It wasn’t the prettiest game for either team, but the Detroit Pistons live to see another day, as they force a Game 6 after beating the New York Knicks, 106-103, on Tuesday night.
“We gotta play for 48 minutes,” said Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau.
Less than 10 points have decided every game in this series, as this matchup heads back to Detroit.
“The challenges that we set, every game is different,” Thibodeau said in regards to the message to the team heading back to Detroit. “We’ll take a look at the film and see what we can do better and be ready to go, next game.”
With 2:57 to go in the fourth quarter, New York lost both Josh Hart and Jalen Brunson to injuries. They didn’t re-enter the game until there was under one minute to go in the game.
Since the Knicks were forced to call a timeout for Hart’s injury, they had just one timeout remaining, which made Thibodeau reluctant to call his final timeout.
Both teams struggled to shoot the basketball, but nobody struggled more than Jalen Brunson. The two-time All-Star shot 3-of-12 from the field and one-of-four from behind the arc with 16 points, three rebounds, and seven assists.
Cade Cunningham matched Brunson’s putrid performance for much of this game, until he turned it on in the fourth and finished with 24 points, eight rebounds, and eight assists.
Cunningham knocked down a big-time shot from behind the arc to put the Pistons up six with 1:57 in the final frame.
In a three-point game, the Knicks missed 11 free-throw attempts. In addition to the struggles from the charity stripe, New York turned the ball over 13 times and struggled to box out Jalen Duren down the stretch.
OG Anunoby led New York in scoring with 19 points, six rebounds and three blocks. Josh Hart had yet another solid performance, pouring in 15 points, snatching seven rebounds, and dishing out six assists. Hart added a pair of steals and blocks to his credit.
Bridges’ shooting woes continued Tuesday night, but a clutch two-point bucket in transition at the beginning of the fourth quarter was huge for his team’s momentum. Bridges then hit another pull-up jumper from around the free-throw line at the 7:48 minute-mark to knot the game up at 85-85.
Mitchell Robinson played valuable minutes for the Knicks off the bench and delivered when his number was called. The seven-footer scored 13 points on 62.5% shooting and grabbed 11 rebounds, eight of which came on the offensive glass.
“I thought he gave us a lift, good energy,” Thibodeau said. “The rebounding was good enough, the defense was good enough. Our turnovers hurt us, so we got to clean that up.”
Despite Brunson’s struggles, the 2024-2025 Kia NBA Clutch Player of the Year knocked down an and-one jumper with 6:53 to go in the fourth to give New York an 87-86 lead.
Good news for New York, they won both games on the road this series. Bad news is, they gave a young, hungry team that’s received a veteran presence from Tobias Harris, Tim Hardaway Jr. and Dennis Schröder all series long and this team believes they can win.
The Knicks will hobble into Detroit on Thursday for Game 6. Tip-off is set for 7:30 p.m. ET.
