The Knicks have been a resilient group all season.
They’ve bounced back from tough losses time and time again, and have been one of the best road teams in basketball — both of those were on display during Thursday night’s Game 3 win over the Pistons.
It seemed as if Detroit had captured all of the momentum in the series.
They had just pulled off a massive Game 2 victory at Madison Square Garden and were set to play the next two games in front of a rocking hometown crowd for the first time in six years — but the Knicks had other plans.
It was a complete team effort from beginning to end, but none was more notable than the bounceback showing from Karl-Anthony Towns, who finished with a game-high 31 points after putting up just 10 in Game 2.
Towns used his size and toughness to dominate the undersized Tobias Harris all night.
“He bounced back well,” Tom Thibodeau said. “He was unfazed and he’s been around. He has a lot of confidence in his game, he can score in a lot of different ways. I thought he used his versatility to his strength and moved well without the ball.”
OG Anunoby and Mikal Bridges were also tremendous defensively — limiting Pistons All-Star point guard Cade Cunningham to just 24 points and 11 assists after he took over in a dominant Game 2 showing.
They also made some clutch buckets — finishing with 22 and 20 points, respectively.
“Cade’s a great player, he puts a lot of pressure on you,” Thibodeau said. “The thing I like about OG and Mikal is that they stick with it, and you have to — you have to have a determination.”
And as has been the case all season long, it was the captain, Jalen Brunson, who stepped up and put the team square on his back when they needed it the most — despite being heckled profusely all night long.
Brunson was held in check for the most part over the first three quarters — but the NBA’s Clutch Player of the Year took things over in a close game, dropping 12 of his 30 points to help seal the deal down the stretch.
“It took a lot of focus, mental toughness and just us sticking together,” Brunson said.
“We’ve been that team all year,” Josh Hart added. “Now the tough part is how do you add up the wins. We have to make sure we come in Sunday with the early start ready to play, get off to a good start like we did today and just execute.”
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