New York — In NBA history, 13 teams have come back from a 3-1 deficit, and coach J.B. Bickerstaff was a part of one.
It occurred when he was an assistant coach under Kevin McHale, as the Houston Rockets achieved the feat in the Western Conference Semifinals against the Los Angeles Clippers in 2015. As in the rest of his career, Bickerstaff relied on McHale’s teachings as he entered an elimination game as coach of the Detroit Pistons.
“Kevin framed it to the guys perfectly in a way they were able to buy into,” Bickerstaff said. “His message was, ‘one game.’ And then the next game was ‘one game.’ That’s our mindset right now. All we have to do is go out and play well. One game at a time, and we will see what happens.”
BOX SCORE: Pistons 106, Knicks 103
Behind the play of Tobias Harris and Ausar Thompson, the Pistons made a strong effort to live up to Bickerstaff’s message. As a result, the Pistons held off a Game 5 elimination in a 106-103 win over the New York Knicks, Tuesday night at Madison Square Garden.
The Pistons now trail their first-round series against the Knicks 3-2. Thompson had his best game of the series with 22 points, seven rebounds and two blocks. Harris added 17 points and eight rebounds.
Karl-Anthony Towns followed up his heroic performance from Game 4 with 17 points and 10 rebounds for New York. OG Anunoby added 19 points, six rebounds, three steals and two blocks.
As usual, the Pistons were able to knock off a subpar first half with an exceptional performance in the third quarter. They opened the half on a 10-3 run, which led to a 59-53 lead. At the 6:40 mark of the period, Jalen Duren (14 rebounds, nine points and six rebounds) followed up his missed alley-oop attempt with a bounce pass to Harris, who was cutting to the basket to complete a contested layup.
On their next offensive possession, Harris knocked down his third 3-point field goal of the night, extending Detroit’s lead to nine (66-57). The Pistons led 71-61 by the 4:29 mark of the period when they began to allow the Knicks back into the game after missing four consecutive shots. New York outscored Detroit 13-6 to close the period.
At the 5:15 mark of the fourth quarter, Mitchell Robinson (13 points and 11 rebounds) cleaned up Jalen Brunson’s missed field goal attempt with an And-1 basket. However, he missed his free throw attempt, which tied the game at 90.
During Detroit’s next possession, Cade Cunningham helped the Pistons take a two-point lead by sinking two shots from the charity stripe. A few minutes later, he made his first 3-point shot of the game, extending their lead to 95-90 with just four minutes remaining.
The Pistons had a 104-100 lead after Dennis Schröder (15 points) made two free throws with 16 seconds left to play. However, Anunoby hit a clutch 3-point shot to bring the Knicks within a point. Cunningham made two shots from the foul line of his own, which sealed the deal for the Pistons.
Detroit’s play in the second half was a 180 from its slow start to the game.
The Pistons jumped out to an early seven-point lead (9-2) three minutes into the first quarter, but it wasn’t long before eight straight misses ended Detroit’s momentum. The Knicks capitalized on the Pistons’ poor shooting performance to secure a 23-22 lead at the end of the period. In addition to their shooting woes, Detroit also struggled to protect the ball, resulting in five turnovers that New York converted into easy transition baskets.
At the 9:50 mark of the second quarter, Harris accidentally got hit in the eye by Duren. Although the impact momentarily shook him up, he quickly recovered and went on to score seven points during the period. At the 5:26 mark, Harris recorded a chase-down block on Mikal Bridges. His rejection led to Tim Hardaway Jr. scoring an And-1 basket on Detroit’s next offensive possession.
Similar to Game 1, the Pistons needed Harris to step up his on-court play in the middle of Cade Cunningham’s early struggles. He shot 1-of-7 from the floor, to go along with three turnovers and three personal fouls in the first half. Cunningham finished with 24 points, eight assists and eight rebounds. He scored 20 points in the second half.
However, Harris wasn’t the only player to improve his play amid Cunningham’s struggles. Thompson scored 10 points and six rebounds in the first half, while Schröder led the bench unit with nine points. Detroit held a 47-45 lead when Brunson made his first field goal of the game with 1:10 remaining in the first half. Brunson’s basket, after missing his first six attempts, helped the Knicks take a 50-49 lead by halftime.
Brunson had his worst performance of the series with 16 points on 4-of-16 shooting.
Up next
The Pistons will try to avoid elimination for the second consecutive night in a Game 6 contest on Thursday at Little Caesars Arena. Tip-off is TBD.
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