How the pistons again surpassed the Knicks to the series at 1-1: “ We have seen something ''

New York – There, the pistons were again: in the heat of an after -season fight, up three scores with nine minutes to go, trying to put the hammer and to close a victory in eliminatory series at Madison Square Garden.

Saturday, Detroit failed 21-0 New York Run This gave the Knicks an advance of 1-0 in their first round series. On Monday, however, the pistons had a second chance to make a first impression of the first season – and they were determined to get the most out of it.

“We talked about it,” said the star goalkeeper of Detroit, Cade Cunningham after the match. “You know, it was something we wanted to celebrate. I thought it was a great opportunity for us to be able to answer and better results this evening.”

The Knicks chipped the lead that Detroit had held during most of match 2, entering the bonus halfway from the final frame and heading for the free throw line to fill the gap. When Jalen Brunson found that Josh Hart was hiding in the Dunker Spot behind the big man of the Pistons Jalen Duren for a Dunk to fix the game with 1:15 to doIt seemed that visitors could once again be on the short side of the stick – after having largely controlled another game in New York, not to show anything.

Dennis Schröder, however, had other plans:

In the last minute, Detroit stayed with his game plan, trying to drag Brunson into action in the pick-and-roll, with Tobias Harris defining the screen. His defender Josh Hart jumped to pick up Schröder. But instead of straightening up, Harris slipped; When Hart returned to Harris, Brunson was not close enough to return to Schröder, leaving an acre of space in the switch's pocket.

“This is something that shouldn't happen,” said Brunson. “Especially between me and (Hart). We have known ourselves for too long to spoil this. ”

The German leader took full advantage of it, pulling a wide traction 3 which splashed through the net, giving him 19 points – he finished with 20 on shot 6 for 10, part of a strait 35-8 in the points of bench – and giving the pistons an advance on which they will hold this time.

Potential game triples by Brunson And Mikal Bridges came empty. A few free throws later, Detroit had finished a 100-94 Match 2 Victory To tie the series to a match each, steal the advantage at home of the favorite Knicks – and end a terribly long drought in the playoffs for an formerly proud NBA franchise which has undergone a very large decade of decades:

“We did what we were supposed to do,” said piston head coach JB Bickerstaff. “That's all. To win a game on the road, to get a field, that's what we came for here for.”

The pistons prove that they can “surpass” the Knicks

While the scene moves to Detroit for match 3 of Thursday, it has become clear that the pistons are eminently capable of doing what they believe that they are supposed: namely, imposing their will in a team of serial Knicks which won 51 games and ended equally for the Fifth best clear note in the NBA During the regular season, but it looked trembling in the last two months of the season, playing Just-ABOVE-.500 BALL with a barely positive points differential After the deadline for trade.

In match 1, the Knicks overcome three fragile districts with a miraculous finish. In match 2, however, there were no miracles to find.

“It was a similar game, right?” The Karl-Anthony Towns star center said. “It is not every day that you are going to get a 21-0 race. We cannot expect things like that. You can't expect to return a change and all of a sudden, we are the team that we worked so hard all year round. We have to bring this kind of execution and discipline the whole game.”

Aside from the sowing lines, Detroit had a best recording And Better Differential Points that New York from February; The pistons entered this series with reasons to believe that they were all the ounces as good as the Knicks, if not better. The last nine minutes of match 1 could have shaken this belief. Instead, the Bickerstaff team returns home with a renewed faith, after having preceded their more experienced and higher opponents for more than seven of the first eight quarters of this match – and having proven Monday that they can win even when the breaks do not take place.

The pistons won match 2 despite only 6 for 27 (22.2%) of 3 field points, and despite Wings Malik Beasley, Tim Hardaway Jr. and Ausar Thompson firing a handset of 4 for 24 from the ground. They won despite being without a rescue center Isaiah Stewart, who was excluded with inflammation of the right knee, forcing the reserve slightly used Paul Reed in the lap; The old 76ers Big finished with six points, a rebound, a block, a flight and two reversals in hectic 11 minutes, during which Detroit dominated the 13 -point knicks.

They won despite Thompson, their main defensive option on Brunson, dirty with 5:34 to go with the bonus knicks, preparing the way for their efforts to walk late on the free throw line. (The efforts that finally ended with New York by taking 15 gifts less than the pistons – A disparity that head coach Tom Thibodeau noted after the match) They won despite not having played a clean game, committing 16 reversals leading 19 points from New York; They won despite looking at the Knicks to get them down late, giving them the opportunity to fold.

“In the end, I trust our system. I trust the guys,” said Cunningham. “We knew that we had abandoned this match, so it was a question of going out today and being aggressive, and trying to surpass them.”

Despite all that, they still won, largely because Cunningham – whose country pierced campaign fueled the remarkable and historic reversal of the historic season – looked like the best player on the ground.

'Elite' Cunningham opens the way

The 23 -year -old rebounded after the collapse of match 1 Hard drive and anunoby It turned into an offensive rebound and a putback, a rebound and a push from start to finish Created a corner 3 – And never leave room. Cunningham finished with 33 points on the shot of 11 for 21 from the ground and a brand of 10 for 12 on the free throw line – his second 30 -point match against the Knicks in the Last two weeksand one that the pistons were sorely needed.

“He was elite,” said Bickerstaff. “He is a superstar, and he played the game tonight as a superstar, and he did what he had to do to help this team win. He understood how aggressive he needed to be offensive how important the finishing possessions were.

Cunningham joined Harris and Duren (13 rebounds each) to control the glass, dotted Strait with an advantage of 53-44 on the boards – including 12 offensive rebounds, which led to 13 second chance points – that Thibodeau said “was probably the difference in the game”. (Later asked why the rescue center, Mitchell Robinson, closed the first half at 5 over Towns, Thibodeau quickly replied: “Well, Mitch was the only bouncing guy.”)

Detroit used these defensive rebounds as a springboard for an early attack, pushing the rhythm several times – not only alongside biftects or reversals, but even shots – in search of beautiful looks against a defense backward and blurred in New York. More than 20% of the Pistons' offensive games in match 2 have come in transition, according to Clean the glass.

Although they were not particularly effective on these parts – only 1.056 points by possession of transition, which would have been classified Last death in the league During the regular season – Hitting gas was clearly an accent for bickerstaff, which delicately bypassed a question about what prompted the high pace of the pistons at the end of his press conference.

“I mean … We have seen something,” said Bickerstaff.

'We want to be who we are'

The pistons saw a lot during their stay in New York. They saw their length, their physique and their match plan – including the decision to accelerate last on the non -sling Hart and put the veteran Harris in the cities – pour dividends, completely removing New York from his offensive flow.

“I think it just helps me to wander a little more, to be this second help for other guys on the discs,” said Duren, who controlled the paint up to 12 points, 13 rebounds, three blocks and a flight in 37 minutes. “Being on this weak side, it just puts me in a better place to change the shots and the shots.”

This also gives cities a different look – which he can attack, but whose knicks as a team often looked away.

After playing in match 1, Towns actually made a non-factor in match 2, ending with only 10 points on 11 shots without going through 33 minutes. The all-nba marker was detained aimlessly after the intermission, and his last attempt of the night came with 5:20 To go to the third quarter.

The cities and Thibodeau said that his goose egg in the second half had come because he was trying to make the right game and not to force the problem, and that they loved the blows that the Knicks obtained in the fourth. But the final result of the Gambit de Detroit was to offer an offense in New York which had been one of the most explosive and varied NBA during the regular season in a single containing instrument: Brunson fighting through thickets of members just to obtain the ball, before isolate on the defender of the pistons he drew and attempt from his way to points.

Bastiness can operate: Brunson has scored a 37 -point top with seven assists in 44 minutes. This makes Knicks simpler, however; Towns, Anunoby and Hart all finished with only 10 points, and rarely seemed to have a lot of pace. It's also difficult to hang out: Brunson needed 27 shots and returned it six times; Its rate of use in match 2 was 39.2%Which would have led the NBA in the regular season of a mile.

“Whether it is Ausar, whether it is Dennis, we have the impression that we have bodies to continue to launch him,” said Bickerstaff. “And if the game is a physical game, and we continue to bang, we keep bruises, our goal is just to try to continue wearing guys. We don't want to be on our heels because we are worried about degreased calls. We want to be who we are.”

This is the pistons, warts and everything: physical, athletic and intense; A little rough on the edges, but good enough to enter your gymnasium and drop you, with their superstar opening the way.

“All of this for us is to learn,” said Bickerstaff. “These moments for us – as a group, myself, as a staff, with this team – we have not done this before. So any test, any challenge that is put in front is an excellent test and a big challenge for us.”

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