How the Knicks’ defense won Game 1 against the Pistons and Cade Cunningham

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NEW YORK — The Knicks had every reason to panic.

They were the team with something to lose, while the Pistons’ house money appeared to be growing by the minute.

New York’s plan to get the ball out of the hands of Detroit star guard Cade Cunningham in Game 1 of the first round of the NBA playoffs both worked and didn’t work through the first three quarters. It worked because the Knicks didn’t allow the soon-to-be All-NBA guard, who went 8-of-21 from the field, to ever get in a scoring rhythm. Even when Cunningham thought he had a sliver of space, New York was there with even more bodies. It didn’t work because their plan to let the “others” beat them backfired, as Detroit’s Tobias Harris, Malik Beasley and Tim Hardaway Jr. combined to score 68 points on 20-of-33 shooting to help their team take an eight-point lead into the final 12 minutes.

In the end, though, the Knicks’ aggressive style worked out. Detroit turned the ball over late, and the role players missed shots they had made previously. New York was able to capitalize and win, 123-112, to open up what looks to be a dogfight against the Pistons.

“I thought our defense got us going,” New York head coach Tom Thibodeau said. “We got some stops, we got into the open floor and got some easy scoring opportunities.”

The Pistons’ trio above scored just a combined six points in the fourth quarter on 2-of-7 shooting. It was a gamble New York was willing to take because of how dominant Cunningham has been this season against the Knicks and the rest of the league. From the jump, New York launched a hard-hedge defense at Cunningham, and while his gravity created opportunities for his teammates, a player with the capabilities to take over a game never got going as a scorer because of the work from OG Anunoby and from the center position on the defensive end most of the night.

Anunoby, who also finished with 23 points in Game 1, was tasked with making Cunningham feel a presence as swallowing as Madison Square Garden was on Saturday night. New York’s forward did so by staying attached through the bazillion screens Detroit set and recovering when he was hit. Anunoby also had help, in an unlikely way. The Knicks’ Karl-Anthony Towns was up to hard hedge as much as Spike Lee was up on his feet clapping. New York deployed this coverage here and there throughout the regular season with Towns, but Game 1, surely, was the most the center had done it throughout a 48-minute contest.

Towns did a good job not only greeting Cunningham with force, but he also had active and high hands, as the video above shows, to negate the disadvantages that come with playing this type of defense.

Detroit is a turnover-prone team, and the Knicks’ approach defensively, while risky against someone of Cunningham’s abilities, was conducive to forcing the offense into a mistake. New York forced the Pistons into six of their 19 turnovers in the game’s final 12 minutes en route to a 21-0 run, all by sticking to the game plan, guarding Cunningham aggressively and living with the results from the rest of a streaky Detroit team missing a true No. 2 option.

“We did a good job,” Anunoby said. “You can’t take away everything, so some guys made some shots. We’ll look at the film and try to fix some of that stuff up. But I thought we did a good job. (Towns) was big time, (Mitchell Robinson) was big time. Josh (Hart) and Mikal (Bridges) were flying around.”

While Cunningham was able to pick out his teammates in the first half, the Knicks’ desire and disciple in making sure that the Pistons’ star didn’t ever get in a scoring rhythm was as impressive as anything New York did on the night. Anunoby did his part at the point of attack, Towns moved up with force and activity, but the long arms and positioning of Robinson, too, gave Cunningham some trouble when he was able to get down hill.

It was rare that Cunningham saw just one body when he was getting into the paint off the pick-and-roll, with the Knicks’ defense being consistently suffocating around the rim.

“You really have to read him,” Robinson said. “Whatever way he feels comfortable going, I’m just going to be in front of the ball and be out to touch.

“We watched the games throughout the season, and (Cunningham) was in the paint a lot. He was living there. We had to make some adjustments and crowd him.”

New York was disciplined for the majority of Game 1. Thibodeau had a plan of attack and stuck to it. When things looked dicey, as 3-ball after 3-ball seemingly went in for the Pistons through the first three quarters, the Knicks trusted their scout and were willing to live or die at the hands of someone other than Detroit’s star.

Discipline hasn’t always been a word used to describe this New York defense. It’s been a bumpy journey on that end of the floor for this team throughout the course of the regular season.  The fact, though, that the Knicks didn’t panic when it looked like what they wanted to give Detroit might come back to bite them says a lot about their focus as basketball has reached its most intense point. For one game, at least.

This version of New York doesn’t always have to win pretty. This city likes it that way.

(Photo of Karl-Anthony Towns: Wendell Cruz / Imagn Images)

This news was originally published on this post .

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