.
The pistons, after having groped at the end of the match 1 of the opening eliminatory series on Saturday, held the hand to win a tight victory of 100-94 against the New York Knicks on Monday evening. This equalized the series at 1-1 before returning to Detroit on Thursday.
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Although it was not an excellent shooting evening for the pistons – they fired 6 out of 27 from the line of 3 points – Cadenningham Cader who made the difference. Cunningham lost 20 points in the first half and finished with 33.
Remarkably, it was the first victory of the pistons in the playoffs since 2008. Their 15 consecutive defeats were the longest sequence of active defeats in the League.
No Isaiah Stewart for Detroit
The pistons were without great man Isaiah Stewart Monday evening due to inflammation of the right knee.
The team excluded him with the injury, which also kept him away from their last two regular season games, just hours before TIP. Stewart played his injury during his defeat of match 1 on Saturday, although he seemed to struggle. He managed two points and five rebounds in 19 minutes on the bench. He asked to be withdrawn from the match in the fourth quarter, when the pistons have always kept their heads, but they then abandoned a sequence of 21-0 and ended up losing.
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“I think we all felt it,” said coach JB Bickerstaff about Stewart on Sunday, via the free detroit press. “He was phenomenal last night. His effort, how he protected the edge, the energy he brought, how his teammates fed on his injury was enormous.
“When he is not on the ground for us, we all have to bring this. We have to find a way because we cannot just rely on him all the time or wait for him to be just him. We must play with the same ferocity and this effort he makes.”
We do not know how long Stewart will be sidelined, or if he will be available for match 3.
Cade Cunningham and the pistons equalized their series with the Knicks. (Images of Brad Penner-Imagn)
(Imagn Images via Reuters Connect / Reuters)
Pistons up early, once again
Detroit seemed to put his fourth quarter stumbled behind him in the first half.
The pistons took a six-point lead in the locker room behind a huge first half of Cunningham. He struck a rider runs in the last seconds before half-time to keep the pistons in control. They opened a two -digit lead at the start of the second period, but the Knicks were slightly retaliated.
Cunningham gift, pistons hang
The pistons immediately pushed their advance in the third quarter, opening the period on a sequence of 13-4. Half came from Cunningham, and they closed the Knicks almost completely offensively. New York missed 10 of its first 11 attempts at the field during the quarter, and the Knicks were suddenly down 15 points.
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But it didn't last long. The Knicks finally started to shoot and reduce the deficit to only eight points at the end of the quarter despite the management of only 18 points in the period.
The Knicks then made a 16-4 tear in what was a close and controversial finish. Jalen Brunson left the match briefly and went to the locker room with an apparent injury after fueling this race, but he returned less than a minute later, apparently well. The two teams entered a brief altercation after his departure too, although nothing came.
But, as quickly as the return was mounted, the pistons finished the work. They struck a rare 3 points when Dennis Schröder connected 25 feet, then Brunson and Mikal Bridges missed several attempts behind the arc in the last minute which could again equalize the game. Detroit struck three free throws in the last 10 seconds to push it to the margin of victory and to give the pistons their first victory in eliminatory series in more than 15 years.
Cunningham also achieved 12 rebounds and three assists in victory. Schröder added 20 points on the bench and represented half of the team's 3 points. Tobias Harris also finished with 15 points and 13 rebounds. The pistons, although they do not have available stewart, have always exceeded the Knicks 48-34.
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Brunson led the Knicks with 37 points and seven assists. He went 4 out of 12 of Deep. Bridges added 19 points and five rebounds, and Karl-Anthony Towns finished with 10 points and six rebounds. He did not score in the second half at all and pulled 5 out of 11 on the field.
The two teams will make it go back on Thursday in Detroit, who has not organized a eliminatory match since 2019, when the team was swept in the first round. This is only the fourth appearance of Detroit in the playoffs since he made the final of the eastern conference three times in a row from 2006 to 2008.
While a home victory in the next two games would be historic for the franchise – the last one arrived on May 26, 2008 – this would greatly help keep Brunson and the Knicks to run away with the series. The return to Manhattan in a 3-1 hole is not a battle that the pistons want to face.
