Knicks 116, Pistons 113: Scenes from Captain Clutch leveling an entire city in Michigan.

For the third straight year, the New York Knicks will reach the second round of the playoffs, thanks to tonight’s 116-113 win over the Detroit Pistons at the Little Caesar’s Arena. The game wasn’t pretty, but neither were the previous five in this bruising series.

The Knicks started saucy! Jalen Brunson (15 first-quarter points, 40 overall), Mikal Bridges, and OG Anunoby came out blazing, and Karl-Anthony Towns crashed the glass. An 11-0 run in the middle of the first gave New York a 20-8 lead. Their advantage would reach 15.

Detroit, led by Cade Cunningham (nine Q1 points, 23 overall) and Jalen Duren (21 points and six rebounds tonight), showed heart, but turnovers and missed threes proved costly. By the buzzer, New York led, 37-23. They had shot efficiently (60% from the field, 40% from three) and committed just one turnover, while Detroit shot 38% from the field, 2-10 from deep.

Had we not seen countless leads blown in the series, we might have been lulled into over-confidence. Through the first quarter, New York swung the ball like—well, maybe not Globetrotters, but there was precision, there was intention. In the second quarter, the record skerrr-atched. Brunson called his own number too many times, OG Anunoby couldn’t hit the rim, and Detroit’s Malik Beasley (18 points in his first 15 minutes) swished multiple wide-open triples to erase New York’s lead.

By the four-ish minute mark, the score was tied; by the one-minute mark, Detroit took their first lead with a Cunningham drive. When Beasley drilled another meagerly contested shot, this time at the buzzer, Detroit led 61-59.

New York had lost every third quarter of the series. With a slight air of desperation, the ‘Bockers did layup lines at halftime, and whattayaknow? They outscored the Pistons 22-10 to start the third. Detroit employed their Hack-a-Mitch strategy (Robinson made 1-of-4), but New York was applying defensive pressure on the other end. On one incredible sequence late in the quarter, OG blocked Tobias Harris and a fast-breaking Bridges dunked on Cunningham with the most aggression we’ve seen from him all season. Who knew he had it in him?

For once, New York outscored the Pistons in the third frame—37-24, for a 96=85 lead.

To open the fourth, both teams sputtered with missed shots and turnovers, but a 16-2 run by Detroit tied the game with under six minutes left. Tim Hardaway, Jr. (who hit his first triple after missing all five attempts), Ausar Thompson, and Cunningham fueled the surge. That was a particularly ugly stretch of New York basketball—Miles McBride dribbled into a turnover, the Knicks forgot how to pass and shoot, Bridges fumbled the rock in traffic, and Towns passed the ball to a ghost in the front row. While the Knicks were losing their confidence, Detroit’s fans were losing their minds.

With two-and-a-half remaining, the Pistons had a seven-point lead. Captain Clutch pulled off a three-point play—and then an acrobatic layup in traffic to cut it to two. Three of New York’s starters (Bridges, Anunoby, and Brunson) had logged 40 minutes already; their bench had delivered five points.

In a minor miracle, Towns intercepted a Cunningham pass and was fouled to prevent a guaranteed dunk. He made one free throw, missed the second, and in the resulting scrum, New York regained possession with a minute left. Down by one. Brunson dribbled and dribbled, but couldn’t get away from Thompson and committed a shot-clock violation. KAT fouled out, sending Duren to the line with 50 seconds to go.

Down by two, Bridges (25 points overall) tied the game on a put-back layup. With 35 seconds, Cunningham choked again; Hart secured the rebound and called a timeout. Cap got the ball and drilled a trey with five seconds left. Detroit inbounded the ball at halfcourt and swung it to Cunningham, who chickened out again and threw ball past an open Beasley.

Ecstasy.

Up Next

Professor Matthew Miranda has your recap on the way. As for the Knicks: round two and the Boston Celtics starts on May 5. Rest up, Knickerbockers.

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