DETROIT — The New York Knicks know that giving an inch can mean the end of a game, the end of a series. It’s a lesson they delivered firsthand to the young, exuberant and pesky Detroit Pistons on Thursday night. And it’s a lesson they’ll now carry dutifully into their second-round series against a Boston Celtics team they haven’t been able to solve.
Detroit will learn — hopefully with better health, maturity and personnel — but they found out in the most painful way possible, the lesson delivered by Jalen Brunson.
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Just two minutes and 35 seconds separated the first-round series from a tasty Saturday night date at Madison Square Garden, a Game 7 of the most surprising kind. All Detroit had to do was nurse a seven-point lead. But Brunson, the NBA’s Clutch Player of the Year, walked down the Pistons and lost Ausar Thompson for a game-winning 3-pointer with 4.3 seconds left, the decisive shot in Game 6 at Little Caesars Arena.
Thompson’s defense was a key in gumming up the Knicks’ offense to start the fourth quarter. But he guessed wrong for the first time all night, giving Brunson broad daylight on a triple at the top of the key on his way to 40 points. On the ensuing possession, Malik Beasley let a pass slip through his hands before attempting a game-tying triple with less than a second left — after hitting six on the night — sealing the series-ending 116-113 win for the Knicks.
“He’s at his best when his best is needed,” Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau said about Brunson after the game. “The playoffs, as you know, is about your toughness and discipline. There’s gonna be a lot of highs and lows, and you gotta get through that.
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“We talk about all the intangibles, it’s his makeup. That’s where mistakes are made in the draft and things like that. And it’s easy to see how many points a guy scores, or what (his) physical tools are, but when you look at the mental tools, that’s everything.”
The Knicks punched, and punched hard, taking multiple double-digit leads in Game 6. The Pistons countered, showing a resolve the Knicks honestly didn’t seem to expect at this…
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