Knicks 117, Pistons 104: The truth, the whole truth & nothing but
A rare laugher of a W as Team Thibodeau marches on to greater glory.
The Great Buddha statue in Ang Thong, Thailand is the height of a football field. Imagine standing in front of it, trying to make sense of such scale. That’s twice as tall as the Statue of Liberty . . . and yet, it’s also 200 feet shorter than the Statue of Unity, the world’s tallest statue, in Gujarat, India. It’s gotta be something else to be such a big deal while simultaneously knowing there are far bigger deals out there. The Detroit Pistons know what that’s about.
The Pistons are not just the worst team in the league (Charlotte has a worse record, but their suckitude stems from how little they’ve had LaMelo Ball around; Houston sucks, and hard, but this recap isn’t about them). The Pistons are the worst team that’s also missing their best player and competing in a division where everyone is light years beyond them. Chicago is 11 games up on Detroit in the loss column and their three best players are better than any Piston. Indiana has 14 fewer Ls, and despite coming into the season with their lowest expectations in years are yet again a paragon of respectability. Cleveland is 18 up in the loss column and every one of their starters would be the Pistons’ best player. Milwaukee? Milwaukee may as well be the Monstars.
So when the Pistons host the New York Knicks on a Sunday matinee, it’s gotta be like the Great Buddha of Ang Thong is in town. The Knicks aren’t the Bucks. They aren’t the Cavs. They’re barely the Pacers. But they’re still something special, something you don’t see every day. If Giannis Antetokounmpo is the Statue of Unity, let Julius Randle be the Great Buddha. He’s not the biggest or the best. But take him for what he is: an absolute marvel. Exhibit A: the Knicks’ 117-104 win at Joe Louis Arena The Palace of Auburn Hills Little Caesar’s Arena.
Sometimes numbers lie. Randle put together 42 and 15 shooting 63% from the field with four assists and four threes. Those numbers? Those numbers tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but. If Kevin Knox was a terrible option to throw at Randle, it only happened because nothing else Detroit tried did anything for them. Saddiq Bey, Isaiah Livers, one former Knick in Knox, another in Alec Burks – it no make no never mind. The league’s best first-quarter player was at it again early and often in Detroit; by the end of the opening frame the Knicks were up 17.
By the time Randle passed Bernard King on New York’s all-time scoring leaderboard late in the second, you might have been tempted to note what had been a 20-point bulge popped had drooped to a flaccid seven. In truth if you’ve watched any Etroit this year, you knew they were never gonna have enough juice to make it all the way back. That’s right: call ‘em Etroit, because while the Knicks shot 46/40/81 there wasn’t any D to speak of. You can’t fake a comeback if there isn’t ability on both ends of the floor; the Pistons were never anything more than Clyde Frazier’s bête noire, i.e. a team trading baskets and nothing more.
Rarely do the Knicks find themselves in a game where the opponent is clearly overmatched from the jump. It was so frictionless there was really no need to stop and be bothered by anything. Sure, the bench remains short one scorer; New York entered the fourth with only six players having scored. Yes, Quentin Grimes could try more lay-ups and floaters when he drives baseline, as opposed to always dumping it off to Mitchell Robinson, who then gets gang-tackled and misses one or both free throws. But when Isaiah Hartenstein kept his consecutive games impersonating Charles Smith streak alive, what could I do but chuckle? I suspect Hartenstein begins every morning accidentally elbowing his fiancee when he gets out of bed. And yet, they’re still together. Who am I to write him off?
Regarding Randle/King: there is an excellent chance Randle will be named an All-Star this season, which would be his second time honored as a Knick. For a franchise forever in search of the greenest grass on the other side, I’m pretty sure Randle making a second All-Star game as a Knick would tie him with Allan Houston for the most All-Star nods any Knick free agent signing has had. King was acquired in a trade, not via free agency. Did you know Randle, as a Knick, averages more rebounds, more assists and fewer turnovers than King did? Is it sacrilegeous for you to hear Randle in the same sentence as King? Maybe your faith needs re-examining.
The Knicks have won 11 straight over the Pistons, their longest run of dominance over one team since beating Boston 21 in a row in the 1990s. Detroit’s next game takes them to Paris to face Chicago. The Eiffel Tower is nearly 1000 feet high. For a Pistons team missing Cade Cunningham and Bojan Bogdanović, the Bulls minus Lonzo Ball is like the Tower minus the champagne bar at its tippy top: it’s missing something, but it’s still plenty of something. That’s Detroit’s problem. New York’s next game is a Monday Martin Luther King Jr. matinee against Toronto. The Knicks are six games over .500 for the first time since April 2021; with a win Monday they’d be seven over for the first time since . . . well, the same, since April 2021. There are far bigger landmarks, much bigger deals out there. But a Knicks team six or seven wins to the black led by not one but two A+ free agent signings? Meditate on that.
