The Knicks hit the halfway mark — Game 41 — at a low point of this roller-coaster season.
Behind clutch 3-pointers from Malik Beasley, the Pistons escaped Monday night with another victory at MSG, exposing the Knicks’ faulty defense in a 124-119 win.
With about 40 seconds remaining, the Knicks double-teamed their tormentor of the evening — All-Star candidate Cade Cunningham — which led to a pair of passes around the perimeter to Beasley for an open trey and a four-point Pistons advantage.
Then with six seconds remaining, a similar play involving a Cunningham double left Beasley open again for the dagger and the final score of the evening.
The Knicks (26-15) are still on pace to win 52 games, but it feels worse as they’ve dropped five of their past seven.
They tried to ride Jalen Brunson in the fourth quarter, and the Knicks captain responded with 12 of his 31 points in the final nine minutes. But they couldn’t stop the Pistons down the stretch, especially Cunningham, who finished with 36 points in just 32 minutes.
These aren’t the same ol’ Pistons, and the struggling Knicks were hit with a reminder.
Their defeat was on the second night of a back-to-back after a victory Sunday over the Bucks.
Brunson started and played 39 minutes after being listed as questionable before tipoff because of a sore shoulder he sustained during his 44-point gem the afternoon prior.
Karl-Anthony Towns, meanwhile, totaled 43 minutes as Thibodeau decided against using a backup center.
Towns was also aggressive despite injuring his thumb in the first half on a layup attempt, with his hand crashing into the backboard. He put a black wrap around his right thumb and often winced in pain while scoring 26 points with 12 rebounds.
An embarrassment last season under Monty Williams, the Pistons (21-19) have been trending upward and entered Monday with nine wins in their past 11 games.
It’s a product of development and offseason upgrades, with JB Bickerstaff taking over as coach and GM Trajan Langdon adding sharpshooting vets to complement Cunningham.
“Young players get better,” Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau said. “Surrounded Cunningham with a lot of shooting. (Center) Jalen Duren has really played at a really high level. Three-point shooting. But Cunningham is really a terrific player. I think the addition of (Tobias) Harris has also been a very good pickup for them.”
The Knicks have been going in the other direction.
“The season, you’re going through a lot of different things,” Thibodeau said. “So you have to navigate through everything and have the focus be on daily improvement so some days you fall short, you have to come back with determination to get things right. So it’s a long season and the whole idea is to keep working each and every day with the thought in mind that you want to be playing best at the end of the year.”
