P.J. Tucker gives Knicks heads-up on what Pistons will bring in playoff matchup
Knicks forward P.J. Tucker looks on during the first half of an NBA game against the Nets on Sunday at Barclays Center. Credit: AP/Heather Khalifa
In all of the stories you will read about the Knicks’ first-round playoff matchup with the Detroit Pistons this week you likely won’t find one about P.J. Tucker’s on-court contributions in the series. After all, he’d played just two minutes all season until this last week when the Knicks rested their key pieces and inserted players from the end of the bench into the lineup.
But he does have a role. The one he was signed for, which is serving as a leader in the locker room. He’ll be imparting his experience and wisdom gleaned through years in the game and a trip to the NBA Finals. So when he speaks, there is a lesson.
“You just got to play, man,” Tucker said. “It’s so funny [that when] we go into a series every time people talk about strategy and what we’re going to do. When it comes down to it, players got to play. No matter what, we’ve got to match their energy as a team. It’s going to take everybody. Just everybody has to be ready.”
The Knicks have a lot to prove this season. There is the constant reminder of the 0-8 record against the two teams ahead of them in the East and the debate over whether the offseason rebuild of the roster was the right move. But the immediate task is to get past the first step, disposing of the Pistons.
And that is not a simple ask. The Pistons serve as a mirror held up to the Knicks, a reminder of where they were not long ago. It was five years ago that Tom Thibodeau first led the Knicks as an upstart group. Take a look at that roster and you would wonder how he did it and the answer was simple: They outworked the opposition on a daily basis in the regular season.
That style stuck through the last two playoff runs for the Knicks. It was toughness and team play that created a group that was better than the sum of its parts. And it prompted the Knicks to go all-in.
They added Karl-Anthony Towns and Mikal Bridges and handing out the richest contract in franchise history to OG Anunoby to make the most of Jalen Brunson’s prime. Now they are the team filled with star power and lofty expectations and the Pistons are the team scrapping their way into the playoffs.
It’s hard to imagine that a 51-win team could be a disappointment, but that’s where the Knicks are now. Going all-in means you have to get there. It’s only Year One for this group, but if they were to fall out in the first round or even find themselves overwhelmed in the second round, last summer’s work might seem like small change compared to what could happen this time around.
“I just said that to our team,” Thibodeau said after the season finale in Brooklyn. “You win 51 games, you’re the third seed, so you’ve earned the right to be in the playoffs. You’re not in the play-in, so you have a week to prepare and get ready for the next challenge. It’s really a new season.
“The regular season puts you in position, gives you the opportunity. You want to finish with the highest seed possible and then you start all over. Everyone’s record is zero-and-zero. You’ve got to earn everything again. We have to understand what goes into it. In terms of preparation, we’re big believers in how we prepare. Now it’s time to get ready and study.”
“We’ve definitely grown,” Bridges said. “We learned a lot about each other and learned more about each other and I think we’re in the right spot. We just have to play hard and play our way.”
The Knicks have had 82 games and now a week of practice time to prove that now they are all that they seemed to be on paper.
The Pistons are what the Knicks once were, a team that will want to drag them into a street fight, and maybe a year ago the Knicks would have welcomed that challenge.
“There’s no way to match the physicality other than to match it,” Tucker said. “It is what it is. We know what it’s going to be. They know what it’s going to be. So guys got to come in and do what we got to do. Step up to the challenge.”
Now, Thibodeau will have them meticulously prepared. They are healthy. And now they just have to do what Tucker said: Just play the game
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.
