The Knicks beat the Pistons, 114-104, on Thursday night to enter the All-Star break at 8-3 and with a winning record at 19-18.
With “Let’s Go Knicks” songs from the 2,000 strong people at hand in the garden, they rang the worst Pistons of the Eastern Conference for the second time in four days, making sure they took advantage of what was a slightly recent program.
In fact, out of the last eight victories, seven have come against clubs well below 0.500 (Washington, Houston, Atlanta, Minnesota, Sacramento and Detroit).
But after seven years of being the laughing stock of the league, the Knicks will take it. Whether I can keep it up when the game resumes is another story.
The Knicks will open the second half of the season with a four-game trip that will test their strength – in Milwaukee, Oklahoma City, Brooklyn and Philadelphia – and will not play Garden until March 18 against Orlando. I’m 11-7 at home.
“We grow as a team, we grow as a unit,” Randle said. “We have to take a break and stay prepared because the second half will be a beast.”
The obscure garden even chanted “We Want Pinson” on Thursday night, calling the 12th man Theo Pinson.
The Knicks still didn’t have ex-Piston Derrick Rose (COVID-19 protocols), but that didn’t matter against the pathetic Pistons (10-27). All five Knicks rookies hit double-digit numbers by the end of the third quarter.
Julius Randle closed the first half of the season with 27 points, 16 rebounds and seven assists. He will be in Atlanta on Sunday for the All-Star for his first appearance.
“We grow as a team, we grow as a unit,” Randle said. “We have to take a break and stay prepared because the second half will be a beast.”
Randle’s companion, RJ Barrett, could get there one day. He climbed into the All-Star break with an evening of 21 points, with five assists, in which he shot 9 of 13.
Goalkeeper Elfrid Payton not only got back into action after missing four consecutive games with a hamstring streak, but he started. He gained six quick points, without showing the rust with his ability to penetrate, setting the tone and finishing with 20 points in 35 minutes.
Knicks closed the first half with panache. They went 18-4 to go 15 points before a Detroit-led Dennis Smith Jr. led in the final seconds to make it 59-46 at the break.
The escape was triggered by Barrett, who fed him on the center of Nerlens Noel (12 points, 11 rebounds) for an alley-oop thing. Then Barrett drove hard for a tomahawk jam. Possession later, Barrett pulled off a long offensive comeback and dribbled for a layup.
Barrett scored 10 points at the break, and Randle, selected for the Durant team in the All-Star Game earlier in the evening, collected a double-double at the break (18 and 10).
Meanwhile, Frank Ntilikina, who started guarding the San Antonio competition, continued his 3-point genius. After hitting 3 of 3 against Spurs, he came off the bench in the first quarter and hit three in four in four minutes to make it 6 for the final 6.
Noel, their starting center with injured Mitchell Robinson, gave the Knicks a defensive spark in the first quarter with a monster block on a Sekou Doumbouya leader. The pistons were rocky from the 3-point line, going 5 out of 20 in the first half.