Three takeaways from Knicks-Pistons Game 4
Knicks guard Josh Hart, left, and center Ariel Hukporti celebrate after a win over the Detroit Pistons in Game 4 of an NBA first-round playoff series Sunday in Detroit. Credit: AP/Duane Burleson
1. Hart opens up
Josh Hart may have become the center of attention with his sprint, leap (and probable foul) in the final second of the Knicks' 94-93 win over the Pistons in Game 4, but on the other end of the court, he helped open things up with his three-point shot.
In the first three games of the series, Hart was 2-for-5 from beyond the arc. He was hesitant to take the shot and make the Pistons pay for treating him like an afterthought as they focused their defense on Jalen Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns, often putting center Jalen Duren on Hart but leaving Duren hanging in the lane to help at the rim. But Hart took as many attempts from three-point range in Game 4 as he did in the first three games combined, connecting on three.
“I think it’s huge,” coach Tom Thibodeau said. “He’s worked a lot on his shooting. If he’s open, shoot it. If you're guarded, go to the next action and make a play. He can play well a lot of different ways. Nobody shoots the ball great for 82 games. So if you are not shooting great, do something else to help the team win. There’s a lot of things you can do to help a team win.”
2. Bridges delivers in the nick of time
Speaking of threes, Mikal Bridges was 1-for-10 overall and 0-for-4 from three-point range entering the fourth quarter, but as the Knicks began their fourth-quarter comeback, it was Bridges who delivered a pair of threes to spark the run and set up the heroics by Brunson and Towns. He credited it to his teammates, who kept encouraging him to shoot even when he seemed lost.
“I think it goes to my teammates, just keeping me locked in,” Bridges said. “I know I’m fine and I know it’s gonna come, but they just kept telling me, ‘Keep shooting it.’ They keep giving me confidence to go out there. Just try to be aggressive, try to make the right play, make the shot. Since I was playing pretty [expletive] in the first half, and the first three quarters, so I was just trying to get it right."
3. Help from the bench — the coach
Through the late-game pressure, the Knicks managed to keep their composure despite the physicality of the Pistons and the raucous crowd at Little Caesars Arena. They credited not just their veteran presence but the work of Thibodeau.
“I mean, he is the head coach,” Brunson said. “He does a lot for our team, and it’s a lot of people who don’t give him that credit, but I’m happy to say he puts us in position where we’re prepared, we’re ready, and he lets us play. He lets us play for sure. He lets us talk things out. He talks things out, too. But for the most part, he’s gonna let us play, he’s gonna let us figure it out, and we’re gonna have to figure it out together. He puts us in position to be successful, and that’s how he’s been since I’ve known him.”
Steve Popper covers the Knicks for Newsday. He has spent nearly three decades covering the Knicks and the NBA, along with just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.
