Knicks considered favorites, but will be tested against a hungry, and tough Pistons team
For many reasons, it has felt like the players, and the fans were ready to get the regular season over with. The last couple of weeks of the regular season saw the players lose a bit of focus, blow leads, and continue their losing ways against the top two teams in the Eastern Conference. And the fans? Well, the majority of the fans have sounded tired of being on the up-and-down emotional roller coaster that was the 2024-25 regular season, and seem ready to move on to the playoffs, and whatever results that may come with it.
Now with all of that behind us, it’s time for the postseason where the players, and the team, get a fresh start. It doesn’t mean that the team can, or will, suddenly flip the switch, and play the kind of inspiring defense, and efficient, and explosive offense that will be needed to make a deep run. But, as we’ve all seen before, anything can happen in the playoffs, and it gives this group of players, and the coach, a chance to change the narrative on what has been a frustrating season thus far.
But to do so, they’ll have to get past a Detroit Pistons team that has come out of nowhere. After being counted out, and looked at as a lottery team yet again, the Pistons became the first team ever to triple their win total from the previous year. And they’ve done it with a stingy, and physical defense that finished the season 10th in defensive rating, which is on brand for a J.B. Bickerstaff-lead team. And they’ve supplemented their good defense with a mediocre, but serviceable offense led by one of the league’s most exciting, and promising players in Cade Cunningham, who is coming off of his first All-Star game appearance, and is a candidate for the Most Improved Player award.
The Knicks did finish the season with more wins and are significant favorites in Las Vegas. But this series, maybe more so than any other first-round matchup, feels hard to fully predict, because there are so many different factors. Detroit took three of four against the Knicks during the regular season, and did finish the season playing at, or at least close to, their best form-something New York cannot say. That being said, New York is the higher seed, has homecourt advantage, has more playoff experience, has at least four of the five best players in the series, and can point to the fact that all of their regular season losses against the Pistons came with at least one of Karl-Anthony Towns, Jalen Brunson, or Mitchell Robinson out. So how exactly will this series play out?
Prediction
Like almost everything else Knicks-related, a lot of the conversations surrounding this series have seemed unnuanced, and leaning too far on either side of the extreme. I have seen people who think that this series will be an easy and dominant sweep because the Knicks are simply better, which is downplaying both the Knicks’ recent struggles and the season that the Pistons just had. And I have also seen people who think the Knicks will get swept because they’ve been playing subpar basketball. Reality is, like most things, it’s a little bit of both, and the results will probably lie somewhere in between.
I do think that the Knicks are the better team. While the Pistons are full of talented, and confident guys, the playoffs are a different animal, and the Knicks’ significant advantage in playoff experience should come into play on more than one occasion. But the Pistons are closer to playing their best brand of basketball than the Knicks are, and unfortunately for the Knicks and their fans, it’s been that way for some time now. And that’s not just going off of results, or the eye test- although both of those support that sentiment. Since the All-Star break, the Pistons have a net rating of +4.3, while the Knicks have a net rating of just +0.3. Stats never tell the whole story, but net rating, especially over that long of a period can be very telling.
Another thing going for the Pistons is that they believe that they have the best player in the series. I, as well as thousands of Knicks fans, would disagree. Brunson, despite being continuously slept on and counted out, has delivered time, and time again in the playoffs, and is less than 12 months removed from becoming just one of four players ever to have four straight games of 40 or more points in a single playoff. But, to the Pistons fans’ credit, the level of play, especially right now, between the two point guards, may be closer than many Knicks fans think. Again, the playoffs and the regular season are not the same, and Brunson has proven to be a riser during this time of year. But Cunningham is coming off a season in which he averaged 26.1 PPG, 9.1 APG, and 6 RPG, which are all higher than Brunson, and he did so while playing better defense.
Given Cunningham’s season, and the current form of the two teams, it’s understandable that many people think that the Pistons can challenge the Knicks and potentially even upset them in the first round. But, biased aside, the Knicks should still win this series. I don’t think it will be easy, and I think the people who are writing the Pistons off are being naive and will be surprised. But, I’m also not scared of the Pistons. Aside from the aforementioned gap in experience, the Knicks, even when they aren’t playing their best basketball are a better team. It didn’t necessarily show in the regular season, but the Pistons haven’t played a fully healthy Knicks team a single time this season.
The Pistons should be able to keep games close since nobody on the Knicks, and to be fair, in the league, is well equipped to stop Cunningham completely. And with their defense, and three-point shooting, which has torched the Knicks on multiple occasions this season, they’ll test New York. But after some much-needed rest, I fully expect this team to come into the series fully locked in, and focused. With home-court advantage, the deeper and better team, and a little bit of a chip on their shoulder, I have the Knicks, led by a very hungry, and motivated Brunson, over the Pistons 4-1.
Schedule
Game 1: Pistons at Knicks (Sat. April 19, 6 p.m. ET, ESPN)
Game 2: Pistons vs. Knicks, (Sat. April 21, 7:30 p.m. ET, TNT)
Game 3: Knicks vs. Pistons, (Sat. April 24, TBA, TNT)
Game 4: Knicks vs. Pistons, (Sat. April 27, 1 p.m. ET, ABC)
Game 5: Pistons vs. Knicks, (Sat. April 29, TBA)*
Game 6: Knicks vs. Pistons, (Sat. May 1, TBA)*
Game 7: Pistons vs. Knicks, (Sat. May 3, TBA)*
*If needed