8 hours Ago By Kristian Winfield
DETROIT — If Cade Cunningham can’t cut his water back on, the Pistons will be going home in five.The Knicks, led by OG Anunoby, held Cunningham — Detroit’s All-Star guard and franchise cornerstone — to a 10-of-25 shooting night for just 24 points in New York’s Game 3 victory at Little Caesars Arena on Thursday.Cunningham also shot just 8-of-21 for 21 points in Game 2 and is shooting just 43% from the field and 30% from downtown through three games in this first-round Eastern Conference playoff series.
It’s a drastic turnaround from the 30 points he averaged on better than 50% shooting from both the field and three-point range through four regular season games. The Pistons went 3-1 against the Knicks during the regular season but now trail 2-1 in their playoff series.Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau made a strategic adjustment, deviating from the Mikal Bridges assignment during the regular season to put Anunoby, a shut-down defender, on the Pistons star.
The no-brainer move has worked in New York’s favor.“He’s a great player. Puts a lot of pressure on you.
The thing I like about both OG and Mikal is they stick with it. You have to. You have to have a determination,” Thibodeau said after Game 2.
“Sometimes, you can defend him perfectly and he can make. I think the team has to be in tune with what you’re trying to do, as well. But you also have to be aware of his ability to pass and then you gotta cover the 3-point line.
“Anunoby said after Game 2 he expected the Pistons to run more action to free Cunningham through screens. Detroit’s star guard logged 33 points and 12 assists in the Pistons’ 100-94 victory over the Knicks in Game 2. Cunningham shot 11-of-21 from the field in that game.
“It’s a series,” Anunoby said after Game 3. “They’ll make adjustments. We’ll make adjustments, too.
”KAT GETS THE BALLThe biggest adjustment the Knicks made on Thursday? Getting Karl-Anthony Towns the ball.Towns finished with a game-high 31 points on 10-of-18 shooting from the field in Game 3. He took more shots in the opening minutes of the first quarter on Thursday (four) than he did in the entire second half of Game 2 (three).
“I just got opportunities to do things on the offensive end. We found a way in transition to get me some good looks, and I was able to capitalize of off that to start the night off,” Towns said after the game. “Shout out to Cap [Jalen Brunson], and Josh [Hart], they found me in the flow of the offense and I was able to capitalize on those opportunities.
”Thibodeau said Towns was able to take advantage of the Pistons attempting to put smaller defenders on the All-Star center.“He’s seen that all year. Usually, he’s going to get a mix of guys.
He’s going to get different looks. I think he’s comfortable playing inside and outside,” said Thibodeau. “The smaller guy goes on him, he goes into the post, the bigger guy goes on and you take him away from the basket, you can catch and shoot with him.
You can play pick and roll with him. There’s a lot of different things that you can do with them.“Then just recognize that and then play off each other when the second defender comes, don’t fight the double team.
Just trust the pass, and we got an advantage on the backside. I thought guys made a lot of good plays for each other, whether it was getting the ball forward, getting into the paint, spacing it out, or making the extra pass, and that gave everyone good rhythm.”MORE ADJUSTMENTSJalen Brunson said he had to do a better job getting off the ball in Game 3.
He did, and it resulted in a much-needed victory on the road on Thursday.“That’s something that we talked about. That second half when we they made a little bit of a run that’s because we were playing slow,” said Hart.
“We had to mix it up, we continued to play faster. That’s what we wanted to do, we want to get people involved. Get JB off the ball sometimes.
Let everybody work.”.
