Playing With Pistons

By Eddie Castro
The playoffs are here. The 2024-25 NBA season wrapped up Last week, and the New York Knicks have locked up the No.3 seed in the Eastern Conference. The players, for sure, are battered and bruised at this point of the year but are meshing well together at the right time.

The good news is that New York recently got back Jalen Brunson, who was out for a month due to an ankle injury. Brunson played in the team’s last few games in hopes of getting into proper playing shape for what Knicks fans hope will be a lengthy postseason run. What could be the bad news is that the team has a very physical team waiting for them in the Detroit Pistons.

The match-up between the two teams in the playoffs will be the fourth meeting in NBA history and the first time since 1992. The two teams met four times during the regular season, in which the Pistons won three of the four meetings. Led by their star player Cade Cunningham, Detroit finished the regular season with an offensive rating of 114.5.

The number went up six points against the Knicks. New York’s defense has yet to solve the puzzle that is Cunningham, who averaged 30.8 points, five rebounds, and 8.3 assists on 56.3 percent shooting from the field to go along with a sizzling 52 percent shooting from the three-point line against them in the four meetings. The Knicks must throw different defensive matchups this series for the 6’8” guard who simply scored at will against them during the regular season.

Most of his buckets game while being defended against Karl Anthony Towns, Precious Achiuwa, and Ariel Hukporti. Cunningham will likely see another defender who will try to contain him in big man Mitchell Robinson. The 7-footer missed the first three games versus Detroit, recovering from off-season ankle surgery. Robinson is one of, if not the Knicks’ best defenders, and could very well be the deciding factor in this series with his defense and rebounding.

Despite losing three of four against Detroit, the playoffs as we know is a different stage, a stage this young Pistons team has yet to experience where as the Knicks starting five have playoffs experience including a few players with NBA Finals experience OG Anunoby (with Raptors in 2019), P.J. Tucker (with the Bucks in 2021), and Mikal Bridges (with the Suns in 2021).

Coach Tom Thibodeau hopes to get some quality minutes from his bench as well as get the same production from Anunoby and Bridges he was getting when Brunson was out. This Detroit team is playing with the same physical style the “bad boy” Piston teams
displayed in the late 80s and early 90s. This series could very well give fans that hard-nosed, nostalgic ’90s feeling.

The Knicks need timely scoring from players not named Brunson or Towns. The defensive coverages against Cade Cunningham need to include a much more physical approach towards him. Game 1 starts this Saturday night.

Sports Notes: (Baseball) As we go to press, on behalf of myself and everyone here at Our Time Press, we would like to acknowledge Jackie Robinson day! 78 years ago this past Tuesday Robinson broke Baseball’s color barrier. Every year Major League Baseball acknowledges him on April 15 with every active player and coach sporting No. 42 jersey.

The Yankees will head to George M. Steinbrenner Field, where the Tampa Bay Rays are using to play their home games this year, as they prepare to move into their new stadium next year. The Yanks begin a three-game with Tampa tomorrow. The Mets will begin a three-game set at Citi Field against the St. Louis Cardinals starting tomorrow.