Piston has lived up to its regular season reputation.
They overtook the Knicks through two games in this first round series.
Their physicality was an early difference maker.
That was particularly evident in Game 2 on Monday night, when the Knicks lost 100-94 at Madison Square Garden.
They treated the Knicks, which yelled Coach Tom Thibodeau about the host. But they escaped despite thinking it crossed the line to a foul.
“It feels like they have better strength,” Jalen Brunson said after the match. “When it comes to the playoffs, teams who lose and come back are crazy about it. It’s a natural response when they’re in the playoffs. When they lose, you find a way to get better. You have to give them a lot of trust. That’s up to us.”
Its physicality helped the piston dominate the board.
Throughout the two games, Piston grabbed 15 rebounds over the Knicks.
“We didn’t get these 50-50 basketballs,” Karl Anthony Towns said. “They did an amazing job of getting them. They did an amazing job of finding those long rebounds in different ways. They obviously knew after Game 1 they had to come out at greater intensity.
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Piston was also aggressive when setting up the screen after the OG Anunoby screen to get him down from defending Cade Cunningham.
That’s where Anunoby believes the piston crossed the line and passed to a foul.
“They’re all trying to screen me,” Anunoby said. “They’re moving the screen, they’re doing that illegal. I’m sure not all of them are illegal, but they’re all trying to screen me as much as they can.”
However, the piston has not changed its identity.
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And without a dramatic change in how they are hosted, they will continue to escape their physicality.
On Tuesday, the NBA said 20 of the 22 calls/non-calls in the last two minutes of Game 2 were correct.
The Knicks need to understand how to match or go beyond that.
“We need to control what we can control,” Branson said. “It’s obviously, defensively, that’s what we think. That’s our attitude. That’s our attitude. Things are complaining when we’re not on our path. Whether the foul is being called or not, we feel a little too late to the game.
