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The Knicks lacked sharpness on both ends of the floor and after falling behind early couldn’t withstand a huge night from Detroit’s Cade Cunningham in a 120-111 loss to the Pistons on Saturday night at Madison Square Garden.
Playing without Karl-Anthony Towns, New York fell behind by as much as 17 before cutting it to a two-point deficit in the fourth quarter. But the home team never led in the game and were outrebounded 43-31. The Knicks shot 11-for-34 from behind the arc, but their foes went 18-for-36.
Jalen Brunson led the team with 31 points on 11-for-21 shooting (3-for-7 from deep) with 10 assists and four rebounds but was a minus-10 in 44 minutes.
The Knicks fell to 14-9 on the year. Detroit – winners of 14 and 17 games the past two seasons – improved to 10-15. The Pistons entered the night losers of their last 16 games to the Knicks – including eight straight games at MSG.
Here are some takeaways…
– The Knicks did not start the game in rhythm committing four turnovers to fall behind 13-2, forcing a Tom Thibodeau timeout under four minutes into the game. And things were not any better the rest of the way. Cunningham found Malik Beasley beyond the arc (Cunningham’s sixth assist and Beasley’s fourth three) to put the visitors up 16 to end the first quarter.
In the opening frame, the Knicks committed seven turnovers and allowed the Pistons to go 16-for-26 from the floor – hitting 7 of 15 from deep for a 39-23 lead. Brunson started 4-for-6 from the floor with nine points, two rebounds and two assists, but the rest of the team went 4-for-11.
In the last two games, the Knicks have trailed by a combined 29-6 to start, SNY’s Ian Begley tabulated. On Thursday against Charlotte, Brunson scored 19 in the first quarter to get them back in the game en route to a 24-point victory.
History would not repeat itself this time.
– The Knicks twice cut the lead to four points in the second – first on a Brunson four-point play and then a Josh Hart three. But both times Detroit pushed their lead back to nine. A bit of foreshadowing for later in the game: The Knicks could push the visitors, but not impose their…
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Author : SNY
Publish date : 2024-12-08 03:05:00
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