An All-Defensive wing has eyes in the back of his head. An All-Star scorer can still score like an All-Star. And a sixth man doesn’t look like himself.
The New York Knicks and Detroit Pistons are mired in a contentious first-round series that the Knicks lead 2-1 after a 2-point Game 3 victory. With that in mind, it’s time for a Knicks-only version of the notebook.
Let’s run through three Knicks trends that have caught my eye.
Anunoby’s attention to detail
At first glance, a Cade Cunningham illegal screen seemed like an unforced error. With four minutes to go in the second quarter of Game 3, Cunningham stuck out a hip at Jalen Brunson. Brunson toppled to the ground, and the Knicks got the basketball back.
But even if no one ripped away the ball, this turnover might as well have counted as a steal for OG Anunoby. It is the ultimate example of his attention to detail.
Throughout most Knicks games is a three- or five-minute stretch of Anunoby-mania, a period when the All-Defensive candidate can do no wrong. He disrupts plays away from the ball. He morphs into a brick wall when the player he’s defending drives into him.
Thursday, Anunoby’s best sequence came at the end of the second quarter, when his defense spurred New York on a 21-6 run to conclude the period. And when Anunoby is at the top of his game, his obsession with minutiae rivals only Tom Thibodeau’s.
There’s a reason stars sometimes go possessions without touching the basketball when Anunoby guards them. It’s the same reason Cunningham set an illegal screen with four minutes to go in the second quarter Thursday night.
Watch just Cunningham and Anunoby, and see if you can notice it:
Cunningham is supposed to swerve around his center, Paul Reed, for a dribble handoff. Reed has the option to keep the ball, give it to his point guard or even look for Cunningham on a potential backdoor cut. But Anunoby goes the extra mile.
Not only does he not allow Cunningham to approach Reed for the handoff, but he also contests a pass from Reed without even looking, raising his left arm — as if he’s rebooting “Saturday Night Fever” — at the same time Reed lifts the ball, eliminating any hope of a dish to Cunningham.
This is more than just veteran timing.
Anunoby studies opponents’ tendencies obsessively. He has a videographic memory, which allows him to recall each of Detroit’s actions. Sometimes, it’s as if he can tell the future.
Just as shooters who have drilled a few shots in a row toss up heat checks, Anunoby seems to do the same on defense, even if he won’t admit it.
“No matter what, even if the plays don’t go well, you still try to make (the same plays),” Anunoby said. “Just reading and making an assumption, just trusting my instincts.”
Whatever the reason, his instincts are dead on in these moments.
Here is one of those heat checks — err, instinct plays — from the midst of his scorching second quarter, a couple of possessions after the illegal screen. Watch Anunoby engulf Cunningham as he races around a pick:
Thibodeau often says turnovers begin with ball pressure. The pass from Dennis Schröder wouldn’t be as sloppy if Josh Hart didn’t get so in his face. And Anunoby probably wouldn’t feel as confident rushing past Cunningham if Hart weren’t so aggressive.
Alas, when Anunoby is heat-checking, positive results follow.
Offensive adjustments
The Knicks offense did not run the same Thursday as it did during Monday’s defeat, when it went stagnant in a close Game 2 loss.
As The Athletic’s James Edwards wrote after Game 3, the Knicks played faster, getting into their sets earlier in the shot clock. A couple of days after Karl-Anthony Towns did not take a shot in the fourth quarter, they prioritized getting him the ball on the move, whether with subtle relocations in the half court or on 3-pointers when he trailed fast breaks. Towns finished with 31 points and shot 4-of-8 from deep.
Earlier this week, I published a story about Towns’ struggles when wings guarded him. He and the team were worse when a non-big was his primary defender. Towns set fewer ball screens in those scenarios, too. The trend was becoming extreme, with Pistons forward Tobias Harris manning him for most of the series.
Thursday, New York smoothed out those issues.
Brunson and Towns ran 17 pick-and-rolls together during Game 3, the second most they’ve compiled in a game since the end of January, according to Second Spectrum. The only time they ran more was in their first match after the All-Star break, when they pick-and-popped Chicago Bulls center Nikola Vučević into oblivion.
Just as they do whenever they play Vučević, the Knicks set the terms in Game 3.
Towns laid ball screens whether Harris was on him or not. He established positioning against a player who is 4 inches shorter. Once Harris got into foul trouble, his effectiveness dropped. With three fouls, he sat on the bench at the end of the second quarter. Pistons center Jalen Duren took Towns during that time.
At the start of the third quarter, even with Harris back in the game, Duren remained on Towns with Harris on Hart. Duren is strong and athletic and plays hard, but his youth still shows when he defends in space or has to help. Pick-and-pop centers hurt the Pistons all season. For the first time in this series, Towns showed why.
The McBride discussion
Of all the adjustments worth discussing from Game 3, one of Thibodeau’s went unnoticed. Amid calls to mix in bench players for better shooting, the coach went the opposite direction. The starters played for 31 minutes of Game 3. For reference, the Knicks’ first unit played more minutes per game together (19.6) than any other lineup during the regular season. It ran for approximately the same amount over the first two games against Detroit.
This was a massive uptick. And no, it is not a siren from the minutes police. It isn’t a commentary on overall playing time at all, merely the distribution of playing time. Thibodeau opted to keep his starters together for as long as he could, even going a minute at the end of the first quarter (for the second game in a row) when Towns and Brunson were on the bench.
It’s possible Thibodeau didn’t lean into the starters so drastically because of faith in his first five. The strategy doubled as a silent statement about the bench, which tilts the conversation to Miles “Deuce” McBride, who played only nine minutes Thursday.
The Knicks need more out of their sixth man.
He isn’t a young player spooked about playoff basketball. McBride burst onto the postseason scene last spring, dropping 21 points off the bench against the Philadelphia 76ers in Game 1 of a first-round series. After the Knicks disposed of Philly and injury after injury removed various key players, McBride stepped into the starting lineup, nearly helping New York best the Indiana Pacers in Round 2.
But at the moment, he’s out of rhythm, drifting into the abyss. He doesn’t play much — only 38 minutes total during the Pistons series. And when he’s on the court, he hasn’t been an active participant. He’s just 4-of-14 from the field and has over-helped while guarding away the ball a few too many times, leaving Pistons shooters open.
Maybe the inconsistent playing time and the knee injury he returned from with five games to go in the regular season have knocked him off-course. But as of now, McBride is not forcing Thibodeau’s hand.
The Knicks’ four reserves have combined to score just 39 points in 138 minutes against Detroit. They’ve provided one pop in this series — albeit a loud one — when Cameron Payne scored 12 fourth-quarter points to close out a Game 1 victory. Now, they could use help from the bench, and McBride is the most likely candidate.
(Photo of OG Anunoby: Gregory Shamus / Getty Images)