Grading the Detroit Pistons win over the New York Knicks
By David Topham
The Detroit Pistons (3-1) notched their third-straight double-digit victory with a 102-89 win over the New York Knicks (1-2).
The Detroit Pistons scored a season-high 64 first half points on their way to beating the Knicks by 13 points on Tuesday night. The offense cooled down in the second half, but Detroit still made the plays down the stretch to secure the victory. The Pistons finished the game on an 8-0 run and astoundingly held the Knicks scoreless across the game’s final 5:39. Led by the trio of Marcus Morris, Tobias Harris, and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Detroit also made 8 of 13 (61.5 percent) from the three-point line. Now for the grades.
Smith finished with 10 points and eight assists, which is fine. But shooting 5/14 from the field is not. I continue to think that Smith is looking for his own shot too much and is settling for poor shots as well. He also had an abysmal six-minute stretch in the fourth quarter, where he got called for a charge, threw a bad pass on an alley-oop, and attempted an errant layup on a fast break with numbers.. PG. Detroit Pistons. ISH SMITH. C-
A-. KCP made 4 of 6 from deep and finished with 19 points, 3 rebounds and 3 assists for his second strong game in a row. He also applied the dagger by stripping the ball on defense and finishing the ensuing possession with a three to put Detroit up 10 with less than 3 minutes to play.. SG. Detroit Pistons. KENTAVIOUS CALDWELL-POPE
MARCUS MORRIS. A. Morris was assigned the difficult task of defending <a rel=. SF. Detroit Pistons
My player of the game, Harris put together a gem tonight. After foul trouble kept him out most of the first quarter, Harris spent the rest of the game driving to the rack at will. He finished with 25 points and made 8 of 12 from the field and 7 of 8 from the free throw line.. PF. Detroit Pistons. TOBIAS HARRIS. A+
C-. Drummond came out of the gate aggressive and played most of the first half, where he had eight points and nine rebounds. But he finished with only 9 points and 13 rebounds on the night. It could have been fatigue, but Drummond also had one of his stretches in the third quarter where he got moody and lost focus when the calls weren’t going his way.. C. Detroit Pistons. ANDRE DRUMMOND
JON LEUER. B-. Leuer played most of the first quarter after Harris picked up two quick fouls. He was also called upon to guard <a rel=. PF. Detroit Pistons
SF. Detroit Pistons. STANLEY JOHNSON. C+. <a rel=
B. Udrih had a rough first half trying to keep up with <a rel=. PG. Detroit Pistons. BENO UDRIH
Baynes didn’t get much run in this one, playing only 12 minutes, but he did his job — namely contesting shots and being active on the glass — when he was out there.. C. Detroit Pistons. ARON BAYNES. B-
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B+. Van Gundy didn’t have to do much thanks to his team shooting the lights out, but he still made some savvy decisions. He put Harris back in to start the second quarter despite the two fouls and that paid off. Also, in the second, the Pistons saw a seven-point lead get cut down to three, so SVG called time out. A few short minutes later, Detroit had built their lead back up to nine. Tonight was win number 450 for Stan Van Gundy.. Head Coach. Detroit Pistons. STAN VAN GUNDY