DETROIT — Every time it looked like the Knicks were ready to put the Pistons away, Detroit went on a run to stay in the game.
The Knicks had multiple double-digit leads dissipate during their 118-116 Game 3 win Thursday night at Little Caesars Arena. The raucous crowd was at full voice every time the Pistons brought themselves within striking distance.
But each time, the Knicks had answers.
They were resilient in the face of all the momentum shifts. On the other hand, questions have arisen that they lack a killer instinct.
Most notably, after taking a 104-93 lead with 6:12 left in the game, the Pistons outscored the Knicks 23-14 to close the game. The Knicks managed to hang on, though.
“It says a lot, but it also says that we need to focus a little bit more at the end of a game,” Jalen Brunson said. “Stay composed, stick together, and obviously, we did that with the win, but we could have handled things a lot better. But a win is a win, and we move on.”
Earlier in the game, the Pistons used an 8-0 run in the second quarter to negate the Knicks’ strong start. The Knicks subsequently finished the quarter on a 23-6 run to enter the break up 66-53 despite momentarily falling behind.
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Instead of expanding their lead, however, the Knicks allowed the Pistons to start the second half with a 16-4 run, which cut the deficit to one point. By the end of the third quarter, though, the Knicks held a 10-point lead.
“I feel like there were certain situations and certain times where we could’ve really extended the lead,” Josh Hart said. “I think we came out to start the third quarter terrible, sluggish, not playing with pace, energy, physicality. So we got to fix that. And obviously, our goal of playing 48 minutes is an impossible goal. But we have to make sure we limit and minimize those lulls.”
It was dizzying at times, but the Knicks remained poised when it would have been easy to unravel, particularly with how hostile the crowd was.
“It’s playoff basketball. We have guys that have been in a lot of big games,” coach Tom Thibodeau said. “We’ve been a good road team all year, so I think we know what goes into winning. And then, we had disappointment from the loss in Game 2. I thought the readiness to play was very good.”