The Knicks once again find themselves at a crossroads: the bench soundly outplayed the starters in their win over the shorthanded Pistons. Are the five off the pine entirely better than the starting five?

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair. It was the New York Knicks winning 94-85 in Detroit last night, their third win in a row and fourth in five games.

The second half of this penultimate game of 2021 was a pendulum of sea changes. The third quarter was the darkest hours before the blinding dawn of the fourth. Often so many factors work together to determine who wins and who loses. When we lose sight of that, we shortchange the players and ourselves; anything that brings so many strangers together in a bond of love is hitting us on so many levels. This game was simple, though. The bench won it. That’s it. No caveats, contexts or conditions. In this season where the Knick understudies have consistently outplayed the stars, never has the divide been more dramatic than last night.

The worst of times were the first nine minutes of the second half. Like Minnesota the night before, Detroit was missing four regular starters. But you know how there’s brilliant musicians playing for change on the street? There’s also a lot of great basketball players. 

Hamidou Diallo scored a season-high 31 as the Pistons got out of the break on an 11-0 run. The Knicks committed a five-second violation at midcourt. They had seven turnovers in the quarter, several leading to odd-man rushes the other way. Deep into the third quarter, Mitchell Robinson had more offensive interference calls (two) than the Knicks did field goals (one). The low point was a Quentin Grimes 3-pointer falling three-quarters of the way down before rimming out, then Robinson and Julius Randle missing four point-blank follows, only for Mitch to end the sequence with basket interference.

The Pistons ran off a 25-4 run and went up as many as 14. The starters — the usual suspects plus Grimes in place of Evan Fournier, whose ankle is hurting — had nothing to give. Grimes was the only one of the five whose plus/minus wasn’t at least a -20, and his would’ve been if he’d played more. Tom Thibodeau called time barely into a minute into the third, said something brief to the players and sent them back out on the floor for a minute before play resumed. Whatever Thibs said didn’t help any; they missed 12 of their 13 shots in the quarter. What he did changed everything.

With about three minutes left in the third and the Pistons up 66-52, Thibs busted out a five-man bench squad and left them in the rest of the game. Immanuel Qucikley, Miles McBride, Alec Burks, Obi Toppin and Taj Gibson were an immediate difference. There was energy, there was scoring, there was defense, there was a 12-5 run to halve the deficit entering the fourth. And what an entrance it was: a 17-0 run bridging the third and fourth quarters to take command. McBride was so good guarding the Piston point of attack he looked less like a defender and more an accompanist. Burks and Quickley accounted for more than half the Knick points. Toppin was prodigious in limited minutes. Taj Gibson was a maestro conducting the defense and being its last line. 

Burks was Mr. Fourth Quarter last year for the Knicks and was again in hanging 19 on Detroit in the final frame. The final frame of his masterpiece was a 4-point play.

That quintet played the final 15 minutes together and won them 42-19. I don’t know where this is going — Thibodeau clearly values the reserves’ impact, but I can’t think of too many teams whose bench outplayed its starters all year long and can’t think of any instance of a coach replacing his entire starting lineup with five subs. And yet the mountain of evidence continues to grow showing the bench has been the Knicks’ strong hand all season. What does he do? What can he do? He gets paid a lot of money to deal with that. I’m broke and happy my team’s won three in a row. I win.  

Notes

• So many astonishing numbers. The Knick bench outscored the starters 65-29; in the second half they outscored them 42-4. New York’s reserves outscored Detroit’s 65-7. The Pistons’ starting five outscored the Knicks’ 78-29.

• Five bench players saw 20-plus minutes, the first time the Knicks have had that happen since Nov. 10 vs. Milwaukee.

• Two Pistons, Diallo and Saddiq Bey, had 30-plus points. No others reached double figures. 

• Burks scored 34, his high as a Knick and tying his career-high.

• Obi grabbed a miss and went 94 feet with it, missing a contested drive at the rim. It was nice seeing him confident enough to try that. Toppin can be sneaky fast dribbling up the floor if you’re not pressuring him.

• Deuce may not end up being Walt Frazier, or Micheal Ray Richardson. But he’s no Toney Douglas, either, in a good way. Douglas was ACC Defensive Player of the Year heading into the draft, but never made a big impact on that end in the NBA. McBride is a joy to watch defend. 

• Classic Taj here: two Pistons try to box him out, he still gets the offensive rebound, and because Diallo came into the paint to help box out, Burks was left wide open behind the arc.

• Bey’s 32 was a career-high, Diallo’s 31 a season-high.

• Was gonna let it slide that three seconds after Mike Breen mentioned the Knicks have held their last three opponents to under 90 points for the first time since 2014, Wally Szczerbiak mentioned the Knicks have held their last three opponents to under 90 points. But in the postgame interview he called Burks “Alex,” and I’m really starting to wonder what’s up with this dude. I taught for a decade and have two podcasts; I know all about verbal slips. But Wally’s gaffes are more suggestive of someone who’s less about paying attention and more about playing a role.

Adrenalinsanity. That’s my wonky word for what this season has been like. A lot of energy going into a lot of ups and downs that don’t really get you much farther than where you started. Wins in a row helps to give it all more of a sense of direction. Next game is New Year’s Eve in Oklahoma City. What a time to be alive.