Game Preview: Knicks @ Pistons, 12/13/20
Jon Schulman gets you ready for the Knicks’ second preseason game at the Detroit Pistons, including why a shake-up in the starting lineup could make things a lot more fun.
Sunday. What better way to skydive into the week than to watch the Knicks before you carry your world weary body to bed? Make your mental checklist over that bottomless glass of wine. Monday: coffee, squirt the dirt, gas up, puff, puff again, drift into your daily operations, Knicks. After that, float to your slumber and maybe you’ll stop waking up this time. Meaning like… ya know! What if the dream never ends? The Knicks just go on to slaughter all comers and win the championship. What I mean to say is, we gotta get this win, for the Knicks to provide your wildest dream based on today’s events!
What? Anyway.
The Knicks did a great job forcing the Pistons into tight spaces and it generated a grand total of 22 turnovers! Second only to New York, who had 24 — whomp, whomp. The tight spacing of a few too many power forwards is such a fresh wound for me that I mostly feel the pain that Piston fans must be experiencing. I love you Piston fans, I know what you’re going through.
Luckily Detroit snared a French point guard that they are transparently going to develop! Kinda the opposite of New York. That kid is Killian Hayes, and he had a third of Detroit’s turnovers by himself! It will be interesting and fun to see how he bounces back after a day to consider what he was doing that generated so many turnovers.
The best part of Killian’s readiness to study the game will be how telling it is of the Knicks’ preparedness. Sometimes it can take a month or more to get another crack at your opponent, but this preseason’s baseball-style chunklets of games will give us a chance to see how Thibs can swim with the current.
PROJECTED STARTERS
Thibs says he wants to mix it up. So let’s crank up the mix up. One thing I really like, at least in my head, is the combination of Frank Ntilikina’s half court controls, with the open world creation instincts of Alec Burks. One thing I hated with my eyes was Julius Randle’s impersonation of a thorn bush in the middle of the paint. Check out this highlight with Burks trying to drive past Jules only to get stopped in his tracks by the thicket of bodies.
Making driving lanes a tad too tight is nothing new from Randle, but it was nice to see Coach Thibs recognize that and implement ways to get RJ Barrett rumbling to the center of the floor unimpeded. RJ maybe took a step forward in his leadership capabilities as well, at times organizing the crew before launching into some half-witted drive. But let’s get real here for a second, though. How many people should they really be trying to send to the middle — during a pandemic!?
For the Pistons, there’s about 70, 60 and 24 million reasons not to change their front line. Then they have Hayes, who is solidified. The other guard slot has to offer some modicum of shooting, and that’s Svi Mykhailuk’s specialty. Specialty seems a bit much if I’m being honest. Area of expertise? That feels more well-tailored, if a bit loud. Sviatoslav hit 40% last season from deep and he nailed some well-defended ones on Friday. This lineup is a commitment to Killian Hayes having the ball and being very large at every position. What else the Pistons are up to is not my problem!
Austin Rivers and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist remain listed as day-to-day for New York and of course Deividas Sirvydis was notably absent from Detroit’s lineup on Friday and remains day-to-day as well.
KEYS & PREDICTIONS
It’s another chance for Thibodeau to get multiple different lineups out there. My guess would be that he uses this second whack at the Pistons to set up the guys who didn’t play on Friday. So I’m expecting to get our first looks at Immanuel Quickley, maybe Myles Powell, Iggy Brazdeikis, and Omari Spellman. When the Knicks go back home for their two game set with Cleveland, we’ll get a similar set of games. With the top of the depth chart going out there in game one and the youngsters getting a couple bites at the apple in game two.
As for tonight, the Knicks will hopefully take and make more threes. If Burks, Ntilikina, and Obi Toppin can share the floor a little bit, that might help shake some of that good stuff loose, according to me. And who knows, maybe Quickley gets in there and rains a hell storm of triplicates on the unsuspecting Pistons second unit.
Knicks by 3.
WARM UP MUSIC
One of my all time favorites, Biz Markie, apparently suffered a stroke while in a diabetic coma and it tears me apart to hear that. So I need the Knicks to go get this win for the Diabolical one.
