The Pistons didn’t have Jalen Duren and Isaiah Stewart on Thursday. With those two sidelined, it was logical to think Karl-Anthony Towns would have a big game.
But the Knicks' big man had just two points on three shots in the first half of New York’s 15-point loss.
After the game, Towns was asked if there was an emphasis to get the ball inside against the short-handed Pistons.
“I mean, our offense is our offense. It’s been that way all year,” Towns said. “So we have our system and we’re gonna — regardless of who’s in the game or not in the game — we run the system that we have implemented for our team to the best of our abilities.”
So, no, the Knicks did not look to go to Towns more often against Detroit’s depleted front court. Towns did have eight points in the first two minutes of the second half, but none of it mattered in the end.
The Knicks lost to the Pistons for the third straight time this season; the past two losses were by a combined 69 points.
Towns’ offense wasn’t the only issue this time. The Knicks couldn’t stop Cade Cunningham. They couldn’t make outside shots and they couldn’t keep Detroit off of the offensive glass.
But Towns’ comfort and production in the Knicks' offense have been a question mark for most of the season.
“He’s comfortable,” Mike Brown said after the game. “We’re continuing to try to do different things to help free him up. And we’ll continue to search to try to do different things to free him up throughout the course of the year.”
Maybe the Knicks should take a page out of the Pistons’ playbook on this one. It seems to me that there is a clear hierarchy in Detroit. It’s Cunningham first and foremost; all the Pistons players know it and they know their roles. They excel in their roles, defend well and get the ball from Cunningham regularly (13 assists on Thursday).
Jalen Brunson is unquestionably the face of this Knicks team. But it seems to me that the hierarchy in New York isn’t defined well. At least, it’s not defined as well as it is in Detroit.
As Brown and the Knicks search to free Towns up, maybe they should take a look at what’s going on in Detroit.
The offense would be much simpler if Brunson led and everyone filled in roles around him. Maybe that’s not realistic for this Knicks team. But it’s working in Detroit.
Jose Alvarado: "Playoffs is a whole different ballgame. We're not going to sit here and say, 'oh, they beat us in the regular season...' We're not thinking like that." pic.twitter.com/Dm1QB2oxbZ
— Ian Begley (@IanBegley) February 20, 2026
DOMINANT DET
The Pistons are 3-0 against the Knicks this season. They’ve swept the season series, winning by a combined 84 points. This obviously doesn’t bode well for the Knicks in the playoffs. But the Knicks last season showed you that the regular season doesn’t always matter. They lost all four games against the Celtics last season but beat them in the second round of the playoffs.
"Playoffs is a whole different ballgame,” Jose Alvarado said after Thursday’s game. “We're not going to sit here and say, 'oh, they beat us in the regular season...' We're not thinking like that."
MIKAL OUT MOST OF FOURTH
Mikal Bridges went to the bench with9:30 to go in the fourth quarter on Thursday and never returned. Brown went with Landry Shamet over Bridges in an effort to cut the Pistons’ lead.
“Landry had hit a couple shots. We needed to score. They’re both really good defenders. And so I just stayed with Landry,” Brown said. “But it wasn’t anything where, ‘Oh, I’m going to sit Mikal because he’s not doing this, or he’s not doing that.’ We were looking to score points and Landry was the only one to make a shot from behind the arc.”
Shamet went 3 for 8 from beyond the arc against the Pistons. The rest of the Knicks went 5 for 27. Bridges, Towns and OG Anunoby hit two of their combined 15 attempts.
QUITE A MOMENT
Zevi Samet, the leading scorer in Yeshiva University program history, took some time in the heart of his season to help uplift a young boy in need. Samet brought Kobe, a young teen, to Knicks-Pistons on Thursday. It was Kobe’s first NBA game. The two connected through the Moments to Memories Fund, which is dedicated to providing meaningful experiences to people/families in need. This week will mark 12 years since Kobe’s mom passed away. It is an emotional time for the young teen and his family. Attending Thursday’s game gave uplifted Kobe during a difficult time of year. Samet is averaging 22.7 points per game this season and set the program record for career points last month. Samet and Yeshiva begin the Skyline Conference championship tournament on Tuesday.