Knicks' Cam Payne had huge impact in Game 1 win over Pistons

There is a lesson to be learned from Game 1 of the Knicks’ first-round playoff series against the Detroit Pistons, but maybe not the one that we all spent the last week dissecting.

While we debated the methods of defending Cade Cunningham, the Knicks’ ability to withstand the physical play of the Pistons and whether Jalen Brunson was ready to carry the Knicks through the postseason again, there was something else that went unnoticed.

In the playoffs, heroes rise where you least expect them to be found. The Knicks could point to the 34 points from Brunson, the defensive job done by OG Anunoby on Cunningham and the welcome to New York playoff debut for Karl-Anthony Towns as reasons for the 123-112 comeback win. But when Brunson was asked the difference, he pointed out something else.

“No, the key was Cam Payne,” he said.

And maybe it was. Payne was the last of nine Knicks to enter the game, and if you’d asked for a prediction, a DNP-coach’s decision might have seemed more likely than 14 points in 15 minutes, an electric performance that turned a stunned Madison Square Garden into a celebration.

If none of the 19,812 fans expected it — make that 19,811, as Payne’s mother was in the crowd — that’s the magic of the postseason. Heroes arrive from unlikely places.

“My mom was sitting not right behind the bench, but kinda up there,” Payne said. “And I was just looking at them like ‘let’s turn up, let’s turn up.’ I don’t know, sometimes when we’re on a run and I’m playing real good, sometimes I check out. My mind goes blank. I’m trying to get hype still. I just like having fun out there. She up there doing the same thing I was doing. She was like, ‘yeah, turn up, turn up.’ I’m just like her; that’s where I get my energy from.”

Wherever it comes from, it rarely stops. With struggles from Deuce McBride and Landry Shamet, who came off the bench before him, Payne got his chance and started the fourth quarter. In 10 minutes, he helped turn the game, scoring 11 points and shooting 4-for-5, including 2-for-3 from beyond the arc. Left out of the boxscore was the standing ovation that greeted him when he finally was removed from the game.

“Hell of an atmosphere,” Payne said. “I was on the opposing side last year, it was tough. It was loud as [expletive] in here. But being on the flip side of it, it felt good . . . The standing ovation when I came out, I was like, ‘man, that actually felt good.’ I’ve kind of been waiting on that all year, I’ve been waiting on this game, how I played, all year. So I’m just grateful. I thank God for everything that happened. I’m just grateful to be still playing in the league.”

In his first year in New York — the seventh NBA stop for him in a journey that also includes time in China and the G League — he had no promises. But it was the same last season with Philadelphia when he played less than three minutes in Game 1 against the Knicks, did not play at all in Game 2 and then came off the bench to score 11 points, hand out three assists and block two shots while serving as an annoying foil to Brunson.

That was smoothed over by Brunson before camp even began, but it might not have been until Saturday that he won over the Garden crowd and wiped away the memories of his days on the other side.

“It feels good,” Payne said. “Everybody’s on my side this time; I ain’t most hated right now. But it’s fun.”

“That’s the beauty of him,” Josh Hart said. “He comes to work every day with great energy . . . He’s someone who thrives in adverse situations. I think we saw it all year. We saw it last year in the playoffs . . . He came in for Philly and changed the trajectory of that game and they won. Foolishly, they didn’t play him enough in that series. He’s always in a good mood, he’s a hell of a teammate, hell of a person, and we need him.”

Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau likes to say the team needs everyone, and that’s the point. Even now in the postseason, it often is someone not on the front page of the scouting report who serves as the difference-maker. In Game 1 it was Payne. It might be him again in the playoffs or it might not, but one thing is certain: He and at least his mother believe completely.

“That’s who he’s been since I’ve seen him play,” Brunson said. “I think the best thing that a player can have, in whatever league, whatever level you’re in, is confidence. There’s a lot of people who can work out in a gym, do all this other stuff when they’re by themselves, do all this stuff in practice, but it takes a lot to do it in a game . . . He has the most confidence in himself; we have the most confidence in him.”

By Steve Popper

steve.popper@newsday.com@StevePopper

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.