Knicks 114, Pistons 104
The Knicks are a game over .500 heading into the All-Star break, their first time being over .500 this late in a season since the fabled 2012-13 campaign. Bask in the light that is a good and fun Knicks team.
Thursday night was the New York Knicks’ last chance to make a first (half) impression in this bizarre season. As has been the case more often than not, they impressed, easily dispatching the Detroit Pistons, 114-104. The visitors were a lousy team ravaged by injury, and that plus a subway token earns you bupkis in the standings. Teams on the rise beat lousy teams and they win at home; this was New York’s sixth win in seven games at 33rd and 8th. For the first time since 2013, the Knicks head into the All-Star break a winning team.
Derrick Rose is still out for COVID protocol, so he was replaced in the starting lineup by the man he replaced in the starting lineup. Elfrid Payton returned after missing four games with a sore right hamstring. It was a blessing for Elf to return this night, because the Pistons’ perimeter defense was so casual to label it “matador” would insult all of Spain. Payton and RJ Barrett got to the rim at will all night.
Julius Randle had 10 in the first frame, continuing to prove his form this year is not an aria, but a symphony of swells, motifs, and verve.
The Knicks were hot pretty much all night. Speaking of hot, Frank Ntilikina’s long-range lava is still spilling; he hit his first three 3-pointers, meaning he’s now made his last six from downtown. It’s not always if you make them, but when, as Detroit learned: the Pistons shot a very good 39% from distance, but that’s because they hit 9-of-18 in the second half, after the outcome was already decided. The 5-of-18 they spit up in the first half is one reason the outcome arrived as early as it did. Another was the 11-0 run the Knicks ran off near the end of the half, capped by an RJ spinning layup. There was also Randle’s first first-half double-double of the season and the Knicks as a team hitting nearly 60% of their shots, marksmanship they’d maintain until late in the match.
The second half opened with a wide-open Payton corner three, which, while not the Four Horseman or a solar eclipse or the skies raining frogs, is still a pretty ominous sign for an NBA defense. He and Barrett continued to drive to the hoop with ease. This Obi Toppin lefty lay-in was anything but easy, and put the Knicks up 20:
The game was settled in the third quarter. New York scored 34 then, nearly doubling Detroit’s points in the paint with all five starters scoring double-figures. The Pistons’ starters all did, too, but their leading scorer, Wayne Ellington, had fewer points than the Knicks’ third-leading scorer. I wanted to say “pointsman” there, which isn’t a word, but I feel will become one if British sportscasting culture ever takes root here in the colonies.
Like genital herpes, the Pistons never put the Knicks in any serious danger, but there were some flare-ups that threatened to become annoying. With 4:30 left Detroit had a 5-on-3 with the 6-foot-11 Mason Plumlee a seeming lock to cut the lead to eight. But wait! There, in the sky. Is it a bird? A plane?
Randle’s play was the perfect microcosm of the Knicks’ surprising season so far: pride and defense, and the team’s best player making it happen for his teammates. That’s what the Knicks have been about through 37 games under Tom Thibodeau. There’s a long way to go, but they’ve already come so far. This was a fun night to celebrate that before a more-than-deserved break.
Notes
27, 16, and seven for Randle. I wrote a few days ago that he’s having a historic season for the blue and orange. Such an all-around joy to watch. For me, he’s become the most fun Knick to watch since Patrick Ewing. Stephon Marbury was gifted, but never played at this level or for a winning team in New York. Amar’e Stoudemire had a top-10 MVP season as a Knick and Carmelo Anthony finished third two years after, but neither did as many things on one end or on both ends like Randle has so far.
RJ with 21 on 70% shooting, plus a season-high-tying five assists. If there’s one Knick who pro’ly wants to keep on keeping on and not get a week off, it’s the 20-year-old climbing the charts with a bullet.
I’d love to see Barrett pick up some of Randle’s post-ups that lead to fade-aways. A lot of Knicks guards appear to have absorbed Immanuel Quickley’s Chris Paul move, where he gets the defender caught behind him and keeps them pinned as he probes to the basket. Randle seems worth emulating. This Barrett basket reminded me of one of his.
I hope Randle is a Knick long enough for them to pair him with a center who can defend and create and shoot. I know those guys don’t grow on trees, but whenever the Knicks face a zone and Noel or Mitchell Robinson catch a pass near the free throw line and look like they’re holding a live grenade, I wonder what, like, Marc Gasol would look like paired with JR.
Randle isn’t this year’s MVP. He’s not really close. But given what he’s done on both ends, how he’s making his teammates better and how much he’s contributing to his team winning — he’s gotta get some votes.
When the Knicks have enough depth that a Reggie Bullock is coming off the bench rather than starting, you’ll know they’re onto something good.
Payton had 20 points, six rebounds, four assists and four steals. Payton, you may have heard, has flaws, and is not the perfect fit in the roles he plays for this team. He has the ugliest misses I can recall of any Knick; his bricks look and sound like war crimes. But I never feel he’s cheating the team or the game with a lack of intensity or perspective. It’s funny (but not ha-ha funny) how many of the same Knick fans who still revere J.R. Smith, with all his selfishness on and off the court, foam at the mouth at Payton’s continued presence as a Knick.
Payton is so good at those reverse layups where he makes them with his back to the basket.
Noel: 42 minutes, 12 and 11, four steals, two blocks. Without question, one of the more pleasant surprises for me in a half-season full of nothing but.
A Piston badly bricked a long jumper, hitting nothing but the backboard, and it made me miss when Marv Albert would go “Whoa!” whenever that happened.
Kenny Albert mentioned on the broadcast that Plumlee, 30, earned the first of two triple-doubles of his career this year, making him the oldest player to pick up his first since Patrick Ewing. No. 33 was 33 when he had 28, 15 and 11 against Charlotte in 1996. That was Ewing’s only career double-figure assist game.
Plumlee bricked a running hook. I always feel my breath catch when someone takes one. I always root for anyone shooting a hook. It’s the echoes of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and the rarity of the shot. It’d be like if you saw someone swinging Excalibur — even if they don’t know what they’re doing, you respect what it’s referencing.
Merry born day, Obi!
Quoth nobody: nothing. We do so much thinking and analysis and connecting. You won’t remember those things if you’re lucky enough to have deathbed memories. The Knicks are all right. Give yourself a break. You have a week to luxuriate. Just breathe and bask, babes.
