Karl-Anthony Towns, after not taking a shot in the 4th quarter of Game 2, scores 31 points as Knicks take 2-1 series lead.
Other series have been slower and less efficient, but the first-round matchup between the New York Knicks and Detroit Pistons has felt very much like a traditional playoff series. Through three games, there’s been some chippiness, intense crowds, and late-game drama.
Both teams have also responded pretty strongly. In Game 3 on Thursday, the Knicks came back from a loss and got the win they needed, a 118-116 victory behind 61 combined points from Jalen Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns.
The difference between the Knicks’ two wins and their Game 2 loss has been entirely about their offense. After scoring less than a point per possession three nights earlier, they had 118 on 98 (120.4 per 100) on Thursday. OG Anunoby and Mikal Bridges each had 20-point games, while Josh Hart pitched in with nine assists and four offensive rebounds.
Here are some notes, quotes, numbers and film as the Knicks took back home-court advantage.
1. Towns comes back strong, loves to trail
Much was made of Towns going scoreless (on 0-for-3 shooting) in the second half of the Knicks’ Game 2 loss on Monday. And he answered the bell early and often in Game 3, scoring 11 of his game-high 31 points in the first quarter.
The Knicks knew they had to get the big man going, but that early offense wasn’t the result of designed plays. Instead, it was Towns’ favorite in-the-flow action, trailing in transition straight up the middle of the floor. It allows him to shoot against a defense that might not be set, or attack an opposing center off the dribble.
His first field goal was a trailing 3-pointer from a few feet beyond the arc:
There were two more of those in the first quarter. That had Jalen Duren picking Towns up higher on another trail early in the third. So Towns beat him off the dribble.
Midway through the third, the Pistons had cut a 13-point halftime deficit down to one. That’s when Towns made one of the biggest plays of the night, taking Duren off the dribble again for an incredibly tough and-one that put the Knicks back up four:
“He’s got a lot of confidence,” Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau said of Towns, “and he bounced back great. He can score a lot of different ways, and I thought he used his versatility to his strength.”
The Pistons have tried guarding Towns with both Tobias Harris and Duren, and he’s been a tough matchup for both. He’s now shooting 25-for-43 (58.1%) in the series, and he’s also made some big defensive plays in the fourth quarter of his team’s two wins.
2. Pistons’ inexperience shows again
The Pistons have done their part in keeping the youth vs. experience narrative alive in this series.
In Game 1, they blew an eight-point, fourth-quarter lead under the Madison Square Garden lights. And on Thursday, they shot themselves in the foot some more, taking some bad shots, committing bad fouls and losing the turnover battle for the third straight game.
Malik Beasley is one of their more experienced players, but he made one of the most puzzling decisions of the night. He grabbed a defensive rebound with 22 seconds left in the first quarter, so the shot clock was off. But Beasley and Dennis Schröder raced down the floor, and Beasley launched an on-the-move, semi-contested 3-pointer with 18 seconds left:
It missed, and just as important is that, instead of the Pistons running the clock down, the Knicks were given plenty of time to find a shot. Cade Cunningham fouled OG Anunoby in the post, and then the Pistons made things worse, allowing Mitchell Robinson to rebound the second free throw. That led to an Anunoby tip dunk.
So, even if Detroit wasn’t going to get a better shot than Beasley’s transition 3 on the prior possession, it was still a three-point mistake in a game the Pistons lost by two.
More mistakes followed. Ron Holland II committed a foul in the backcourt when the Knicks were in the bonus midway through the second quarter. The Pistons committed turnovers on two after-timeout possessions early in the fourth. And in between, they committed three fouls, two of them on the perimeter when the Knicks weren’t threatening to score, on a single possession.
Finally, when a clock error gifted them a final (low-percentage) chance to tie the game with 0.5 seconds left, the Pistons committed one more turnover to seal the defeat. Their two losses in this series have been the 10th and 11th times this season that they’ve committed more than 20 turnovers.
“It’s the small things that are coming to bite us,” Cunningham said. “But we’re learning from them. That’s all we can do out there. All these things are making us a better team, and I think it’s going to make us better to go win this series.”
3. Detroit was one big shot away
Detroit had more chances to tie or take the lead than that. They also got some great looks on some huge possessions in the second half of this game.
A few possessions after that big and-1 from Towns midway through the third quarter, Detroit had a chance to tie or take the lead. Tim Hardaway Jr. (who was 6-for-7 from 3-point range at that point) got a great lead at a corner 3-pointer in transition, but his shot to put the Pistons ahead came up short.
Later in the third, Holland got another wide-open 3 from left corner in transition that would have made it a one-possession game. But it was off the mark. (Detroit finished 1-for-7 from the left corner.)
The Pistons were back within three with less than two minutes left when Cunningham dropped OG Anunoby with a spin move. He continued toward the basket, but Towns was there, and Cunningham lost the ball before he could get a shot up.
Every time the momentum was going their way, the Pistons couldn’t get the one bucket they needed to get over the hump. They erased the six-point deficit at the end of the first quarter, but just couldn’t get back from the 14-point Knicks lead that ensued.
In the regular season, the Pistons had the league’s biggest differential between their record in games they led by double-digits (38-8, .826) and their record in games they trailed by double-digits (8-33, .195). And in this series, teams that have led by double-digits are 3-0.
4. Brunson gets the biggest buckets
The player who was named 2024-25 Kia NBA Clutch Player of the Year on Wednesday scored most of the clutch buckets on Thursday. Brunson scored 10 of the Knicks’ 14 points that came with the score within five points in the last five minutes, shooting 3-for-4 from the field and 4-for-6 from the line (with one of those misses intentional).
Brunson also made some good reads when he drew extra defenders. In Game 2, he played a little out of control, maybe too focused on drawing fouls. There was one third-quarter sequence where, on two straight possessions, he left his feet on a drive and couldn’t finish. On the first, he missed a tough shot. Fifteen seconds later, he turned the ball over. And on both occasions, if he was more in control and came to a stop, he had teammates wide open beyond the arc.
In Game 3, he played with that needed control, coming to a stop in the paint and finding his open teammates on the perimeter:
In Game 2, Brunson had seven assists and six turnovers. In the Knicks’ two wins, he has 17 and two.
5. Lack of ‘positive position’ helps Knicks
The Pistons thought Brunson should have had one more turnover. With the Knicks up three and inbounding the ball in the frontcourt with 5.8 seconds left in the game, Bridges threw the inbounds pass to Brunson, who was running toward the backcourt.
When Brunson caught the pass, both he and the ball were in the frontcourt, and he then stepped into the backcourt:
Backcourt violation, right? Not so fast. It wasn’t called, and Ausar Thompson was forced to foul Brunson with 3.5 left on the clock.
Lead official Zach Zarba explained the non-call to a pool reporter afterward (emphasis added).
“The frontcourt/backcourt status is not obtained until a player with the ball has established a positive position in either half.
“Brunson and the trajectory of the pass were headed towards the backcourt. Brunson’s momentum was taking him there when he touches the ball. Due to that momentum he’s not considered in a positive position at that time. That’s why that play is legal.”
No call. Knicks win. And the Pistons will need to answer in Game 4 on Sunday (1 p.m. ET, ABC).
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John Schuhmann is a senior stats analyst for NBA.com. You can e-mail him here, find his archive here and follow him on X.
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