DETROIT — The story of a suddenly cohesive unit pummeling an overmatched opponent was told in the opening six minutes.
- A backdoor cut into a layup from Karl-Anthony Towns.
- An over-the-shoulder, no-look pass from Towns to a cutting Jalen Brunson for a reverse layup.
- An alley-oop from Brunson to OG Anunoby.
- A Josh Hart jam after a Mikal Bridges steal.
- A Brunson backdoor cut into a layup off a Bridges assist.
By the end of this offensive clinic, the Knicks were already up 10 points and snatched the fight out of the sad Pistons, who folded like a 2-7 offsuit poker hand and lost to New York for the 16th straight time in Friday night’s 128-98 wire-to-wire annihilation.
“When we work together,” Tom Thibodeau said, “our offense is going to be really good.”
The Knicks (3-2) led by 26 points after the first quarter, tying the franchise’s second-biggest advantage ever for the first 12 minutes.
They were up by as many as 33 in the first half.
The Pistons never got closer than 22 after that.
When Leon Rose created these Knicks in the offseason, Friday night — just the fifth game of the season — was what he must’ve hoped would materialize from the starting lineup.
Jalen Brunson, the captain, dissected Detroit’s defense while scoring 26 of his season-high 36 points in the first half.
Karl-Anthony Towns, who had been listed as questionable with a sprained wrist before tip-off, added 11 rebounds, seven assists and 21 points — two nights after dropping 44 on the Heat.
He’s shooting a ridiculous 65 percent of his 3-pointers to start the season, hitting 3 of 6 on Friday, and allowing the Knicks to thrive by opening up the paint.
His teammates responded the last two games by cutting with frequency.
“KAT and his skill set, you have to be up on him,” Thibodeau said. “And then what it does is it opens up the cutting, and the harder we cut, the more we’re going to get easy buckets, we’re going to get open 3s.
“And then his willingness to share the ball and make plays for his teammates. And with Jalen, they’re developing really good chemistry off it.”
OG Anunoby, the $212 million man, recorded 21 points with six assists.
Mikal Bridges contributed 15 points with seven boards. Josh Hart gave 13 points with nine rebounds.
The Knicks finished with 16 steals, including four from Miles McBride.
There was ball movement, unselfishness, cutting, deadeye shooting. It was an early Thanksgiving for the Knicks. They all feasted at Little Caesars Arena.
“We’re striving for an unattainable goal. I don’t think anybody or any team in the history of the NBA has played a full 48 minutes. Boston on ring night’s close,” said Hart, poking fun at the Knicks blowout defeat to the Celtics on opening night this season. “It’s an unattainable goal and we know that, but it’s something we know we’ve got to build to get to. I’m not sure what we probably played tonight — probably 30 good minutes of good basketball tonight.
“We’re going into Houston next [on Monday] and our goal is to play, you know, at least 32, 33, 34 minutes of good basketball and continue to build and build and build until at the end of the year we’re the best team we can be.”
The Pistons (1-5), the East’s shining example of ineptitude this decade, haven’t beaten the Knicks since 2019.
Thibodeau has never lost to them with New York and he also owns Detroit’s new coach, JB Bickerstaff, who was hired in the summer after a four-year stint with the Cavs.
Bickerstaff’s lowlight in Cleveland was probably his team getting punked by the Knicks in the 2023 playoffs, and his lowlight thus far with Detroit is getting waxed at home by New York.
“We didn’t approach the game in a mature fashion,” he said.