If there’s one series this NBA playoffs that has been a throwback, fittingly, it’s the one between the New York Knicks and Detroit Pistons.
Sunday’s Game 4 thriller saw the Pistons turn a 16-point deficit into an 11-point lead midway through the fourth quarter, only for the Knicks — who fought off a Jalen Brunson injury scare — to rally late and steal a 94-93 victory.
The Knicks now carry a 3-1 series lead into Game 5, which will be Tuesday night at Madison Square Garden.
The game was marked by intensity and physicality, and the officiating crew, by and large, ate their whistles and let contact slide. The biggest question now turns to a no-call on the final shot attempt of the night, a 3-point try from Pistons guard Tim Hardaway Jr.
Here are three takeaways from Game 4 of the series between the New York Knicks and Detroit Pistons:
Series outcome will be marred by crucial no-call
The Knicks relied on massive shot making down the stretch from Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns to carry a one-point lead in the final minute of play.
The Pistons inbounded the ball with 11.1 seconds left in the game. After All-Star Cade Cunningham missed his mid-range jumper, the ball leaked out to Hardaway in the corner. As he attempted his would-be game-winning 3-point try, Knicks forward Josh Hart made contact with the right side of Hardaway’s body.
The officiating crew ate its whistle and the game ended, but crew chief David Guthrie said later Sunday in a pool report that Hart made “body contact that is more than marginal to Hardaway Jr. and a foul should have been called.”
Hardaway, an 85.5% free throw shooter this season, should’ve had three chances at the line to make two shots to win the game.
While there’s no guarantee Hardaway would’ve converted them to win, the loss is nonetheless debilitating for the Pistons, who fell behind 3-1 and now face an elimination game Tuesday at Madison Square Garden.
In NBA history, only 13 teams have rallied from a 3-1 series deficit in the playoffs to advance.
“You go back and look at the film, (Hart) leaves his feet and there’s contact on Tim Hardaway’s jump shot,” Pistons coach J.B. Bickerstaff told reporters after the game. “I don’t know any other way around it: there’s contact on his jump shot. The guy leaves his feet, he’s at Timmy’s mercy — I repeat, there was contact on his jump shot.”
Shot making when it counts
The shame about the conversation concerning officiating is that it’s overshadowing the superb shot making both teams flashed in the clutch. In particular, Towns swished a pair of high-difficulty shots inside the final two minutes. Both came on what were becoming broken possessions as the shot clock was winding down.
The first was a spinning fadeaway as Towns was drifting out of bounds, the shot just missing the backboard and arcing high into the bottom of the net. The second was a logo 3 inside the final minute that gave the Knicks a one-point lead. It would be the final bucket of the game.
And with it, Towns proved, once again, the value that his acquisition has brought New York. Because in previous seasons, the offensive burden would’ve fallen solely on Brunson.
Pistons are still too mistake-prone
This young Detroit team does deserve credit for ramping up its defensive intensity to frustrate the Knicks late in the second quarter and into the third. But the Pistons, as they have all series long, have been far too careless with the ball.
Sunday, they committed 19 turnovers, many of which came early in the game and put Detroit in a severe disadvantage; by one point early in the second quarter, the Pistons had more turnovers (10) than converted field goals (eight).
The giveaways also prevented the Pistons from settling into a steady offensive rhythm and contributed to their missing their first 10 shots from beyond the arc.
Cunningham has arrived as an elite playmaker. Now he must work on efficiency; through the four games in the series, he alone has committed 24 turnovers.
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